• Jazz singer and composer Nicola Milan will be at Kulcha next month.
Most jazz musicians wouldn’t be caught dead belting out Chopsticks on stage but songstress Nicola Milan isn’t afraid to add irreverent humour to her show.
She says while most of her performance is “doused in sophistication and romance” there is always room for some tomfoolery.
“It’s a bit of an unusual mix, but my shows reflect my personality—I’m a hopeless romantic with a quirky sense of humour,” she says. “I’m bringing my trusty piano player and friend Ben ‘Piano King’ Clarke on tour with me and he loves to take advantage of any opportunity to poke fun at me on stage.
“Last time we were on tour, we played Chopsticks as a duet together on piano, which then turned in Blue Moon, so really audiences can expect anything other than your run-of-the-mill jazz show.
The Perth-based muso’s debut CD Forbidden Moments was produced for just $9765 courtesy of a WA arts department grant.
She will perform songs from the album, plus a “few standards for kicks” at Kulcha on February 1.
“It was definitely a labour of love and I spent hours working on the arrangements of the songs and deciding which instruments to place where.”
The bluesy, jazz, Latin and folk recording showcases Milan’s silky, warm, sensuous vocals which has seen her likened to Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Melody Gardot.
The former WA Academy of Performing Arts student says she sweated over the CD for two years because she wanted to ensure the tracks “fitted really well together”.
But the singer/songwriter hasn’t just dined out on some old jazz classics or given them a contemporary twist, she has penned most of the tunes.
And she can dash off a decent ditty too.
Love Me More was a finalist in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting contest and the CD’s first track, No Room For Promises, came within a whisker of winning the 2013 UK International Songwriting contest.
“Forbidden Moments was intended to be a relaxing, easy-listening album and I think it achieves that,” Milan says.
“It was definitely a labour of love and I spent hours working on the arrangements of the songs and deciding which instruments to place where.”
Milan says getting some of Perth’s most seasoned jazz musicians to play on the CD gave it an intelligent and stylistic edge.
“The musicians who recorded on the album were fantastic and put their opinions into the mix during rehearsal and I can’t thank them enough for the enormous contribution they all made,” she says.
“I did have a lot of help with the album and I feel so grateful and blessed to be surrounded by so many creative people who were willing to lend a hand.”
by BRENDAN FOSTER