Award-winning vocalist and recording artist Nicolas Beard is understood for his silky baritone and jazz-inflected R&B. Forward of his Friday and Saturday performances at Center C Jazz, Beard talks about his music with WFAE “All Issues Thought of” host Gwendolyn Glenn.
Nicolas Bearde: I used to be a giant fan of recorded music. Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Temptations, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, simply go down the checklist. And my brother was within the band and he was enjoying, you realize, the marches, the sousaphone and all that form of stuff, and Beethoven and all that. So I grew to become a fan of classical music as properly. By the point I reached highschool, I really had a suggestion from a producer, a neighborhood producer, to presumably get a label deal. It did not work out, sadly. I had a three-man group at the moment in highschool.
Gwendolyn Glenn: I perceive that after highschool, you joined the army and that you just continued to sing abroad.
Bearde: Oh, completely. That was my first skilled band, if you’ll. I had enrolled in Tennessee State College and I discovered that I used to be spending extra time within the pupil union than I used to be within the classroom and wound up becoming a member of the Air Power. My first tour of obligation was in Japan. And at the moment in Japan, there have been all types of bands and nightclubs and, you realize, there was a giant scene over there. And I wound up going to an audition with a buddy who was auditioning for the band and I used to be simply, you realize, accompanying him. And there was a line that he was requested to do this he could not do. And the bandleader checked out me and mentioned, Are you able to sing it? And I mentioned, “Yeah,” and I simply popped it off. And he says, “Okay, properly, you are within the band.” I misplaced a buddy too, however I gained a band, yeah.
Glenn: And I used to be studying an article about you and it mentioned that you just credit score your mother with that love of jazz that you’ve.
Bearde: Oh, yeah, properly, she is just about the one which uncovered me to jazz. She and her buddies would have card events they usually drank a whole lot of Schlitz Malt Liquor and J & B Scotch, they usually get in there, chopping up and speaking trash. And so they had a particular curiosity in Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, Dinah Washington. And it grew to become part of my life as properly.
Glenn: So how would you describe your fashion? Since you’ve completed all varieties of music and also you even had a primary music in 2005 on the seaside music charts, “Summer season Sunday”? How would you describe your fashion?
Bearde: Oh yeah, “Summer season Sunday”. “Summer season Sunday” was type of an R&B groove-type music, laced with jazz, in fact. And it simply had that really feel that matches that seaside music scene, that shag dancing scene, as they name it. And it hit, however stylistically type of R&B, however laced with jazz. I imply, R&B is my authentic path. However I expanded to jazz — I obtained bored with getting down on my knees and begging, you realize, child child, please, child, please. I may see that, you realize, it was not a path to longevity for me.
Glenn: You are a baritone. And listening to a few of your music, I am selecting up hints of Lou Rawls. And also you even did a Lou Rawls album up to now.
Bearde: I like Lou Rawls, yeah. Lou Rawls, to me, epitomized the male jazz singer, and once I heard Lou Rawls reside, it rapidly grew to become my favourite album. And it gave me one thing to type of mannequin myself after, though I wasn’t attempting to cop his fashion per se, however simply an understanding of that type of machismo and, you realize, being a jazz man.
Glenn: You labored with Bobby McFerrin and the Voicestra. Inform us about that.
Bearde: I began singing with a bunch that was doing a cappella jazz music, run by a girl by the identify of Molly Holm. And thru this group — I labored with them for a few yr and a half — she based Bobbie. After his huge hit Do not Fear Be Pleased, he determined he wished to discover another kinds of vocal jazz. So about 15 singers obtained collectively in studio with Bobby, and we simply improvised. After testing it out for a bit bit, for a few yr, he determined he wished to do a extra complete program and really make it a recording challenge and touring group. So he put the phrase out to the singing neighborhood worldwide, and other people got here to the Bay Space and different locations to audition for him. And on the finish of that yr, he selected his group members and that grew to become Voicestra. We began touring in 1990 — was the launch of Voice Australia as a bunch, and we toured the world. It was fairly an expertise.
Glenn: Let’s discuss a few of your more moderen recordings. You probably did “Invitation” in 2016 and it was one of many prime 20 on the Jazz Week charts.
Bearde: That was with Nat Adderly Jr. He mainly produced that. Fairly a personality and fairly a musician.
Glenn: And comes from an extended line of musicians.
Bearde: Completely. His father, Matt Adderly Sr. labored with Cannonball and had his personal band as properly. Fairly a legacy.
Glenn: Eric Alexander, did he play?
Bearde: Yeah. Eric is on the latest one. That is the Nat King Cole tribute.
Glenn: What was your connection to Nat King Cole?
Bearde: Only a lover and follower of his music. He is so easy, and it was simply one thing to emulate as a singer.
Glenn: What’s your favourite on the… or do you have got a favourite?
Bearde: Most likely “That Sunday That Summer season.” That was some music that I do not assume obtained a whole lot of airtime when it first got here out. It had a really type of easy attraction to me. For some purpose, it actually touched my coronary heart. It is only a stunning music, type of harmless, you realize? However I did one other, put one other twist on it. Josh Nelson from Los Angeles organized it for me.
Glenn: And he was a pianist for Natalie Cole and he produced this CD, proper?
Bearde: Completely. Yeah.
Glenn: Properly, one factor we have not talked about is your appearing profession. You will have a whole lot of credit by way of appearing on stage, on films, on tv. How did you get into appearing?
Bearde: I used to be doing a play that featured Danny Glover because the lead. And I used to be simply fascinated with the method, fascinated by the individuals. I did not have any objectives. I wasn’t attempting to get to Hollywood or something. One thing about approaching one other inventive endeavor that I felt like it could increase my type of understanding of lyric and my strategy to music normally. And I booked the primary function that I auditioned for. I performed the Willy Malopo in “Grasp Harold… And the Boys.”
Glenn: And I see you had been in “True Crime” with Clint Eastwood, Closing Evaluation with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffin. Getting again to jazz, what do you assume the long run for jazz is? As a result of a whole lot of jazz stations aren’t any extra. Do you see it getting greater audiences and getting a reference to the youthful crowd?
Bearde: There’s at all times a technology of individuals developing who will migrate to jazz, who will uncover it and uncover its magnificence and its versatility. Whether or not it would get a bigger viewers or not, I am not likely certain. Jazz is a unique, extra mental, I feel, strategy to music, and it is not for everyone. I feel it needs to be a part of the curriculum for music college students and artwork college students and that form of factor, however not all people can reply to it or will recognize it in the identical approach. So I feel it would at all times be a distinct segment market in a roundabout way.