Singer Doty’s voice and lyrics front and centre
New album Come Fall trades full band for accompaniment with piano and drums
To the outside observer, it sounds like a no-brainer.
If you are blessed with a singing voice as pure and pleasing as Ellen Doty’s, why wouldn’t you want to give it plenty of breathing room?
But the Calgary singer admits the original plan for Come Fall, her second full-length album, wasn’t all that different from her 2014 debut, Gold. The singer was again going to surround herself with a full band for a rich, full-bodied sound.
But it didn’t take long into the Toronto sessions for Come Fall for the singer to realize something was missing.
Turns out that something was simplicity. Because when co-producer-drummer Davide Di Renzo suggested Doty and co-producerpianist Mark Lalama try it on their own without a full backing band, something immediately clicked.
“We hopped in there and I put on the headphones and I remember we started playing and I got goosebumps all over,” Doty says. “And we all knew that was the right sound for it. Then we were like ‘Would it be crazy to make a whole album without all this stuff ?’ Kind of, but let’s do it anyways.”
Crazy may not be the first adjective that springs to mind when listening to Come Fall, a beautifully hushed and stripped-down collection of elegant originals that put Doty ’s mesmerizing voice and phrasing front and centre.
Recorded for Toronto-based Alma Records and distributed by Universal, the album is a departure from her debut, which was a far more traditional jazz-pop affair that often featured layers of horns.
But, like that record, Come Fall is made up of original material that showcases Doty’s subtle skills as a songsmith, drifting from straight jazz-pop to a more singular sound.
Granted, Doty and her producers did enlist a variety of co-writers to assist with the songs. Toronto altcountry songwriter Justin Rutledge helped pen the haunting, slow-simmering closer Tried to Sing; Canadian expat Andy Stochansky gets co-write credits on the hushed Maybe I Knew and catchy Sea of Hearts; Calgary singer-songwriter Scott MacKay co-wrote and duets on the gorgeous Dreams You Don’t Remember; while the Dudes’ Danny Vacon co-wrote and sings on Favourite Sweater.
“I really wanted to be collaborative with this project,” says Doty, who will perform March 3 at Mount Royal University’s Bella Concert Hall with Di Renzo, Lalama, Mackay and Vacon. “I love being involved in the music community in Calgary and in Canada in that it’s really nice to just know everyone from other genres. Sometimes, I think we can get stuck in our box of people that are from our genre, so only knowing people from the jazz community or this and that. I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the broader community.”
Doty was immersed in a variety of music from a young age growing up in Okotoks, thanks in part to the family enthusiasm that went back a few generations.
“My grandma lived in Los Angeles and she lived across from Nat King Cole,” says Doty. “My grandparents really loved jazz. They used to go out dancing on the weekends and go see Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. They passed
that down to me through my dad. On my mom’s side, her dad was a trumpet player and he was also a CKUA radio host way back when it first started on the U of A campus, so he had quite an extensive record collection of classical and jazz.”
“It came from both sides,” she adds. “My mom plays organ and sings and my dad sings as well.”
The early exposure to jazz standards proved valuable, particularly when she took on a three-year gig singing them at the Fairmont Palliser. While she doesn’t define the current configuration of her music as being jazz per se, she said she is still influenced by the greats when it comes to her songwriting.
“There’s a few aspects I really like to pull from,” she says. “One is the storytelling. I think there is beautiful storytelling in those old classic songs and not necessarily in a complex way. They are all simple, but beautifully simple. The other thing is the sensibilities of it. It’s listening very carefully to the band members and reacting to what other people are doing. Someone like Nat King Cole has such a smooth and understated voice. That’s something that I like to pull from. I sing softly and don’t really belt a lot. That’s part of recognizing what your strengths are, seeing that in yourself and using it to your advantage.”
I love being involved in the music community in Calgary and in Canada.