Halifax born, Toronto based crooner Holly Cole makes her first visit to Lethbridge to headline the Lethbridge Jazz and Blues Festival, Saturday, June 16 at the Enmax Centre.
She just released her first CD in six years called “Holly ” with her “unbelievable” band including long time pianist Aaron Davis, bassist George Koller, drummer Davide DiRe
nzo and horn player Johnny Johnson.
She has taken a few years away from the music scene to work on other projects and spend time with her mother who passed away.
So what has Cole, who scored a hit cover of “I Can See Clearly Now,” with her beloved trio of David Piltch and Aaron Davis, back in 1993, been doing since her last album.
“Nobody’s asked me that quite so bluntly. But mostly I was spending some time with my mom.
“We knew she was dying and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. But she understood, if I wasn’t out on tour, she suggested I study something. So I became a registered hypnotist. Mom always said I have a very hypnotic voice, ” Cole said, from the coast of Nova Scotia, raving about an old 1845 house she and her business partner bought and are renovating to rent out.
“I love it. It’s a huge project. It used to be a post office and a barrel factory. it has a greenhouse,” she said.
“When I think about it, I’m approaching it the same way I approach music. I think about and care about the history of it. I think of the people who lived in the house, who they were, how they lived. When i look a a song from the ’30s or 40s, I think about the people who were listening to it, wrote it and then I just put a modern twist to it,” she said.
She noted she focuses on paediatric hypnotherapy, so she could help children.
“It’s not stage hypnotism. That entertainment. But kids today are so stressed out and anxious. I never heard of those words until I was an adult,” she continued.
“I also learned a lot about self-hypnosis. You can hypnotize yourself to do anything. But you have to really want to. I hypnotized myself to stop smoking and haven’t for quite a few years now. I can also hypnotize myself to go to sleep in about 45 seconds. So now I can fall asleep anywhere, on, busses or on planes. I never used to be able to do that,” she said.
“I took some time to really research this album,” she said adding she worked with Grammy Award winning producer Russ Titelman in New York to make most of “Holly.”
She recorded the rest of it with her trio in Toronto.
“This is the first album I haven’t produced myself, so I really had to let go. I really love to arrange music. I loved working with Russ. He came up with all of these great Russ ideas and we used all of these great musicians he knows,” she said.
She covered Mose Allison’s “Your Mind is On Vacation.”
“It’s such a great song. Mose Allison is such a Canadian treasure. It’s such a timeless song and all the more pertinent with the events going on today,” she said.
“ The album has been a roller coaster. it’s all different,” she said, adding she split recording time in New York City and her home town of Toronto.
“ It’s an unbelievably good band, with a pretty good singer,” she chuckled.
She has another tour planned in Japan for later this year.
“I play Japan a lot. I’ve been there a about 20 times. It’s always an incredible experience. It’s a completely different culture. Peopler there really listen. But if one person likes a piece of the music they will stand up and applaud.,” she said.
“ It’s gruelling because I’m doing two shows in a night. So I really have to take care of my voice,” she continued.
She has a three hour daily routine to take care of her voice.
“There’s a lot of different stretching and breathing exercises,” she said, adding self hypnosis comes into play there as well.
“I hypnotize myself to actually keep my routine going. I have a hard time disciplining myself to do it,“ she chuckled.
Tickets for Holly Cole are $51.50. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
