[Dixielandjazz] Nikki Yanofsky interviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Young Yanofsky Already a Jazz Veteran
Montrealer is living the dream and performing internationally at 17
by Irwin Block
Montreal Gazette, June 22, 2011
The prodigious speaker from Hampstead was 13 at the time, preparing for a four-night
run of shows at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Those who saw her then, or the previous year when she dazzled on an outdoor stage
with her note-and inflection-perfect channelling of Ella Fitzgerald -- scat and all
-- were witnesses to the takeoff of what is now an international career.
Flash forward to midspring. We are doing an interview with the singer on the phone
from the same Hampstead home, and Nikki Yanofsky, 17, is getting set for some milestone
events:
She is studying for final exams; gearing up for the prom at St. George's High School,
where she is to sing for her peers; and moving on to the next stage of her life.
It feels strange asking a teenager to reflect on her career, but Yanofsky has no
hesitation in responding with the enthusiasm and full confidence that have made her
a star.
"I am definitely feeling really appreciative and lucky and excited about the way
everything's been going," she says with a smile you can sense, even on the phone.
"The whole experience thus far has been absolutely, like, once in a lifetime, hard
to describe.
"I'm living my dream, so I can't be happier!"
Wrapping up high school means Yanofsky no longer has to balance a busy performing
schedule with classes.
Contrary to most of her contemporaries, Yanofsky says she has no immediate plans
to attend college or university. Instead, as she foresaw four years ago, is the future
her singing career.
"For now there is nothing more interesting for me than the music, and I really doubt
that's going to change."
Who can blame her? Her immediate schedule includes gigs at the Toronto, Strasbourg
and North Sea jazz festivals, and headlining with orchestras in Calgary, and Vancouver,
and a solo performance at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, which takes her schedule
to the end of October, with promises of much more to come.
Reflecting her wide-ranging musical goals and broad repertoire, a jazz and a pop
CD also are in the works.
How many teenage singers have played with legendary pianist Herbie Hancock?
"The first time was last summer at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Quincy Jones,"
Nikki recalls. "I wasn't supposed to sing with him. Quincy was sitting side stage
and Herbie went out and started playing, and I went, 'Oh my gosh, this is amazing,
thank you so much for having me here tonight, and Quincy's like, 'Put the microphone
on,' he pushes me out on stage and all of a sudden I'm scatting Watermelon Man with
Herbie Hancock, which was really awesome."
The second time was a duet with Hancock at a tribute to Barbra Streisand in Los Angeles
in February, where she sang a medley of On a Clear Day and Lazy Afternoon.
As reported by the Canadian Press, Hancock praised her as "an amazing young jazz
singer (with) formidable talent. She sings in a very powerful way."
Her belting out of I Believe, the theme of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, electrified
the country, and videos of her singing it have garnered more than 1.2 million YouTube
hits at last count.
"The Olympic experience for me was just complete pinch-me, a once in a lifetime thing."
Yanofsky felt connected to it, because "it's about believing in yourself, pursuing
your dreams" -- what her story is all about.
When she performed at the Blue Note in New York City in the fall, reviewer Pete Cataldo
was blown away as she sang Someone to Watch Over Me: "The entire room came to a focused
silence -- the cocktail girls, the bartenders, and the food servers.
"Her scatting is so clean and sharp now. and her range has no bounds."
At the diva-like setting for her July 2 gig -- Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des
Arts, Yanofsky and her band will be backed by the lush sounds of the full Orchestre
Metropolitain.
"It's my fifth summer here and we kind of wanted to offer a big show. It's going
to be breathtaking," she enthuses.
Crafting the arrangements are pianist Paul Shrofel, who leads her band, and her vocal
coach Sharada Banman.
And what songs are on the menu?
Like the pro she's become, Yanofsky does not want to reveal too much: "I'd actually
like to keep that as a surprise."