Q and A
Diana Panton
- Diana Panton, Capilano University NSCU Centre for the Performing Arts, Saturday, March 10, 8 p.m. Tickets $30/$27.
Hamilton jazz singerslash-French immersion teacher Diana Panton released one of the great albums over the past year.
The sublime bossa nova tracks on To Brazil With Love have been nominated for a Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album. She talked to the North Shore News recently before heading out on a tour which brings her to Capilano University tomorrow night.
North Shore News: You grew up in Hamilton, not necessarily known as a jazz centre.
Diana Panton: I've always enjoyed Hamilton. I know it gets a bad rap sometimes but I live in the West End and there's lots of nature which I enjoy and the schools are close by.
I was able to study French immersion at school which I now use a lot in my singing. Even though I've had the opportunity to do a fair bit of travelling I still like to call Hamilton home.
North Shore News: How did you get interested in music?
Diana Panton: I wasn't thrilled with music at school for whatever reason. I didn't really like it. I tried clarinet at one time. I studied violin from age seven until I was in teenage mode but I didn't really connect with those instruments. I was on a music trip to Chicago for violin and I was singing in a corridor somewhere and a woman heard me singing. I never sang in front of people back then. I was a little embarrassed and she said, "Oh you have a really nice voice - where are you from? Do you take singing lessons?" I kind of explained the whole situation and she said, "I know someone who teaches in Hamilton" and it turned out the lady lived a couple of blocks away from me. The teacher was the first one who suggested I try out for a little community group here called the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band. It's a 25-piece big band and at the time they had two singers and I did that for quite a few years. There was one concert that we did where we opened for Don Thompson and Trudy Desmond. At the break Don came and found me backstage and recommended that I go to the Banff Centre of the Arts which is a really high-calibre workshop for jazz artists. I ended up going to that when I was 19 and everybody else there was about 10 years older than I was and had studied at Berklee and Juilliard and all those places. When I got up there Don was there and he has just been a big mentor to me (ever since). The day was very intense you were playing in various ensembles and doing all kinds of stuff but there was an opportunity at night to do little concerts where the public would pay to come and watch. Don and I ended up doing a show together with a few other musicians and at the end of the show he said give me a call when you're ready to record. I wasn't anywhere near ready to record. I waited about 10 years and then I phoned him, not sure that he would remember who I was, because we hadn't talked to each other in between time. I asked if he was still willing to record with me and he said he was.
North Shore News: Thompson's appeared on all four of your albums. What's that been like working with him?
Diana Panton: Fabulous. I was going to say he is one of Canada's, but I can honestly say, one of the jazz world's best. I don't take it for granted. I know how fortunate I am and I know I benefit as an artist but also the musical product and thus the listeners benefit from his involvement. I feel very fortunate to be working with him.
North Shore News: Thompson has said early on he was impressed by your direct connection with the audience in performance. Would you say teaching has helped you to develop that talent?
Diana Panton: Well, no, when he first heard me I wasn't teaching back then. It's a different connection that you have when you're teaching than when you're singing. I think with singing you're revealing a part of yourself that you don't reveal when you're speaking. It's a lot deeper but it's also sort of hidden at the same time. Teaching is more of a part although I think as you become more confident you become more of yourself but it's very different I think. I feel more like a coach when I'm teaching. I teach Grade 9 primarily and Grade 10.
North Shore News: What's it like juggling both careers?
Diana Panton: It's challenging and it's tiring. It proved to me how passionate I was about music because I still wanted to do it. The first album was recorded a week before I started my first teaching job at high school level. My first half year to a year of teaching I slept five hours a night. The fact that that album came out in June at the end of all of that was a real indication to me that it was something that I couldn't live without. I didn't have time for it but I made time for it.
North Shore News: What was it like recording your latest album To Brazil with Love?
Diana Panton: It was challenging. It was exciting. Definitely outside of my comfort zone because I don't have a background in Brazilian music. I treat it with a lot of respect. I feel it's a cultural music more than just a genre so you have to have the awareness of where it comes from and it's obviously not something I have a lot of exposure to. I tread gingerly. It was Don's suggestion to do a Brazilian album and I figure if he's willing to endorse it I figure it's OK with me. We brought in Maninho (Costa) and Silas (Silva) who are Brazilian and they had really good feedback so that made me feel better about it. It's fun music and beautiful music harmonically and melodically so I really enjoyed working on those songs.
North Shore News: How do choose your material?
Diana Panton: I have kind of a crazy process - at least that's what it seems like to me. I usually try and put together all the songs that I think are relevant but there's a lot. The list (on this album) was so much smaller because I don't sing in Portuguese. I was a bit limited in terms of the English and then I speak French as well so I looked through what I could find in French too. Usually Don and I will run them together - one quick run-through and the ones that sound the best go into a pile that we will revisit. About a 100 songs get considered. We whip through them pretty good - it only takes us a day or two to get through them all. The harder part is near the end I usually reduce to about 40 and then I'll try them again and we'll reduce to 20 but at 20 it's kind of difficult because you've lived with them for awhile and they're usually pretty nice songs if they've made it into the top 20. I usually try and get down to 12 and I've never got down to 12.
