Juno Award-nominated jazz vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow plays a hometown show in Toronto at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 14th. I had the pleasure of speaking with her about the upcoming show. Here's our conversation: T.O. Snob: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. You are playing a hometown gig on the 14th, how has the tour been going so far? ECB: It's been great. It's taken us

Emilie-Claire Barlow is Toronto's own jazz singer, who released her seventh album, Haven't We Met? , in March 2009. Aside from making music, she is also a voice actress in shows such as 6Teen (as Chrissy) and Sailor Moon (as Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus), which I thought was pretty interesting. Apparently it was hard for her to take care of her voice since Sailor Moon "had a lot of yelling." Sailor Mars was always such an angry bitch. Jazz really isn't my expertise, so pardon my ignorance throughout this post. Haven't We Met [...]

What better way to celebrate St. Patty's Day than to listen to ten different versions of Brazil's "all-time best" song. Easily, this is one of my all-time favorite standards. This was the first version of this song I can remember hearing. It was around 1994. I was struck by how out of place the song sounded when heard with the other tracks on Breakaway. Art Garfunkel ∞ Waters of March The original song-writer: Antonio Carlos Jobim ∞ Aguas de Marco Some more for your [...]

I've save my favorite guilty pleasure for last. Emilie-Claire Barlow is another eMusic suggestion. She hails from the Great White North and is a jazz vocalist who interrupts songs as well any other female jazz singer I have heard. She was nominated for two Juno's last year. Not to mention, Ms. Barlow is extremely easy on the eyes. Listen: Emilie-Claire Barlow ∞ The Very Thought Of You Bonus song: Emilie-Claire Barlow ∞ [...]

Mercury Rising by Sting isn't considered one of the highlights in his solo-career, although he had a crack band behind him. Featuring the late pianist Kenny Kirkland and guitarist Dominic Miller. On this album from 1996 is a French song Sting wrote with Miller, La Belle Dame Sans Regrets . I'm not a big Sting fan (although I'm looking forward to see the reunited Police in concert, after summer), so I really wouldn't know why Mr Tantra Sex went French on us. Then again, he did a passable version of Ne Me Quitte Pas too ( [...]