Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Laila Biali

The TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival is on right now and there are free noon-hour concerts at Nathan Phillips Square which I've partaken in this week.

I had the pleasure today of being entertained by the Laila Biali Trio. She was commisioned by the CBC to produce her latest disc, From Sea to Sky, which is a selection of 10 songs by Canadian songwriters that she arranged and covered, plus her own original composition, Radiance. Her version of Feist's Secret Heart and Sarah MacLachlan's Ice Cream are fantastic.

I'd never heard of her before but she's got quite the bio per her MySpace page, including being named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year” at the Canadian National Jazz Awards in 2005. She's toured with Grammy Award winning artists including Chris Botti, Paula Cole, and Suzanne Vega, and is also frequently invited to teach at Stanford University’s summer jazz workshop.

1 comment:

The Lone Beader® said...

I have never heard of her before! Thanks for sharing that link!

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