Volume 21 Issue 8 - May 2016

Bobby McFerrin devotee and didn’t stop there:
“I still remember the moment I got my copy of
Take 6’s debut record. I ran into our music room
and said to my friend Kevin Fox: ‘Stop everything,
and listen to this.’” Shortly after that, Suba
Sankaran and I met at York University, where we
were both members – and later directors – of the
student-run a cappella group Wibijazz’n’. That was
in 1993, and we’ve been singing together ever since.
Kevin now sings with the Swingles, and Suba and I
have since made a cappella singing the cornerstone
of our musical careers.”
Partners in crime, Bell and Sankaran perform
together as the FreePlay Duo, and I’m willing to bet
that even the most ardent a cappella fan would be
wowed by this act. Freeplay’s voices are as impressive
as their arrangements, where Bach, bebop,
solkattu and hip-hop harmoniously transcend
cliché. Very much a modern group, they even add
a loopstation to the mix in order to create a multilayered
sound in live performance. With the help of
various granting organizations, Bell and Sankaran
have taken their act on the road, with stops in North
America, Europe, East Asia, India and Africa.
One memorable highlight: “In 2013, we embarked on our first
trip to Africa, specifically Nairobi. Mary Tangelder, Suba’s former
jazz choir member and voice student, wanted to create a program
to explore using music as a tool for cross-cultural communication
and healing. Living in a multicultural environment such as
Canada, we take cross-cultural enrichment for granted: in Africa,
exchanges between members of different tribes or linguistic groups
can be tense or even dangerous. As part of our workshop, we taught
a simple vocal counting exercise, and as part of the cross-cultural
component, we had workshop participants teach each other the exercise
across languages. What seemed a simple exercise for us was novel
for them: the idea of teaching your language to another tribe was
almost unheard of, and was an eye-opening experience for all of us.
One workshop participant, hearing about our workshops, came in
from eight hours away, near the border with Somalia. Being from a
strict Muslim sect, he had never made music before in his life, and the
experience for him, he told us, was life-changing.”
Hampton Avenue: Just how did Debbie Fleming go from versatile
vocalist to sought-after arranger and founder of a cappella group
Hampton Avenue?
“Well, to start, I had my Grade 8 piano in high school and took
Grade 2 theory just so that I could have an extra subject in Grade 13.
When I married my ex-husband (Gordon Fleming), he was one of
Toronto’s major B3 R&B players, but couldn’t read a note. I became his
copyist – so I became pretty adept at hand-writing music. Then Atari
Notator came along, and I was so scared to get into computerized stuff,
but damn it, it was so exciting! And suddenly, I thought, you know
what? This would make the music far easier for singers to read. So
because I had the computer, and I had the ideas in my head, I started
to think about arranging more seriously.
“Actually I was motivated to put together another vocal group
thanks to David Blamires. He had come home from a tour with Pat
Metheny – he was touring with him at the time as a singer – and when
they were in Holland of all places, he heard this fantastic vocal group,
Take 6, and you couldn’t buy them here. He brought a tape back for
me and I freaked when I heard them, I thought, that is the kind of
harmony I want! And one of the first things I did was, I sat down and I
tried to lift the six parts that they did of Quiet Place. I thought, maybe
I could do this. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in
my life. Hearing the outside parts was easy, but hearing all their little
crunchy things in the middle – it was a trial but it was a joy, because it
kind of honed my ear.
“So I put together a bunch of singers who did studio work and could
read really well, and one of them was Emilie-Claire Barlow, Judy Tate’s
daughter. I remember Judy said, ‘Why don’t you bring Emilie in?’ and
I said, are you kidding? And she said ‘Oh no she really reads well!’ and
Hampton Avenue, circa 1999: (left to right) Dylan Bell, Tom Lillington, Judy Tate, Stephanie
Taylor, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Larry Folk, Debbie Fleming, Tim Olfert, Suba Sankaran
I thought, well okay, let’s try her. So she worked out like a dream, and
we would sit around my dining room table, all these people, Elaine
Overholt, Laurie Bower, and we would just love to do this.
“I discovered Suba Sankaran and Dylan Bell through Phil Dwyer.
I said to Phil, ‘You’re teaching up at York University and I’m always
wanting to find people who can read and who like jazz harmony.’ He
took me to see Suba and Dylan, they were only 19 years old, and they
knew Tom Lillington because they were part of Wibijazz’n’ – they
started that group. So they joined us.
“We had regular rehearsals, and our first concert was at the Music
Gallery, before we had recorded, which was in 1996. It was kind of
hard to get people out, as it is now. I had to do a lot of promotion and
publicity. In 1997 we did our Christmas CD.
“By the time we were first written up in The WholeNote – 1999
I think it was – we had two concerts a year. It was happening, but
it wasn’t something that hit the major population – jazz a cappella
wasn’t really a huge thing. But for those who dug it, we were it. We did
the crunchy harmonies – we’d hold a chord and it would be so great
with sharp elevens and the whole damn thing and then there would
be dead silence and you could hear everyone go ‘Ahhhh.’” (laughs)
The distilled version of the group, The Hampton Avenue Four, will
be performing at the SING! fest. Also this month, Fleming is thrilled to
be releasing a new recording, Back to Bacharach, featuring an all-star
band led by all-star pianist Mark Kieswetter. But why Bacharach?
“I was at one of Laura Marks’ jams out on the east end. I got up and
sang one of my all-time favourites, A House Is Not a Home, which
I have been singing for years. It’s not jazz but it’s one of those songs
that gets me right in my heart. Well, Maureen Kennedy was there, and
she came up to me and said, ‘You know, that was really nice. I could
never really sing Bacharach, because it’s really hard to do it well.’ So
I thought, BINGO! I wanted to do another album, and I was looking
for something that would set me apart from all the other great singers
in town. There are so many who sing the American songbook like the
phone book for God’s sake. But I have never fit into a slot. I’ve done
everything from classical to rock ’n’ roll to country to R&B which is
my heart and soul, and jazz. And this was like water off a duck’s back
– yes, rangy, yes, melodic, but I could perform Bacharach with no
problem. Since Dionne Warwick started off as my favourite singer, and
later on Aretha Franklin, and both of them did covers of Bacharach, I
thought Back to Bacharach. We recorded it at Studio Number 9 and
the release is Thursday May 26 at Jazz Bistro.
For all the SING! listings visit singtoronto.com. May this festival,
along with the Canary Pages, inspire YOU to sing, Toronto!
Ori Dagan is a Toronto-based jazz musician, writer and educator
who can be reached at oridagan.com.
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