With her multifaceted musical artistry on full display, award-winning Canadian singer/songwriter Laila Biali delighted her Canora audience throughout a memorable concert at the Canora Composite School on October 30.
The concert was presented by the Canora Arts Council as part of the 2017/18 Saskatchewan Concert Series. Ken Rolheiser, Canora Arts Council representative, introduced Biali to open the concert.
Accompanying Biali in front of an audience of about 75 to 80 concertgoers were Kodi Hutchinson on bass and Jon May on drums.
When asked if they were worn out from their grueling concert schedule, Biali said they didn’t look at it that way.
“After a day off yesterday we feel energized. We’re doing what we love to do and we can’t wait to do it.”
It was obvious throughout the 90-minute concert that the talented jazz trio enjoy playing together, as the group treated concertgoers to an appealing blend of original material written by Biali, jazz standards, and a number of selections from the Great Canadian Songbook, as a tribute to Canada’s 150th birthday.
Biali played a variety of original songs during the concert, including You, off her most recent album House of Many Rooms, a pop-rock record, and her first album of entirely original material.
She told the audience how she wrote the song a number of years ago, long before she got married, as a way of dealing with a painful breakup from her then boyfriend in New York City.
“He was the first guy I dated and I was determined to marry him, so I drove down from Toronto just to see him. As soon as I got to New York I got really sick, so I phoned him. To add insult to injury, he broke up with me during that conversation,” said Biali. “But instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to write a song about it.”
Biali has become keenly aware that inspiration for a new song can come almost at any time and anywhere. The inspiration for the song Joy, performed during the concert, came to her in a dream. She explained how she woke up in the middle of the night and quickly looked for a pen and paper so she could write down the thoughts that eventually became the song.
The trio’s performance drew enthusiastic and spontaneous applause from the audience throughout the concert, which included jazz standards such as Night and Day and Autumn Leaves, one of the first songs Biali said she learned at the beginning of her career.
As advertised, Biali played a number of selections from the Great Canadian Songbook, as a tribute to Canada’s 150th birthday. She chose songs from a diverse assortment of iconic Canadian song writers including Joni Mitchell, kd lang, Leonard Cohen, Feist, and the late Gord Downie, as well as her memorable interpretation of Neil Young’s classic Heart of Gold.
Biali describes her music as whimsical, piano-driven, cross-over jazz, which is another way of saying that she’s comfortable performing a variety of musical genres. Her biggest musical influences include the aforementioned Mitchell, as well as Sting, Bjork, Radiohead and Diana Krall, who was probably her first jazz influence.
Originally from Vancouver, Biali felt privileged to be performing in Canada’s heartland and was thrilled to be making her first visit to Canora, observing, “Canora has its own special charm.”
Biali was pleased to see a wide range of age groups represented at the Canora concert, including a number of young families. She admitted this made her miss her seven-year-old son Josh.
But she found a way to include a piece of her son in the concert, using a pair of his boomwhackers, which are tuned percussion tubes, to entertain the audience in an unexpected way during the show.
Biali played a glockenspiel mounted on the piano at multiple times during the evening, adding a distinctive new component to the jazz trio sound.
As a Canadian artist who travels all over the world to perform, Biali has a unique perspective on the blessings of being Canadian, especially during the Canada 150 celebration.
“Canada is known as a cultural mosaic where multiculturalism is embraced,” she said. “Being a first generation Canadian with Egyptian and German parents, it makes me even more proud to be a citizen of this country.”
Biali’s visit to Canora was the first in the 2017/18 Canora Arts Council Stars for Saskatchewan Concert series.
The next performers in the series will be 100 Mile House, a group known for quality musicianship, finely crafted songs, and heartwarming stories, who will be performing in Canora on February 7.
On April 11, Stephen Fearing, respected for his blend of folk, roots and pop music, will be performing in Canora in support of his ninth solo record Every Soul’s a Sailor.
