In Session With…Laila Biali
Sammy Younan
Published on: January 28 2015
What is it about jazz that evokes visceral reactions?
Pop has guilty pleasures, songs you dance to, songs you belt out in the car…pop fits neatly into our lives.
Jazz doesn’t seem to fit as well, like when you borrow a friend’s sweatshirt: still warm, still friendship and yet.
I like jazz…I asked Laila to define jazz and she said: “Freedom Within Form…” Yes! That’s exactly why I dig jazz…that freedom. As a poet I’m attracted to free verse…that sweet flow of a rhythm the listener has to discover. Or discern…
Laila Biali is known as a jazz girl and yet her career has taken her to non-jazz places like working with Sting. Sting’s work aligns with her definition of jazz…freedom within form. So it seems less like she’s tied to a genre or a style of music and more to a theme.
Her music is a celebration of freedom.
Laila has a dynamic and amazing album House of Many Rooms…that is not jazz. It is soulful and playful and goodful. (Needed one more…power of 3). It’s captivating to watch her balance these worlds of jazz and pop each with its own strict demands. Her covers are excellent…if you’ve never see her play live: GO. She is truly pantsworthy.
Couple of key High Fives in this episode including one for Moms cooking!
Featured Music
Shadowlands (from House of Many Rooms)
Little Bird (from House of Many Rooms)
Love (from House of Many Rooms)