Laila Biali: There are no wrong notes in jazz

By ANGELA SCAPPATURA/QMI Agency

LINCOLN — Laila Biali’s music may be filed under the jazz category in local music stores, but her sound is hardly traditional.

While her current sound is rooted in jazz, the award-winning Canadian composer, pianist and singer said she hopes her music transcends genres.


“I’m a little broader, a little more eclectic,” Biali said from her home in Brooklyn. “There are people who, if I’m being advertised at a soft-seat theatre as a jazz vocalist, they may say, ‘No I don’t like jazz.’ That would be very sad.”


Ten years ago, Biali had a regular gig playing jazz piano at The Pilot, a bar in a posh Toronto neighbourhood. She was playing mostly standards and wasn’t yet singing.


In the time since, she discovered her voice, released three albums, won a bevy of awards, including SOCAN composer of the year, and has become one of the most respected musicians in Canadian contemporary jazz today.


She’s toured with Suzanne Vega, Chris Botti and Paula Cole and supported Sting on his If On a Winter’s Night DVD and tour. Her most recent album, Tracing Light (2010) was nominated for a Juno Award.


While her Canadian audiences know her for the masterful way in which she arranges popular contemporary tunes in her own style, Biali is still trying to settle into her own sound.


And moving to Brooklyn from her home in Toronto has given her more freedom to “try anything.”


“There aren’t people around me going, ‘This is Laila Biali, this is what she does.’ They haven’t clearly defined who I am,” she said. “I would say because there are so many people here who play music and create music at such a high level, you really are forced to establish your unique voice artistically. I really need to determine what I do that makes me unique.”
It’s a dangerous thing to admit at this point in her career, she said, but “the process of exploration never ends for artistic people.”


And Biali has done plenty of musical exploration in her 31 years. She began as a classically trained pianist, but found freedom in the improvisational nature of jazz.

At first though, the switch wasn’t easy.

“As a classical musician, you have to read the music on the page,” she said. “What crippled me as a jazz musician is I was so afraid of playing the wrong notes.”


But, while teaching at Stanford University in California, she discovered a quote that changed her perspective.


“ ‘There are no wrong notes in jazz.’ This quote was quite freeing for me,” she said. “It’s not about what you play, it’s about how you play it. If there is intention behind it.”
That’s the one piece of advice Biali said she tells all her students.


“I’m always trying to help them shed the judges in one’s head,” she said. “When you’re interacting with other musicians in real time, try not to judge what’s coming out. Just let it be.”


Difficult advice for an artist to follow. Has she learned how to turn off the self-critical voice?
“It’s still there,” she said with a laugh.


But instead of listening to it, she tries to focus on being as authentic as possible so she can connect with people through her music.


“Jazz has become so much about dazzling people with skill that the audience is left dry,” she said. “For me, rather than being self-conscious and asking how do I want to come across, I ask myself, what is it I can give these people.”
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