Interview by Joe Montague

 

Can a self ascribed pop music mongrel receive accolades from the jazz world, while she performs music comprised of a wide range of elements including; electronica, blues, R&B and the songs of Italian crooner / composer Paolo Conte? Apparently she can, evidenced by Canadian singer/composer Daniela Nardi, who would already be a household name, if not for the fact she took almost four years away from her career to be by the side of her mother Rose, who tragically passed away from cancer in 2008, two days after Nardi released her current album The Rose Tattoo. Early in 2009, Daniela Nardi was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. Although Nardi is grateful for the honor bestowed upon her, she also noted that it came as a surprise and it does have its drawbacks, when it comes to attracting new fans to her music.

 

Nardi explains, “I don’t consider myself to be a jazz artist. I don’t put any particular label on it, but I certainly wouldn’t call it jazz. Having said that, The Wave (94.7 FM) has been very supportive of my music and I think that smooth jazz, from what I have seen in the United States and throughout the world is more adult contemporary, even though they play the Warren Hills and the Lee Ritenours and all of that classic smooth jazz. It has really opened itself up, to playing R&B, to playing Sade and Sting or whatever. I think that my music fits into that, you can’t really put it on KICK Radio (Classic Rock) and it is not Celine Dione like adult contemporary. It just seems to fit. Smooth Jazz seems to be this catch all and I manage to fit into the format which is great. It means that I get exposed to a few more folks than just CBC. Thank God for CBC, because they are very open, they are supportive and when they really like something they get behind it. There are elements of jazz to what I do and then if you add ninths to what I do, suddenly it’s jazz. In terms of how the award came about, it is voted upon by the listeners. The fact that people voted for me was quite astonishing. I was sitting in my seat and I had to shake my head when they announced my name (as the winner). I couldn’t believe it (you still hear an element of surprise in her voice) that they actually gave me the award. It is great to have and it is a great acknowledgement.”

 

However, Daniela Nardi sees the smooth jazz award as, “It is a blessing and it is a curse. It really has been a challenge, because on the one hand you want the recognition, you want people to listen to your music, and you want to get it out there, but smooth jazz certainly has a stigma and has a reputation, unfortunately. There is a lot of great stuff happening in smooth jazz and change is happening. I am doing a show for smoothjazz.com and I do what is called On The Rocks. It is a three hour show and I am finding all different kinds of music from all over the world, but generally it is chill and nu jazz.  There seems to be an evolution going on with electronic music, as it is experimenting with jazz and it is finding a new way or a new sound. Where is it going to fit? It is going to fit into the smooth jazz category. I think the smooth jazz world needs a bit of a makeover and I think that it is about to experience it, but at the moment my music does have the stigma of being smooth jazz, which is really interesting that people could think that I am a part of that world, when really I’m not a part of that world. (for emphasis she repeats) Really I am not part of that world.”

 

As one listens to the sultry “Fugitive Kind,” from Nardi’s current album Rose Tattoo one  hears an electronic vibe, an Annie Lennox like vocal and a groove that should appeal to primarily two demographics, the university crowd who have always been more open to cutting edge music and less inclined to conformity, and the second being those in the over forty crowd who were fans of the eighties duo the Eurythmics, comprised of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.  

 

Concerning “Fugitive Kind,” Nardi says, “It is one of my favorite songs (the excitement is evident in her voice) I am very proud of that song. I really love it and I am surprised that it didn’t do more than it did (on radio). The title was inspired by a movie with Anna Magnani and Marlon Brando, which was called The Fugitive Kind (1959) (adapted) from a Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending (1957). I just fell in love with the movie and Anna Magnani is one of my favorites. I was mesmerized by the relationship between the two of them and not only the chemistry between them as I watched them on the screen, but the story itself; the love story and the attraction that they have for one another. They were both fugitives. He was on the run and she was stuck in this marriage where she felt completely trapped, yet they had this bond and this connection. It was just magic to watch, so it (the song) was inspired by that. It started off as a blues tune, because the movie is set in the deep south, so it has that kind of inspiration. I really wanted to experiment more with electronica on this record, and that was the first song that I really tried to work with in that genre. I just took it right out there. I have more of an acoustic version as a bonus track on the record as well, but that was the first song on which I experimented with the whole electronica world. I love how the two things come together. The blues format with the electronica really set the tone and the vibe for that track.”