The
cover of Paisley
Jura’s debut
album Time
In Between
draws you into its tranquility like a Renoir painting. The artist
reclines in that most Canadian of symbols: a red cedar-strip
canoe. Her long, dark tresses flowing over the side, fingertips
grazing the surface of the water, Paisley shares the canoe with her one true
love – her two-hundred-year -old double bass.
These
days Paisley and her bass hop from plane to train and automobile (as well as
the occasional canoe) as they traverse Canada. She takes her bass with
her almost everywhere, but it’s not to play in a classical orchestra this time
around. Now she calls the tune – and the
tunes are her own collection of sophisticated pop songs delivered with a voice
as clear as a bell.
Paisley
grew up as the lone artist among a pack of health professionals where it was
assumed she would follow suit in the family business. After taking up the
double bass at age 12 (in a defiant feminist stance), her squeamishness for the
grittier side of medicine prevailed and she found herself in an occupation
where her hands are always squeaky clean - music: playing, teaching and
managing. Her resume includes degrees in music and education, training
at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO) and the Banff Centre for Fine
Arts, management positions at both the NYO and the Royal Conservatory of Music,
and years of experience performing in professional orchestras, chamber groups
and pit bands.
Paisley’s
songs are hooky vignettes with twists of sophisticated harmony and subtle
orchestration that steadfastly refuse categorization. She flips easily between
Canadian folk, cabaret, jazz, Celtic, country and pop, tying it all together
with her compelling lyrics and ethereal voice. You can hear the wide palette of
Brahms, Sibelius, Bach, Stravinsky, Mahler, and Kurt Weill contrasted with the
simple stories of Johnny Cash or Emmylou Harris. Her voice has the innocent
quality of a young Ella Fitzgerald; her songs can mimic the open acoustic
jangle of Pat Metheny Group; the rawness of Tom Waits; or the directness and
later experimentation of Jane Siberry, Joni Mitchell and Bjork. She is,
according to The
Globe & Mail,
"an old-soul chanteuse with savvy pop sensibilities."
Released
in January 2009, Time
In Between
has received extensive radio play
on CBC and college stations, reaching Number One at Toronto’s CIUT and breaking
the Top 10 at CFBX in her hometown of Halifax. Produced by
four-time Gemini-winning film composer Robert Carli, Time In Between features an all-star cast of
Toronto musicians including Kurt Swinghammer, Davide Direnzo and Andrew
Downing. The critics loved it, calling the record “a sweet respite in this
brief restless life” (The
Globe and Mail)
and “a folksy collection of starry melodies” (Vancouver Courier), with Toronto’s NOW Magazine praising Paisley’s “voice
that rings clear and true”, and the Edmonton Vue Weekly advising “bring a box of
Kleenex.” Invitations to perform at festival stages across Canada soon
followed, including the East Coast Music Awards in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland,
North By North East and Yonge-Dundas Square.
Two
music videos from Time
In Between
(‘Sweetness’ and ‘Timing’), produced and directed by Gemini-nominated film
editor Paul Day, are in rotation on Bravo and Paisley has been featured on CBC
Radio’s Fresh
Air, City TV
Calgary’s Breakfast
Television
and Bravo’s Arts
& Minds
series.
Paisley
Jura’s accomplished and dynamic band-mates include Toronto pros Mark Kelso on
drums, Kevin Barrett on guitar and banjo, and Jamie Stager on piano and
trombone. Together they play off each other, tossing rhythms and riffs back and
forth, singing sweet harmonies and setting down deep grooves.
Paisley’s
charming and playful stage manner sets audience and musicians alike at ease,
drawing you into the performance as she invites you to travel down the passages
of time with her and the instrument in her hands. Her bass survived the
drawing and redrawing of the borders of its birthplace (Tyrolia), the creation
of a country called Canada, the rise and fall of classical music in society,
and now is played by a woman, surely for the first time in two hundred years.
SECRET
ROOMS
So,
what’s next for Paisley? The fast-rising indie newcomer isn't standing still.
In November 2009, she launched Secret Rooms: a unique concert series that
partners artists of other genres with her own music. These site-specific installations set aside traditional
notions of concert presentation by offering each show not in a bar, concert
hall, church or art gallery, but in a Secret Room. The Secret Rooms venues
include the Officers' Mess of the Canadian Military College, a working brewery,
and a nineteenth-century auction house, among others.
The
2009-10 Secret Rooms Series takes place in Toronto and features guests Alejandra
Ribera (Latin-cabaret), the Madawaska Quartet (classical), dancers Gillian
McPhail, Robin McPhail and Sean Ling, and film personalities Jamie Kastner,
Paul Day and Robert Carli.
RECORDINGS
Working
with producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Jane Siberry, Great
Big Sea), Paisley Jura’s first full length recording will explore the Secret
Rooms conceptual arc, elevating it into a strictly aural medium. Look for it this fall.