About

Heather Soles is a Vancouver-based jazz singer and songwriter. Her style brings a natural, bluesy feel and smokiness to a repertoire of soulful jazz, blues, bebop, swing and vintage rock.

MY STORY

I am really proud of my debut CD, ‘Until I Met You’, a collection of jazz standards, on the Coast Charisma Records Label. I'm happy about what I've accomplished with the help of my genius musical friends ! I really hope you like it. I’m so very happy and grateful to the amazing players who brought their magic to this project ! I can’t thank them enough for their support and inspiration.

I really love making records ! Everything about the process is so fascinating and satisfying — from selecting the tunes and deciding how to arrange them, deciding on instrumentation, then watching the musicians work their magic. It’s so very wonderful ! I even love designing the album covers and choosing type fonts. I wish I had been doing this all my life, but I’m extremely happy and grateful to have another kick at the can. Singing really fills my heart with Joy !!!

I am currently finishing a second album with Miles Black, called ‘Dreamland’, and we have also begun recording a third CD which will be a collection of ‘Jazzified’ Vintage Rock songs. This is a really fun and exciting project. I think people will be very pleasantly surprised by what we are doing. These classic tunes that I’ve chosen are so gorgeous, and they develop a deeper meaning when they are re-interpreted in the Jazz idiom.

All in all, Life is sweet, Music is a joy and I look forward to every day !!!

ABOUT THE BAND

I am so lucky and grateful to collaborate with some of Vancouver’s finest musicians. My band, West Coast Charisma, changes to fit the requirements of the gig, the event and the venue. I can provide a fantastic trio or a larger ensemble to suit your needs.

Among the amazing and magnificent group of players that I work with are Jennifer Scott - piano, Rene Worst - bass, Tom Keenlyside - sax and flute, Olaf DeShield - guitar, Buff Allen - drums, Miles Black - piano, Mike Allen - sax, Steve Holy, bass, Nick Peck - piano, Jamie Croil - trumpet, Mike Creber - piano, Ron Thompson - guitar, Dave Guiney - bass, Kristian Braathen - drums, Brent Gubbels - bass, Ray Ayotte - drums, David Ivaz - guitar, Paul Blaney - bass, Nino Di Pasquale - drums, and others.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

If anyone is interested, I’ve wanted to sing since I was a small child. At six years old, I watched Eartha Kitt perform on the Ed Sullivan Show and said “Wow, that looks like fun!” I didn’t come from an actively musical family, and although we always had my great aunt’s Heintzman upright Grand piano in our home, nobody played it. At age 8 I had a year of piano lessons and learned to read music. At 14 I joined the Columbia Record Club and with the advice of a friend’s older brother, began collecting the records of jazz and blues greats, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Bobby Blue Bland, Peggy Lee, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Oscar Brown Jr. and The Modern Jazz Quartet, to name a few. I was hooked on Jazz right from the beginning, while my sister was listening to the rock and roll music of the day. I came to know and love Rock music later.

At 18, I began to study at UBC and joined the ’Jazz Society’. I was soon invited by the club President, a piano and vibraphone player, Spence Sutton, to sing with his band. My first gig was in Vancouver’s Chinatown Legion, singing Jazz Standards for Chinese War Vets. We weren’t paid very much money, but they fed the musicians after the gig. I literally sang for my supper.

Later, I added rock to my repertoire and worked as a band singer in clubs, and dances. Then I began playing guitar and writing songs, doing concerts as a singer songwriter, and was invited to appear with a big band on the CBC network show, ‘The Performers’, singing my original material arranged by the great Bobby Hales.

Then, because writing my songs down was difficult for me, I decided to learn about music notation, and applied to UBC Music Faculty. I got a friend’s mother to coach me on a couple of songs from classical repertoire so I could audition. It was kind of funny: I had a club gig and was literally singing Blue Suede Shoes and Rockin’ Robin one night and Handel’s ‘Lascia Ch’Io Pianga’ for my audition the next morning. Luckily, I got in, and although at that time there was no jazz in the Music Department, I reveled in the daily immersion in all kinds of music from madrigals to the Mozart Requiem.

I was fortunate to study alongside some very well known Canadian jazz musicians: the great Bass player Rene Worst, the brilliant Flute and Saxophone player, Tom Keenlyside, Big Band Arranger and Leader, Fred Stride, and world renowned Operatic Tenor, Ben Heppner. It wasn’t easy, as I had only had that one year of music lessons as a child. I was intuitive, self taught and I really loved all music, so somehow, amazingly, I passed the courses. It was really tough, as I knew very little about Music theory, but it was the happiest time of my life until now.

I managed to graduate and went back to  singing and songwriting, Then I got married and had my kids, Angela and Michael. I soon found that the night life wasn’t very compatible with raising 2 children, so I took a hiatus from the music business and began teaching at a College.   I originally thought I would only do this for a couple of years, but having a steady paycheque is very seductive when you have small children to support. I was teaching ESL to Immigrants, often doing a split shift so I crammed the music down into a little corner of my soul and tried not to think about it. It was too painful. 

Finally, when my children finished their first University degrees, the urge to make music again became too strong to ignore. I decided that it was finally my turn, my time to sing; so I had to find my voice again, to work on strengthening my vocal muscles to produce the sound I could hear in my head.  It isn't easy, but I continue to approach this goal with relentless optimism.

After my extended break from the music biz, I'm so happy to be making music again, and with such great players ! The music biz has changed a lot and some things are puzzling, but it's much easier now for an artist to create a presence and produce a CD.  I am so very lucky to be gigging with many of Vancouver’s top Jazz musicians. I have recently performed at the Sylvia Hotel, the Scandinavian Cultural Centre, the Cottage Bistro, the Fairview, Frankie’s, Central Bistro, Pat’s Pub, ‘Friday Night Live’ at Lynn Valley United Church, the Kino Café, Brentwood Presbyterian Church’s Evensong and Jazz Vespers at St. Andrews-Wesley Church.

I want to say how grateful I am for the wonderful music community here that is so helpful and supportive. And as a last note, I have to thank the late, great Bob Murphy for helping me during the first steps of finding my voice again and for showing me how to go deep into the soul of songs to find that place where jazz music begins.