Dawn Pemberton proves city has soul
Dawn Pemberton ‘s skills and style have put her among the top Canadian vocalists of her genre, writes Francois Marchand
You wouldn’t necessarily believe it at first, but Vancouver is a hotbed of soul and gospel.
“This city is so funny,” soul/gospel singer Dawn Pemberton exclaims. “There was like five gospel choirs at one point — they’re all well attended. There’s so much love for gospel music and that speaks to how universal it is. People can connect to it whether they’re religious or not.”
There’s no denying soul and gospel’s uplifting power.
When Pemberton takes the stage with the Good Noise Choir and the White Rock Children’s Choir for Good Noise’s 12th season finale concerts, Soul Gospel, at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver, expect sparks to fly.
“There’s a real connection between soul music and gospel music,” Good Noise Choir artistic director Gail Suderman says.
“Back in the ’50s, Ray Charles started the whole thing off. He took music he had done in the church and changed the words — like ‘God’ to ‘she’ and ‘I love you’ — and got everybody really mad in the church and everybody happy in the secular music stream.”
For Suderman, picking Pemberton as the guest performer for the choir’s season closer was a nobrainer.
“She’s got the style, the timbre — all of that,” Suderman says. “Her ability to bring aspects of gospel that have found their way into soul music — improvisation, juxtaposition, and that feel — you just can’t teach it. She’s such a dynamic performer. When you put her in front of a 90-voice gospel choir, it’s this great fit of energy.”
Pemberton, 37, is a veteran of the Vancouver music scene. Her latest album, Say Somethin’, her first solo album, was named Urban Recording of the Year at the 2015 Western Canadian Music Awards last fall.
Her honey-soaked pipes have earned her a coveted spot among Canada’s top vocalists in her genre, and a prolific career in music that spans almost two decades and has included performing with artists like blues duo The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer; jazz outfit The Nightcrawlers; and sharing the stage with legends like James Brown sax man Maceo Parker.
Pemberton has made regular appearances at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival; she works as a sessions singer (with credits appearing on albums by Devin Townsend, Miss Quincy, Five Alarm Funk, Dralms and Bend Sinister); and she has extended her gift for music to teaching kids and hosting workshops and master classes for aspiring talent. She is also the director of the Roots ‘N’ Wings Choir, an ensemble for women 19 and up.
“I feel like I do a lot,” Pemberton says. “My schedule is never the same. I’m not always at home. Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it drives me nuts. Sometimes I wish I could just go in an office at 9 and come home at 5. “Sometimes,” she emphasizes. She laughs wholeheartedly. Born of parents of Caribbean descent (her father is from Saint Kitts and her mother is from Barbados), Pemberton grew up in the Collingwood area. She went to Notre Dame Regional Secondary School before attending Capilano University, where she earned a degree in Jazz Studies.
She laughs when asked where she caught the music bug — “In the womb,” she says, and it’s hard to tell if she’s actually joking.
Growing up with siblings at least a decade older than she was (she has two brothers and one sister), she was exposed to every kind of music there was.
“My sister used to take me to her singing lessons, and that was the first time I thought, ‘Oh, you can do that?’ I was maybe three or four. I remember being under an ironing board and everybody making all these sounds — ‘Oooooh aaaaahh.’
“There was always music around me. All my siblings played instruments. My dad listened to a lot of big band music — a lot of Glenn Miller. He also listened to a lot of crooners — Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole. And he listened to a lot of calypso music. My brother listened to punk and heavy metal. My other brother listened to hiphop and rap — Run-DMC, all that stuff. I was this little fly on the wall, soaking up all this music.”
Pemberton began singing professionally and earning a living almost straight out of high school. Her soulful voice was soon heard at telethons, charitable events and corporate gatherings around town. She kept grinding and grinding and, 17 years on, her name has taken hold across Canada.
Say Somethin’ earning a Western Canadian Music Award has cemented her position as one of the country’s rising queens of soul.
“It was a nice affirmation that I was doing the right thing,” she says of being rewarded for making an album with her own material. “It’s kind of scary in some ways to be a bit selfish and say, ‘It’s my time. I wanna do my thing.’
“I like something that is smooth and musically captivating: A great hook, an interesting story. Something that has an arc, definitely. Something that allows the people I’m playing with to be expressive and to join in the conversation. Something that allows people to be connected and have a sharing experience.
“On this last album, some of the songs were about love — not just in a romantic sense — and exploring the moments in relationships that are tipping points, that can be either really good or really bad. And about relationships with the things around us.”
There’s a lot on the horizon for Pemberton.
Her summer will consist of a slew of appearances across the country, including a performance at Winnipeg Jazz Festival and at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto with Cowboy Junkies. There’s also a forthcoming expansion into Europe and talks of a concert in London, where she already has an influential fan in the form of British DJ and record label owner Gilles Peterson, who called her “great.”
Her two performances with the Good Noise Choir on May 28 are a perfect opportunity to see Pemberton in her primordial element.
She will be performing mainly choir renditions of soul and gospel classics — including material by Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin and Thomas Andrew Dorsey, the “father of black gospel music” — with the added support of Good Noise’s band consisting of Suderman (piano), Elliot Polsky (drums), Ingrid Stitt (saxophone), Laurence Mollerup (bass) and Mike Kalanj (on one of Pemberton’s favourite instruments, the Hammond B-3 organ).
“That greasy sound! I never grew up playing (the Hammond organ) but hearing some of the gospel music at home, it’s just so part of the sound. Aretha Franklin was a great role model in bringing soul and gospel together. She had a Hammond in there. It’s a sound where my ears just go, ‘Ahhhh.’”
It was a nice affirmation that I was doing the right thing. It’s kind of scary in some ways to be a bit selfish and say, ‘It’s my time. I wanna do my thing.’