Stephen Vance, Staff
Her voice has been called everything from smoky and sultry to powerful and provocative, and for more than 20 years her albums and live performances have captured the hearts of music fans from Toronto to Tokyo and several places in between, and next week, Holly Cole brings that voice to the stage of Meaford Hall.
The three-time Juno award winner told The Independent that, while she’s performed in large concert halls in major cities around the world, smaller towns with their smaller venues offer an equally exhilarating experience both for her and her audiences.
“I like playing in smaller centres. We do quite a few smaller cities in southern Ontario, and in Quebec too. That’s pretty much where we get to play the smaller communities,” said Cole, explaining that smaller centres are far less concentrated in other parts of the country, making it difficult to reach a large enough number of small communities while touring. “I like playing smaller centres a lot. It’s fun to play smaller venues. I cherish those gigs because it’s an intimate room, and people get a personal taste of who you are, and the shows are more fun.”
As much as she enjoys performing in smaller centres, Cole knows that for her fans it can be a treat to not have to drive several hours to a major centre to catch one of her shows.
Perhaps best known as a jazz chanteuse, over the course of her career Cole has also artfully navigated the waters of blues, pop, and even a dash of country influence here and there. Like many musical artists, she isn’t a fan of labels.
While her first few albums in the early 1990s were unquestionably jazz oriented (Girl Talk, Blame it on My Youth), Cole expanded her musical horizons as her career moved forward. In 1995 she released an album consisting entirely of covers of songs written by the legendary alternative rock artist Tom Waits, then in 1997 she released Dark Dear Heart with a heavy pop influence. She followed up a few years later with the difficult to pigeon-hole Romantically Helpless, which offered a jazz-pop blend of music.
“It’s always what strikes me at the time. It’s phases of my life, the ebb and flow. It’s a fusion of styles, but all of it is injected with jazz. Even if I’m doing an R&B tune, or a country tune, or anything, it’s steeped somewhat in jazz. So I carry that with me because that’s who I am. But labels for artists are something that are only really necessary for the music machine to work. Like where are they going to put you in the record store? Or how do journalists describe you? Or for the radio stations. So the labels are really there for the machine, but for the listeners, they don’t care, they just like it or they don’t,” explained Cole.
Much of Cole’s success has been found in her home country, but she has pockets of fans elsewhere in the world too. She has a strong following in Germany, and in Japan, of all places, she had a lucky break in the early 1990s and shot to unexpected stardom there.
Her experience in Japan proves that even the best planned career in music needs a lucky break from time to time.
“In Europe and North America I paid, and continue to pay my dues. Bit by bit by bit you grow an audience, and largely on a grassroots level, but in Japan I didn’t pay my dues at all, I stumbled into it,” she said, explaining that if not for a radio disc jockey happening upon her album (Blame it on my Youth, 1992) in a record store and then playing it on the radio, she might never have become known there. As it turned out, not only did she receive radio play, but she sold enough albums to have earned a gold, and then a platinum record in Japan.
“I ended up having the biggest selling album on Capitol Records in Japan that year,” laughs Cole recalling her good fortune, thanks to a chance spin of her single Calling You by the Japanese disc jockey.
For her upcoming Meaford performance, Cole says that she’s planning a mix of old and new tunes along with some never-recorded songs. Longtime fans of her music will be excited to know that part of the original Holly Cole Trio, pianist Aaron Davis, will be part of her quartet. Also joining her on stage in Meaford will be bassist George Koller, and multi-instrumentalist Johnny Johnson.
Holly Cole performs at Meaford Hall on Thursday, March 31 at 8pm, as part of the jazz & blues series at Meaford Hall. Tickets are $65 or buy the jazz & blues series to receive 20% off. The series includes Little Miss Higgins (April 16, $23) and Michael Kaeshammer (April 25, $35).
All tickets are available now online or by calling 1.877.538.0463. Formore information on these and other Meaford Hall events visit www.meafordhall.ca, call 1.877.538.0463 or drop by the box office at 12 Nelson St E.
