INTERVIEW: KANDACE SPRINGS

INTERVIEW BY GLEN FARRIS
IMAGES BY KYLE MARTIN

Image by Kyle Martin. 

Last night at Dan's Silver Leaf, Kandace Springs wore her influences on her sleeve with a commanding performance that even illicited a shout of,  "You should run for president!" from the Monday night crowd. 

Flanked by Dillion Treacy on drums and Jesse Bielenberg on bass, Springs flexed her musical agility, seamlessly switching between soul, gospel, and blues but somehow always landing solidly on her female jazz vocal influences such as Nina Simone, Billy Holiday and Eva Cassidy. We chatted with Springs a bit before the show about how she got started, influences, and what it is like to have Prince reach out to you via Youtube. Yes, that Prince. 

WDDI: It doesn’t sound like you rolled out of bed and just started singing, how’d you get started in all this?

KANDACE SPRINGS: All this started with my Dad. He’s a singer in Nashville and he’s been singing for 30 years, basically his whole life. Mostly back up for Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, all the country stars like Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Michael McDonald. He would take me to sessions to see live shows, recording sessions and he really turned me on to organic music. Have you heard of the Wooten Brothers?

I have. I went to school in Murfreesboro at MTSU and we’d spend our Thursday nights watching them at 3rd and Lindsley.

So my dad took me to Reggie Wooten for my first piano lesson. He taught me my first jazz chords and he got me into that and later on got me into sheet music. So Reggie isn’t a piano player but he taught all of his brothers so eventually I outgrew what he could show me so Joe Wooten took over and taught me how to play the heavier stuff. Anyways, I just took a lesson from Joe earlier this year at my house. But he would teach me up in his attic in Green Hills surrounded by instruments from all over the world. The first song he showed me was Soul Train and my dad would ask me to play what I learned and would be rolling on the floor laughing when I played it for him.

You don’t really have the typical Nashville sound either.

I wasn’t really submerged in country or rock, just soul and gospel. My dad plays in Printers Alley every week still. I started playing when i was about 10 and I used to not want to sing, just play piano but my dad kept telling me that piano playing only takes you so far. That when you sing it opens up a whole other world. He gave me Norah Jones and Dianna Krall’s album when i was 13 or 14 and I was obsessed with them and they really inspired me to sing. I actually got to play for Norah Jones at The Blue Note Tokyo two and a half weeks ago and she got to watch my whole show and I got to play The Nearness of You for her which was the song that inspired me to sing and play. She came to the show on her way to the airport and I was so moved by that.

Prince also plucked you from obscurity on YouTube. How was that?

It was completely unexpected. I decided to make a video of me covering Sam Smith’s Stay With Me and we put it up thinking we’d get some more views and we got a notification “Prince retweeted your video” and we were wondering, is that the Prince? He kept messaging me “Who are you?” and “You’re so beautiful do you want to play in my band?” and my team was snooping looking at his followers. Then the record label called saying that Prince just called and that’s when we knew it was real. I got a plane ticket and he asked me to play the 30th Anniversary of Purple Rain.

And you replied, “Yeah, I think I’m free that date”.

Hell yeah I did!

Was your dad freaking out at that point?

He was actually getting defensive about it saying “You better watch out, he’s gonna make a move on you.” But Prince was very respectful and never hit on me - except he did make a move one time in the movie theater.

I love the all the vintage key sounds on the record. The B3’s, Rhodes. Where does that come from?

I play the Rhodes you here on that album. A guy named Pete Kuzma plays all the organ on that record and he plays with Rhianna and Jill Scott. Larry Klein who produced the record has worked with Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell and he got Dean Parks on there and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. It was a live session the whole time, recorded live like the old school guys like Marving Gaye back in the day. That’s what makes it special, its completely organic. There’s no fake shit happening. We’re all playing in the same room at the same time.

You lean toward the soulful, gritty female vocalists. How did you fall into that?

I just love jazz singing. It’s timeless music and that’s what i want to bring to the world. There’s not enough young people bringing it forward. When I was 16 I took my first jazz class, the Nashville Jazz Workshop with Lori Mechem and Robert Spencer, and there’s a Duke Ellington class and Ella Fitzgerald was the main singer we’d listen too because she would just sing the melody and her pitch would be unreal. In a Mellow Tone and Solitude are my two jams. But one of the very first artists I was listening to before I really started singing was Nina Simone. I didn’t know what to think of her voice.

It was rough around the edges and soulful and it took me several years to appreciate it. When she was singing in French I didn’t even know what she was saying but I had to hear more. It was early on, probably 8 or 9 in that range when I started imitating that voice, playing some of her songs. But I get bits and pieces from Dianna Krall and Norah Jones. The tenderness of Norah’s voice and the bad ass piano playing of Dianna and she doesn’t really over sing, she just places it in there.

Then Nina is all about the raw edge like you said but with the pure center of Ella. One other artist I have to name as a huge inspiration is Eva Cassidy. She’ll bring me to tears in one note. She has a CD my dad gave me where she sings Autumn Leaves, Fields of Gold and Over The Rainbow. Shit man, just listen to that song.

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https://www.kandacesprings.com/

Kandace Springs is a pianist and vocalist from Nashville, TN.

Stream her latest album now.

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From the first second of Kandace Springs' new album — as those warm, hand-plucked bass notes fill the air — you know you've arrived at something different. And once she starts singing, well, it's pretty clear The Women Who Raised Me exists apart from the normal rules that govern space, time, and talent.

While 2018's Indigo LP found the Nashville singer-pianist using modern production to bend sound into new genre forms in collaboration with Karriem Riggins, this set adheres sonically to jazz while Springs travels back and forth across a near-century of music. While the feel is as rich and complex as our host's voice, the concept is simple. Springs covers the women who inspired her while she was growing up, putting her own spin on songs associated with a dozen of the greatest female vocalists of all-time: Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Astrud Gilberto, Lauryn Hill, Billie Holiday, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Carmen McRae, Bonnie Raitt, Sade, Nina Simone, and Dusty Springfield.

"This is an album I've been wanting to make forever," says Springs. "It really expresses my love for all of these singers and gratitude for what they gave me. Each taught me something different and all of those lessons combined to make me who I am now. In a way, all I’m trying to do every day is live up to the examples they set. My dream is that people will listen to my album and then want to go learn more about all of these great women. If that happens, then I’ve done my job."

Of course, you'll want to spend some quality time with The Women Who Raised Me first. While the project was personal — practically a calling — for Springs, it's also an intimate showcase for her abilities. Produced by Larry Klein — who also produced Springs’ 2016 album Soul Eyes — the album captures Springs in the studio with a spare but able band who all have ties to the artists honored here: guitarist Steve Cardenas (Norah Jones), bassist Scott Colley (Carmen McRae), and drummer Clarence Penn(Diana Krall). They played live, underscoring the power of Springs' voice and hands, as well as her gift for moving between singers' intonations and legacies while staying herself — as her heroines would want it. Heroes too. "Prince liked when I played all this stuff," Springs recalls. "He'd go, 'That's you right there."

But long before the Minneapolis giant saw Springs on YouTube and invited her to jam at Paisley Park in 2014 — the year she'd sign to Blue Note with an audition of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" (track six) — there was Norah. When Springs was a gifted preteen pianist with no plans to sing, her father, Nashville session singer Scat Springs, slid her a copy of Jones' Come Away With Me. She put the CD on while doing chores, and, "When 'The Nearness of You' came on I froze," Springs says. "I was like, 'That is what I want to do!'" So of course that song made it onto The Women Who Raised Me. But also, the actual Norah Jones did too. They trade smoke-ringed verses on Ella Fitzgerald's "Angel Eyes" as Jones' Steinway dances with Springs' Wurly.



"I didn't even know what to think," says Springs of recording with her first musical love. Wildly, it only happened because they ran into each other at the Nashville airport. They traded numbers, and later met at Jones' Brooklyn apartment to test out Ella songs. "It's something I relive every so often, like, 'Lord, I can't believe she's sitting right there.' It was nerve-racking. I was like, 'Get it together, Kandace, let's do this!' And we just kinda made up the arrangement as we went."

Jones isn't the only guest. It's Christian McBride's bass that kicks off the LP, in fact, on Springs' swinging cover of "Devil May Care" by Diana Krall. That one was also part of her dad's informal chops-building curriculum after he brought home a secondhand upright piano when she was 10. Springs was instantly drawn to Krall's elegant playing and unfussy singing. Scat turned her onto Nina Simone too, eventually. "I didn’t like her voice at first," Springs admits. "It seemed strange, but it was so unique and haunting that I kept coming back." Before long, she was as inspired by Nina's spirit as her art. In honor of their shared love for classical, Springs incorporates Moonlight Sonata into her rousing version of "I Put a Spell on You," as David Sanborn blows fiery alto sax.

Of course, with an album called The Women Who Raised Me, we'd be remiss not to talk about Springs' mother, Kelly. While Dad arranged for her to learn from pros like the Wooten brothers, Mom actually drove young Kandace to and from those lessons in the family van while tuned into the local easy listening station. That's where she first heard Dusty Springfield (Springs' rendition of "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" is rich with heartache and drama) and, many times over, the aforementioned Bonnie Raitt hit. She learned the latter in her late teens, while she was working at a local hotel. "I'd park cars during the day," says Springs, "then change clothes, go upstairs to the lounge, and perform in the evening. I always got a lot of tips playing Bonnie."

At that point, Springs' career was calling. She'd been offered a production deal by Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken of SRP (who discovered Rihanna), but Scat was wary. As Springs began to consider other paths, it was her mom who encouraged her not to quit music, and even snuck into Scat's phone to get Rogers' contact. That partnership brought Springs to New York and Blue Note, but before she left home, each of these women had shown her something vital: Astrud Gilberto with her "tone that's so airy and pure" ("Gentle Rain"). Carmen McRae, whose "sense of harmony is deeper than any other jazz singer's" ("Solitude"). Sade's uncanny ability to transmit powerful emotion ("Pearls"). Lauryn Hill's vocal textures and "diva queen" independence ("Ex-Factor").

But even as those mighty influences are felt — and players like trumpeter Avishai Cohen; flutist Elena Pinderhughes, and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter pop in — The Women Who Raised Me remains unmistakably Springs' vision. That fact becomes especially clear during closing couplet. First, Springs and her band strike up a mellow groove with their take on Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly." But as the song nears its end, we're treated to a gigantic unfurling psychedelic finale, which sets the stage for the next song's necessary minimalism. The closing number is one that truly cannot be followed: "Strange Fruit." For this, it's just Springs and her trusty Rhodes, crying out all of that pain and beauty, reminding us of the mortal danger inherent in forgetting our past.

Springs learned much from Billie's example — "I grew up in the South and I can't even imagine the courage it took for her to sing that song in the '30s," she says — but her main takeaway is as basic as it is bone-deep: "That nothing is more important than singing from the heart." End of the day, that's exactly what Springs did here. The Women Who Raised Me is a raw and real audio love-letter between her and her idols. The rest of us are just lucky she let us listen in.
 

“Kandace has a voice that could melt snow.”

--Prince


https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/826822135/kandace-springs-pays-tribute-to-the-women-who-raised-her

Kandace Springs Pays Tribute To 'The Women Who Raised' Her

April 5, 2020

Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO

SOPHIA ALVAREZ BOYD



Kandace Springs' latest album consists of covers of the women in jazz she idolized growing up. "It's a tribute record to give back to what they've inspired me to do as an artist," she says.

Robby Klein/Courtesy of the artist

Kandace Springs' third record is a source of familiarity in uncertain times. Titled The Women Who Raised me, it's full of beloved and recognizable songs associated with jazz artists who inspired and influenced Springs as an artist: Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Lauryn Hill and Norah Jones, among many others. But the album is not only a tribute to some of those legends, it's also a showcase of Springs' talent for reinterpreting and seamlessly blending genres.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke to Kandace Springs about the long-ruminating idea, the importance of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," and running into Norah Jones in the bathroom at the Nashville airport. Listen to the radio version at the audio link above and read on for highlights of the interview.

Interview Highlights

On her long-standing desire to record a tribute to her heroes

My dad was playing me Nina Simone since I was eight years old, and then he gave me a Norah Jones record, and then he gave me a Roberta Flack record and I took some classes through my teens into — now I'm 31. Over time I've grown listening to these artists and learning their tone and texture and the way they interpret songs. I just love the way they write stuff and sing; it just has moved me over the years. Most of them play and were really, really strong characters as well, so I've learned a lot from them. It's a tribute record to give back to what they've inspired me to do as an artist.

On how a chance encounter with Norah Jones led to a collaboration honoring Ella Fitzgerald

It was really cool meeting up with Norah. I ran into her at the bathroom, of all places, in the Nashville airport. She had done something else, and I was coming back from doing the Winter Jazz Fest in New York, and we just met there coming out of the [bathroom]. We exchanged numbers, and I texted her a little bit later and she was like "Absolutely, I would love to be on your record." We've kind of known each other for the last six, seven years since I signed with Blue Note, but just never really gotten close like that, so it's really nice. And she invited me over to her apartment and we sat down at her little upright piano and picked out songs. We were playing everything from like "Lush Life" and "Sophisticated Lady" and all these awesome songs that Ella did and we landed on "Angel Eyes."

It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I remember listening to her when I was like 12 or 13 years old and hearing her on the radio, and my dad would always joke "That girl stole your gig," because she plays piano and sings. I really looked up to her, and to actually sit less than 10 feet from her — she was on a beautiful Steinway and I sat down at a little vintage Wurlitzer, a 140B model. And we both played and took turns doing the verse lines and started harmonizing at the end. It's just a moment I'll never forget. And her skill is just impeccable.

On getting mentored by Prince

I just posted a video, this is in 2014, of me doing a cover of Sam Smith's "Stay With Me." You know, that song was a big thing at that time. And I put it on YouTube and then another blog company retweeted it for us, just to help. And apparently Prince saw it and he retweeted it and then he called my record label. Before I know it, literally four days later, I'm at Paisley Park with him there, with New Power Generation Quartet and Third Eye Girl all in the same room. It was amazing, it's something I'll never forget. The thing he would always say is to not cover up my voice too much and stick with live instruments and production like that. And I agree with him. My dad would always say the same thing as well, so I respect that a lot.

On covering Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

I always describe the song as beautiful and yet it's ugly; it's bittersweet when you listen to it and the lyrics. It's a time in history that people should be aware of, and just think about Billie Holiday in the '30s when she came out and sang it, what she would have been going through at that time. It took a lot of bravery. But the song is a timeless song. I think the younger generation should be aware of it and hear it.

One fascinating story about Billie: When she would sing it, she would tell her audience not to applaud after she performed that song. And after the last note rang, they would turn the lights off and she would leave the stage. And when they turned the lights back on there would be no one there, just to kind of leave an impact.


https://www.marlbank.net/posts/kandace-springs-interview
 
KANDACE SPRINGS INTERVIEW

2018 interview with Kandace Springs conducted at the Premises Cafe, London · From 2018. Squeezed in before a television interview and a dash through traffic earlier running a little late Kandace Springs was sitting in the sunny afternoon chatting …
 
13 November 2019.

From 2018. Squeezed in before a television interview and a dash through traffic earlier running a little late Kandace Springs was sitting in the sunny afternoon chatting enveloped by the comforting hubbub of a friendly Haggerston cafe in the east end of London.

Kandace was a protégée of Prince whose ‘Mary Don’t You Weep’ crops up in conversation later. Surely a textbook case of the need to sit to the end of the credits as they roll at the movies rather than making for the exits. While she had gone to Paisley Park at the request of the Purple One she did not know this quietly proud ‘Mary’ until Spike Lee’s extraordinary BlacKkKlansman came out. “OMG,” she says recalling her reaction.

The film score was composed and orchestrated by Terence Blanchard, the New Orleanian jazz bandleader composer trumpeter who guested on the Nashville twentysomething Springs’ Soul Eyes.

Nina Simone is more the underscore for this conversation, “the role model,” Kandace comments. Ellington by contrast like Nina is not about the past because the Washingtonian is as most jazz people know the present wrapped up in the future and she is working on an Ellington project which is news.

First the touring, a lot of touring and maybe a little collaboration… as Kandace was off to see Jamie Cullum later in the day.

Plucked thanks to Gregory Porter from obscurity she supported the blesséd one at the Albert Hall her first record Soul Eyes was a head turner to say the least. The Billie Holiday pianist Mal Waldron’s jazz standard and title track was reborn. Kandace was ahead of the zeitgeist. Next year because the signs are that we will all be mad about Mal, it may finally arrive Kandace having paved the way. Marlbank understands from someone familiar with the project that Free At Last, an extremely rare record complete with unheard tracks, will be released for the first time in decades, approaching 50 years old since it was released.

All sorts of people these days come knocking on her door to collaborate including Jamie (‘Human’) Hartman and she says she is also a “hybrid” singer meaning she can sing other things that are not jazz and often does. She flew to Los Angeles after her managers set the idea in motion that they work together by scratching a creative itch on the part of her team to add just one more song to Indigo.

Starting work they however hit the wall. Then Hartman heard her playing from Liszt’s ‘Liebestraüme’ and he said just keep doing that. Indicating what he then added she sings the line into my phone ‘don’t you breakdown on me’ pitched high in her range the melody line containing a tricky chromatic leap and right at the start of the song into the bargain, at the heart of the caring pleading of ‘Breakdown’. The line arrests you. Or take her version of ‘People Make the World Go Round’ on the new record where she provides such motion and poise. She tells me she was doing a gig with hip-hop supergroup August Greene not so long ago and did the Stylistics song there and then. Genre just melts in her hands and you could say the same about Gregory Porter and Diana Krall, another of her early favourites.

The way Indigo is produced arrows knowingly raining in on several targets and not as glossy and mainstream as Larry Klein’s who nonetheless achieved a lot on Soul Eyes this is a mass market aimed style still, and the stakes are getting higher, the possibility of failure greater.

There is a lot of musicianship sprinkled throughout reassuringly meaning that Indigo is not at all gimmicky because musicianship is the polar opposite of faddy novelty. The human interest story is the presence of Kandace’s dad, Scat, on ‘Simple Things,’ and which delivers an effortless sounding level of persuasion and finds all the space in the world and lets the song hang in the air doted upon by father and daughter yet avoiding sentimentality by providing a complex understanding based on rapport.

Kandace is not the new Norah Jones because she is not the new anyone. Her tack is different. She does not emphasise the tragic song, the mournful; her positivity comes free inside the groove steered impressively by August Greene drummer Karriem Riggins, an approach that underpins her blues and versatility and the other inputs that she picks up from soul. Intimacy calls most, however, as ‘Unsophisticated’ proves, Roy Hargrove going ever deeper than he did on his version of Pat Metheny’s ‘Always and Forever’ on Moment to Moment — to my mind his biggest ballad achievement on record to date.

Her “role model” as she describes it on Indigo is Nina Simone and you can get the connection straight away. Because, like the time before Nina was Nina and was Eunice Waymon she plays piano just as well, no exaggerating, and she sings as naturally as breathing but in a very different style. I cannot help thinking given that the future dreaming of her say mining southern soul-gospel tinted affirmation might suggest a treatment of Candi Staton’s ‘I’ll Sing a Love Song To You’.

Kandace met Don Was through her producers and managers, Evan Rogers, who sings backing vocals a bit on the record, and Carl Sturken, who contributes some bass. El presidente Under the Red Sky / Voodoo Lounge producer Was returned her label Blue Note to the heights that Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff built up to be almost destroyed by the cultural vandalism Liberty ushered in eventually saved by Bruce Lundvall. Since the Was (Not Was) bassist took over the reins from the Brucester who before his retirement got lucky to secure the label’s future as Norah Jones struck multi-, multi-, platinum with Come Away With Me. Was has brought a lot of veterans back to the label who are nearly all instrumentalists (Wayne Shorter top of the tree) but vocals now have a significant place thanks to Gregory Porter, from Liquid Spirit on and Kandace augmenting the roster.

“Carl is a big jazz head, and he has a vast collection of songs. My dad gave me a Nina Simone album and a Diana Krall record when I was young — and I always wanted to play jazz.”

She loves ‘Wild is the Wind’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and hopes to keep on touring and promoting the record and will be playing London with a band that she tells me will have Connor Parks on drums, Chris Gaskell, bass — both from the NYC band For Trees and Birds. She also says that we are “working on trying to get guitarist Jesse [‘Don’t Know Why’] Harris — maybe, maybe, maybe.”

As for Karriem he is “very hands on” as a producer. “‘Simple things’,” Kandace says had “dad add his vocal part” to the tune laid down. Songs were “sitting on the shelf” and she gave them to Karriem. He added drums and brought in the erstwhile Branford Marsalis bassist Robert Hurst and Anthony Wilson both now like Karriem with Diana Krall.

As for Duke Ellington she reveals details of a project involving Karriem again and Bob Hurst, a little trio.

“I learnt a lot of Ellington songs in my teens, so many favourites… ‘Solitude’, ‘Sophisticated Lady’… and we do have a ‘Lush Life’ — Karriem accompanied myself singing. We are waiting to put that out.”

Her big hope, and it doesn’t matter she says if it is old school, new school, is for a perfect performance as long as the song is “from your soul.” SG 

Kandace Springs Honors History and Personal Growth on ‘The Women Who Raised Me’

Interview, News, Kandace Springs
 
by Kira Grunenberg   
January 27, 2020
Downbeat 
Image

PHOTO:  Kandace Springs offers reverence to female musicians on her upcoming album, The Women Who Raised Me.   (Photo: Robby Klein)

Kandace Springs uses The Women Who Raised Me to feature songs by female performers whose music and experiences shaped her own artistic and emotional perspectives. Despite consisting entirely of covers, the upcoming Blue Note album serves as a powerful revelation of Springs’ highly personal vision.

Tracks like Springs’ Beethoven-infused take on “I Put A Spell On You” blend jazz with other genres, while a rendition of “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?”—a song Springs listened to as a child while her mother drove her to music lessons—is made to sound a bit more traditional.

Whether the compositions here are being honored for their place in a larger history or for being important to Springs’ individual growth, The Women Who Raised Me should summon as much curiosity as certainty from listeners.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

How would you describe your relationship with jazz, given that The Women Who Raised Me traverses several styles?

Really good. This is the stuff I started out playing when I was 13, 14, 15, into my early 20s. It wasn’t until I got signed that a couple of labels … well, honestly, they tried to change me to veer more into the hip-hop lane, saying, “Oh, you know, jazz doesn’t sell anymore.” I caught a lot of hell going through it. Meanwhile, everybody’s listening to so-and-so, while I’m playing Ella Fitzgerald and I’m playing [Duke Ellington’s] “Sophisticated Lady,” “I Put A Spell On You” and all this stuff. People are like, “You know, your audience isn’t gonna be around much longer.”

And so, it’s really nice to be able to do this album, finally. I had to kind of put my foot down about two years ago and say, “I know I want to go in the jazz lane.” Indigo was a little more modern, but still old-school. But The Women Who Raised Me is going to be almost all straightahead jazz.

Where does this album fall in terms of prioritizing historical responsibility versus personal storytelling?

It’s actually a little of both. Some of [the songs] are about what I’ve gotten from [the artists] and some are about honoring their stories. I want other generations to be familiar with Nina Simone. I’d say, most people probably haven’t heard of her, based on what I’m seeing. And that’s kind of sad. I’m [thinking], “Jeez, dude!” But, you know, anyone 10 years older than me will say, “Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of Nina,” most of the time. So, it’s inspiration for women. Me and the all-female band—they’re so talented—that I tour with, this is kind of a thing we’re making an impact on folks with. And everybody seems to love it, so I’m digging that.

Do you think your work can lead people into the jazz community, make them listeners and fans?

Well, I like that I can just be kind of a crossover. Sort of like Norah Jones was for me. Her voice is so silky and smooth, and she’s got such a different texture. It just drew me in immediately. But she’s not pure jazz, either, though she can sing pure jazz if she wants. But for me, I can do either as well—and mix it up. Roberta Flack is one of my biggest influences with Nina Simone and then Ella Fitzgerald, and then mix it all. I think anybody can appreciate that type of voice.

Where are you emotionally when you perform songs like “Solitude” or “Strange Fruit”?

You listen to and think about the artist that sang that song, first off, giving respect to them. Sticking true to the melody for the most part—but there is something to adding your own texture. Singing from your soul, that for me is the most important thing. When you sing, it’s almost like a chemistry that you can create that triggers certain emotions through certain textures. It’s like an art, and I’ve always found ways to express myself that way.

I don’t know if that makes sense, but I see music in colors. I never learned like, [music] theory or anything like that. I know basic chords and some changes but not, like, “Now we’ll go to the G-flat minor 7 with the flat fifth,” or anything like that. I couldn’t really tell you what that is. I can play it, though, because I know what it looks like in my head as a color. I see a color or shape for each of them in my head when I’m writing a song, and that’s how I learn songs. I don’t think of music in mathematical terms at all.

For me, it takes a while [to learn new music]. I’ve always been that way. But because of that, I think you can go to a deeper level for the song, because now it’s a little more personal. From an artistic point of view, I think you get more of a pure … you feel the emotion more when you approach it that way. To me, that’s everything.

People are like, “How do you do this and that?” I say, “I’m not paying attention to the fancy terminologies or rhythms and stuff. I’m just singing from my heart.” And then saying, “I think this color looks beautiful there. It sounds beautiful here.”

This is what moves me. DB

June 22, 2016
Downbeat 
Image

PHOTO:  Scat Springs (left) and his daughter, Kandace Springs, whose Blue Note album Soul Eyes will be released on June 24.   (Photo: Donn Jones Photography)

One evening in May, Kandace Springs walked onto the stage at Nashville’s elegant Tennessee Performing Arts Center. She slid onto the piano bench behind a concert grand, nodded toward bassist Jerry Navarro and drummer David “Smitty” Smith, and eased into a set of ballads and medium-tempo tunes.

Her voice purred and whispered as she caressed the lyrics and melody on the opener, the original tune “Novocaine Heart,” as well as the jazz standard “Soul Eyes” and the classic “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” She cast a similarly soft but ominous spell with “Strange Fruit” that coaxed murmurs of “yes” and “mmm-hmm” from throughout the audience.

Two blocks away, at the Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar, servers whisked drinks to customers crowded around the dance floor and jammed into the balcony. Neon beer lights glared. Mardi Gras beads rattled. Then a band filed onto the stage and kicked off a searing one-chord jam. Trumpet, saxophone and B-3 solos pumped up the funk. One of the musicians grabbed a microphone.

“Ladies and gentleman, please welcome The Master himself, the man you cannot resist … Mr. Scat Springs!” And the star of the show bounded into the spotlight, in short sleeves and pork pie hat, shouting, “Everybody say, Hey! Everybody say, Ho!” over the band’s sizzling groove. The crowd obliged and helped the big man slam into Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You.”

It was a rare night in Nashville, marking the convergence of two Springs—father Scat, a fixture in the city’s r&b community, and daughter Kandace, who has already performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and been heralded as a “suave songstress” by The Wall Street Journal.

No less than Prince caught a video of her covering Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” on the website Okayplayer; four days after that, he flew her to Paisley Park and invited her to perform with him on the 30th anniversary of Purple Rain.

The June 24 release of her album Soul Eyes (Blue Note Records), will raise her profile considerably. Guests on the album include trumpeter Terence Blanchard, guitarists Dean Parks and Jesse Harris, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and organist Pete Kuzma.

Hints of Norah Jones and Roberta Flack waft through Kandace’s intimate phrasing and smoky timbre, with production by Larry Klein, whose work with Lizz Wright, Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell put him on the right wavelength for this project.

The empathetic production masterfully cushions her every turn of phrase: Kuzma’s tactile drawbar manipulations, Colaiuta’s understated rhythm bed, and Blanchard’s evocative obligatos on “Soul Eyes” and “Too Good To Last,” one of four tracks that showcase her sophistication as a songwriter.

A few days after their Nashville shows, Kandace and Scat met up with DownBeat at Skull’s Rainbow Room, located next door to Bourbon Street.

Scat turned to his daughter and asked, “If there was one thing you got from Prince, what would that be?”

Kandace answered, “Be true to who you are.”

Scat slapped his hand on the table and laughed. “Man, that’s a lesson for everyone!”

Ever since he heard his daughter picking out the melody for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata at age 10, Scat has tried to pass along lessons. “She was just using one finger,” he recalled. “Now, I play a terrible version of it, but I use 10 fingers. So I went down and played it for her, like, ‘Yeah, Dad’s cool, ain’t he?’ I was showing off! She just watched, put her little fingers up there and played it back to me after seeing me do it just that one time. I was impressed. So I said, ‘Go ahead and practice that a little more. Maybe you can catch up with Dad.’

“I went back upstairs, and 10 minutes later I heard her playing it faster than I could! I went back downstairs and said, ‘You want to take piano lessons?’ She said, ‘Yes, Daddy.’”

Lessons did follow, but father and daughter agree that something in the family genes made both of their successes inevitable. Scat’s father, Kenny, recorded with his band, the Scat Cats, for Columbia and Dot in the 1960s and ’70s. Kandace’s aunts and uncles sang, as did two great-grandfathers.

One can see in Scat’s eyes that he feels something special when talking about Kandace. When asked if he’d like to record a duet with his favorite future superstar, he replied immediately, “I would love to.”

“Maybe,” she teased. “Maybe on the next record.”

“Oh, really?” he answered, eyebrows raised in surprise. “Remember, you don’t have to—but I’ll be mad if you don’t.” And they both laughed, knowing it didn’t really matter if they ever did.

Kandace is promoting the new album by opening shows for singer Gregory Porter, including concerts at Seattle’s Moore Theater (June 17), Oakland’s Fox Theater (June 18) and the Harris Center in Folsom, California (June 19).

Kandace will headline club shows at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles (June 23) and Joe’s Pub in New York City (June 28).

(Note: To see a video Kandace Springs singing “Soul Eyes” and accompanying herself on piano at Capitol Studios, click here.)


 
THE MUSIC OF KANDANCE SPRINGS: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH KANDANCE SPRINGS:

Kandace Springs Trio - Concert



Kandace Springs - Pearls (Official Video) ft. Avishai Cohen



Kandace Springs feat. by WDR BIG BAND | Full Concert



Kandace Springs - Soul Eyes