Grammy Award-winning jazz singer ahead of Hong Kong concerts: interview with Cécile McLorin Salvant
We caught up with singer Cécile McLorin Salvant before her performances for the Hong Kong Arts Festival to talk about why she chose jazz, her upcoming album and what she will be singing in Hong Kong
Still only 28, jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant has already won Grammy Awards for best jazz vocal album for both of her last two CDs and is regularly compared to the greats who inspired her, including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith.
Salvant grew up in Miami in a music-loving household and began studying the piano at age five. A move to France in 2007 to study law and classical vocal music led her indirectly to jazz. Her debut album, Cécile, recorded with the Jean-Francois Bonnel Paris Quintet, was released in 2010.
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She is in Hong Kong for the first time to perform in Hong Kong Arts Festival concerts on March 21 and 22. We caught up with her before the shows.
You grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music. What made you gravitate towards jazz?
Meeting a jazz teacher in France who really pushed me to be in his class. I was curious about why he was so insistent and intense about it. He knew in his mind that I would become a jazz singer – that I had the voice and the ears and the potential to make it my career.
I just went with it. People say I just go with the flow, and that’s what I think I did. If I had met with a lot of resistance and it had been really hard, I probably would not have pursued it. I would just have been singing jazz at home and listening to records. I was very lucky and I’m very grateful for that. I guess people like a struggle story but mine is not one.
