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Juno-winning vocalist Sonia Johnson salutes Ella Fitzgerald, her way

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While the centenary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth in 1917 has come and gone, homages to the ne plus ultra of jazz singers are still definitely worth a listen. That’s especially true when it’s Montreal vocalist and Juno Award winner Sonia Johnson who will be tipping her hat.

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Friday night at La Grange de la Gatineau, Johnson will take her inspiration from Fitzgerald’s timeless collaborations with guitar legend Joe Pass when she performs duets with Montreal guitarist (and Ottawa native) Stephen Johnston.

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Below, Johnson discusses her love for Fitzgerald’s artistry and how she shuns imitation in favour of offering more personal performances.

Q: Tell me about the impact that Ella Fitzgerald and her singing have had on you.

A: I discovered jazz at 17 years old. I was studying as a classical singer, but (Montreal bassist) Michel Donato would give some combo sessions every week and that’s how Ella arrived in my life. She was the main singer of my discography, alongside Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday or Dinah Washington. But I was really paying attention to her. I fell in love with her vocal inflections, her powerful expressiveness and phrasing, but specially her sense of humour and playfulness in her singing.

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I was a self-taught learner, so I definitely started by imitation. I think my scat style was mainly influenced by her in the beginning. I used to practise and transcribe her solos by putting some French lyrics to it. For example, I did that on her absolutely amazing Blue Skies.

Q: What led to your project that pays tribute to Ella?

A: I thought it was a nice way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth by doing a little tribute show to the main singer that influenced me as becoming a jazz singer. I spoke about that idea with Stanley Péan and CBC ICI Musique invited guitarist Stephen Johnston and me to perform two songs Lush Life and Why Don’t you do Right that they filmed for the occasion. We have been performing that show since then. I think that the duet gives us a lot of possibilities to stay in the moment and control the elements, play with the crowd and keep the spontaneity or the musical complicity.

Q: Why did you choose Stephen Johnston to be the Joe Pass to your Ella?

A: Stephen and I were already working on a few projects. I think he is a very accomplished jazz guitarist. He learned all the songs by heart in my keys and I think it’s very admirable for him to have done that so we can totally be free in our performances. He’s having a bit of pressure on his shoulders, being the rhythm, the harmony and also a soloist. I am very well supported.

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Q: How do you and Stephen put your own personal touch on material that is so much associated with your heroes? Maybe another way to ask this question: How do you depart from the perfection of Ella and Joe?

A: Your question is very “à propos” because since the beginning of this project, that’s what we decided, Stephen and I, and that’s what we explain to the audience at every show. It’s the fact that they are an inspiration to us and that we don’t claim to copy them.

We have chosen songs from their discography starting in 1974 until the end of 1986. The albums are Take Love Easy, Fitzgerald and Pass…Again, Speak Love, Easy Living, and live shows recorded in Hamburg and Tokyo.

We make things more personal. For example, we can decide to take a song from a live show where Joe would play a standard in an instrumental version but we decide to make a vocal version. We incorporate elements of Ella’s playfulness in Girl Talk but do it in a very improvised way in the moment. We sing the French version of My Man, imagining that maybe one night Ella sang it in a club in France in its original version.

They are amazing musicians that were part of both our growth and learning as musicians. But the tribute is not trying to be as perfect as they were, but just to share what we learned from them and their repertoire and how we can transpose these songs in our own way.

Sonia Johnson and Stephen Johnston
Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass

When: Friday, April 29 at 8 p.m.
Where: La Grange de la Gatineau, 80 chemin Summer, Cantley, Que.
Tickets: $35 plus $5.24 taxes at grange.ca/event-details/concert-sonia-johnson

phum@postmedia.com

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