Exclusive Sally Night Q 'n' A

24 June 2008

Rate this article

Sally Night is a jazz singer determined to revive all the old classics and bring the beauty of jazz music into everyone’s lives, regardless of their age.FemaleFirst caught up with the singer to find out about her upcoming album, Phases of Love, as well as how she feels being compared to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

You are about to release your new album ‘Phases of Love,’ what can we expect from it?

It’s a standard album with the great jazz composers and it basically places the progression and development of a love affair from its inception through to the euphoric stage and then to the relationship breakdown and a bit of soul-searching and then eventually into what I like to think of as a new beginning.

So is that the meaning behind the album name, Phases of Love?

Yes exactly, it is focusing on the different phases of love. It is based on my live show which is basically a journey through the many phases of love and the up’s and down’s we all encounter.

You have a very Jazz-based sound, where did your interest in this style of music come from?

It has been an interest of mine from an early age, my father used to sing jazz as a hobby and sometimes in public, so we were always singing jazz songs around the house, even when we were little, even though I was trained to go into classical music.

Your album contains well-known songs such as The Nearness of You; how did you decide which songs made it onto the record?

It was very difficult because there were so many beautiful melodies and lyrics by these composers. It was based on the live shows so there was already a structure there for my live performance to tell the story and those standards were in there already, but whittling it down is always difficult and I did include 14 tracks because I really couldn’t cut it down to 12. Everyone kept saying; “No, 14 tracks is too long.” but I don’t think it is and they are necessary to tell the story and I like all those tracks so they have to stay in.

Do you have a favourite?

I love singing all of them. I think possibly the most touching one is In My Solitude which is actually an Ellington tune. But I love all of them as they all have different tempos and different feelings.

How daunting a task was it to bring these old classics back?

It is always a little daunting because you know you’re going to be compared to the singers who have preceded you but I just wanted to interpret them my way and it was such a strong desire I just thought I would do it as naturally and organically as possible and they’re really mine. I also wanted them to be very accessible to different people so not strictly a jazz audience so that anyone could listen to them and really enjoy them and that’s the reaction I’m getting from people.

For example, the father would buy the cd and his daughter would steal it from him, so that’s really nice so I know it’s making a lot of people happy of all different age groups and all different styles and it’s all very reassuring and a nice feeling because it give me a lot of pleasure to know I’m making people happy.

You have been compared to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, how does that make you feel and does it put you under any pressure?

Yes, because they’re my idols, especially Ella Fitzgerald because to me she was the supreme singer. It’s very flattering and I’m obviously influenced by her because I’ve listened to her a lot.

I’ve actually been working with her drummer, who’s name is Bobby Durham, so that’s been a wonderful experience because he actually worked with her for eight years and he’s a living legend and a wonderful drummer and also worked with Oscar Peterson for a long period of time and Lionel Hampton so he has worked with the jazz legends.

So how did it feel working with him?

The first time it was very nerve-racking but he made me feel at home instantly and really brought me on, it’s a very good challenge and a very good exercise to work with musicians who are far more experienced than yourself, you make a lot of progress very quickly.

After we did a few concerts, he asked me where my next concerts were and said “Oh, I’ll come along and accompany you” and he even said after one of the concerts that it was just like accompanying Ella and I thought that was the biggest compliment I’ll ever had. He said he knew exactly what she was going to do and I know exactly what you’re going to do and that I was just like Ella.

How did you find the album-making process?

This album I found very natural because it was based on the live show and we were actually touring with that show in Italy at the time with the musicians that are on the album so we stopped off at this little studio near Lake Garda and first take, we recorded all the tracks for the album.

If you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

That’s a very tough question, I guess as a pianist that’s dead it would be Winton Kelly or Bill Evans and a pianist that’s alive, oh I don’t want to offend anyone! I would say Charlie Hayden who’s my favourite bass player. Someone like that would be very nice.

Phases of Love is released on July 21.

Female First - Ruth Harrison