Holly Cole loves singing with the VSO
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2019 15:30:51 +0000
A Holly Cole Christmas
When: Dec. 11, 8 p.m.
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe
Tickets and info: vancouversymphony.ca
Holly Cole released the Christmas Blues EP in 1989. The debut recording by the Holly Cole Trio not only heralded the arrival of a dynamic new singer to the scene, it also established something of a seasonal connection to her work.
Such was the case with her rise to fame that her next seasonal outing, 2001s Baby, It’s Cold Outside featured a compliment of musicians in excess of 25, even including credits for the makeup artist.
Cole coming through town to perform holiday shows became something of an expectation, as she and longtime band members Aaron Davis (piano) and a few excellent bassists criss-crossed the country to deliver swinging good cheer, often backed by local symphony orchestras.
It’s been 13 years since Cole last came to Vancouver to perform one of her delightfully eclectic seasonal sets. In fact, she hasn’t really done the usual support tour for her most recent record, 2017s Holly. All of which adds up to a lot of material to choose from for her 90 minutes-or-so set with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
On the phone from her home in the Nova Scotia’s South Shore, Cole ran down what’s been going on in her life.
“I bought an old house, a really old house, that is actually an old barrel factory that was floated from its original location on a slab of ice to where it is now,” said Cole. “It was floated from about five miles away, which explains both the lack of a basement and why I’ve spent almost two years of my life renovating and redesigning it.
“In my concept of combining old and new elements — such as the floor bound together with wood and rope — I realized that my home was mirroring what I do musically, which is to respect and love the tradition in all of its beauty and integrity and marry it to modern ideas.”
That point has often been observed by reviewers and fans alike and is certainly one of the strengths of Cole’s artistry. While many singers might try and bring pop songs into jazzy arrangements, few manage to nail it as well as Cole did with her cover of Pretenders’ 2000 Miles — one of the first songs in her career to gain critical praiser — or how she updates Mose Allison’s Your Mind is on Vacation on Holly.
The singer is not doctrinaire about jazz or pop idioms and more than able to navigate her way around both genres, often in the same tune.
“The set is a combination of Christmas classics and some songs that are not necessarily classics but are interesting, thought-provoking Christmas songs,” she said. “Then there will, obviously, be some of the songs that people come to expect to hear when I perform and a few from Holly. It’s not the focus this time around, however.”
One of the curious things about her latest recording is the number of songs originally made famous by Dean Martin that appear on the album including her interpretations of Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime and Ain’t That a Kick in the Head.
“Dean Martin is an underrated singer, who is known for his super charming, handsome, Rat Pack, drunk guy act, but he’s a really underrated singer,” said Cole. “He’s not a jazz singer, he is a lounge singer but he’s unlike any other lounge singer out there and nobody else sounds like him. He’s the creme de la creme of them all.”
So Cole is a fan of Martin’s phrasing and delivery, but she also says he really knew how to pick a winning tune. Winding up with a number of Martin’s classics on Holly wasn’t planned.
“I didn’t notice until after we had made the record that there were a number of Dino Martini songs on the record,” she said. “But I’m perfectly all right with that being the case. I’ve always appreciated the singers from that era.”
Cole has always been a fan of is the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
“We have played with symphonies in Asia, across the U.S. and Canada and the VSO is a consistent favourite not just of mine, but also the band,” she said. “It’s not just that the musicianship is exceptional, which it is. It’s that they are so open and passionately embrace playing different kinds of music.”
Most orchestras perform “pops” shows or appear with non-classical musicians. Cole notes that this is “all part of survival and generating a consistent audience.”
“But the VSO seems to be not only open, but they like it and really enjoy it,” said Cole. “And that translates into shows that really crackle with the dialogue between the VSO and the band and that goes straight to the crowd. Then there is the Orpheum, which is just about as perfect as you could ask for — historical, beautiful, great acoustically — and that just makes you want to sing better.”
She even has a tour story to tell about the Vancouver venue that almost turned into some developer’s mall dream back in the seventies.
“We were playing there once and I was going to do a song that I dedicated to my dog and had just finished explaining why when a dog suddenly barked,” said Cole “It wasn’t someone making the sound, or a weird coincidence echoing in from outside, and it was just a single loud “woof.” For a longish moment, everyone in the theatre went silent and then everyone just burst into laughter. Perfect moment.”
After regular touring and recording for decades, Cole has really stepped back in the past 10 years. Holly is her first new album in six years since 2012s Night.
“A bit of both, but I certainly prefer not to rush it and to let things develop organically,” Holly said when asked if this is due to the challenges of getting recordings done in the new musical industry or a matter of choice. “I find that a lot of other art starts to influence making music, so things like the renovating of the house and learning about and appreciating design starts to move into songwriting and so on. It’s a really lovely feeling to let it come naturally.”