and all that jazz…
She’s played at some incredible venues globally, but jazz musician, Emma Pask is most excited to be coming to the Spiegeltent Wollongong this Sunday. With her style a soulful infusion of blues, swinging jazz, Latin rhythms, and ballads, Emma hopes that her performance will be a positive and uplifting experience for audiences.
Words Emily Perkins
“I’m hoping that if people are feeling confident enough to come out on Sunday, we can entertain them for an hour and take them away from the woes of the world,” she says. “If they want to come and escape with us, we'd love to raise their spirits.”
We sat down with Emma before the show to chat about some dizzying career highs and lows, and her deep-rooted love for jazz.
Are you excited to be heading to Wollongong?
I really am, yes! It's down near my old stomping ground where I grew up in Como. One of my best girlfriends went to university there back in the day, so I've spent a bit of time in Wollongong, and I really like it.
What can Wollongong expect from this show?
I hope more than anything, especially in the times that we're currently experiencing, to do my best as a performer to uplift anyone's spirits who need a boost – that's my main goal. I think as a performer, for myself certainly, I feel a really strong sense of duty to entertain, especially when we haven't been able to do it for so long. It’s just exciting for me to get on stage and do what I love doing.
Famous Aussie jazz singer James Morrison spotted your talent when you were just 16 – do you remember how you felt when you were asked to sing with his band that night?
I remember it vividly. I don't think that feeling will ever leave my body. It was like a sheer shot of adrenaline and fear at the same time. I was a 16-year-old schoolgirl, and I was sitting up the back of my school hall with the band, because we'd just finished our performance for our part of the night with him. Then it was halfway through his show, and he started talking about me. All my friends were kind of nudging me saying, ‘He’s talking about you’, and I’m like, ‘What? What’s he talking about?’. Then he said, ‘We'd like to get Emma up on stage’, and my friends are elbowing me, saying, ‘Go, go!’. I didn't know what to do; I didn’t know anything about being a singer on my own, just with my band. I didn’t expect it at all.
What advice would you tell your 16-year-old self now?
What I'd say is that it's a long, long road ahead, so you've got plenty of time. Make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons and as much as you try to evoke joy, that you're enjoying it yourself. Also, I have a great sense of learning of leaving myself behind a lot more when I perform now. I don't make it so much about me – I don't know if I ever really did – but I think it's a good thing to not make it too much about yourself, make it about the delivery of what you're doing and what you're providing. That’s how I look at it, but it changes all the time.
How did you get into jazz and what is it about the genre that you love?
I think it found me more than me searching for it. My parents used to play all sorts of music around the house. My parents were British, and they came to Australia in the 60s. They had a really strong sense and love of rock and roll, and the Beatles, and all that kind of British pop-rock stuff. But Mum was also obsessed with Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald. I was drawn to the way I felt when I heard Frank Sinatra singing, or the way I felt when I heard Louis playing the trumpet… I was mesmerised. I think it's an innate feeling that’s in you. Then, when I started high school there was a brilliant music teacher who began teaching at the school the same year I started attending and he had a love of jazz and big band music. When he played things in the music room, he noticed that I would respond to it – I would pick things up, and I would ask questions. It grew from there. I loved how I felt when I was listening to a swinging band, it was just infectious. A large part of the fact that musicians do what we do today is because we had one incredible teacher who really mentored us, encouraged us, and supported us all throughout school. I don't know if teachers know how invaluable their support, their inspiration, and their encouragement is. It really is fundamental.
Your style is very unique with influences from swing jazz, Latin rhythms, blues, and ballads – is this accidental or a creative choice?
I think it's a creative choice because once you get exposed to all these different genres and sub-genres within jazz, and any kind of music, then you pick and choose what you resonate and connect with. I can't deny that I'm a huge lover of The Great American Songbook – I really love all the jazz founders from the 20s, 30s, 40s onwards. I also loved the storytelling of certain composers like Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, and songwriter Johnny Mercer.
Also, my husband is originally from South America. I had a love of Latin jazz before I met him but now my love of Latin jazz, and Latin music in general, expanded because of what he exposed me to musically.
You got some impressive international performances and a great variety of national ones under your belt – what is your career highlight?
I’m so aware of how fortunate I've been throughout my career, especially working with someone like James Morrison, who took me to incredible places, where we performed some incredible gigs. Sometimes the highlights can be really small things. If I'm thinking more recently, I got to take my band to Havana, Cuba, to play at the jazz festival. That was certainly an experience I'll never forget because it was so culturally different. We were welcomed with open arms and were given support from such a different culture. We were able to immerse ourselves within what they were doing musically, and we even joined together with a lot of Cuban musicians in the middle of our set. I’ll never forget, outdoors in this beautiful amphitheatre in Havana, a couple of Cuban musicians were on the side of the stage on the trombone. In the middle of our gig, one was like, ‘Hey, can we get up?’, and I'm like, ‘Yeah, come on up’. They played some solos during our Latin pieces. I was very nervous about playing Latin tunes in Cuba where it’s their vibe, but they were so supportive, and they loved it. It just became a huge party [laughs].
What has been your favourite venue to play and why?
I don't know about my favourite, but I mean it when I say I love the Spiegeltent. I’ve played in a few of the different tents and there's something really magical and mystical about a travelling venue. When you're in there, you can just imagine, and almost feel where that tent has been, who's been inside it, and all the acts and musical experiences that it's soaked up into its walls. You can't deny that feeling when you're in there, but especially because I'm a bit of an old romantic. I love thinking about what's come before me, and now I get to add my little part to it.
With the music industry taking a hit with COVID, what did you get up to when you couldn’t tour?
It was a tough time for so many. It really took its toll on my colleagues, friends, and myself. I remember being in a pretty dark place in the early days. There was so much planned and so much ahead that was wiped out. My husband and family were a great support. I did switch off for a while. I'm a very keen, avid ocean swimmer – I swim across Bondi every day with the a swim crew. So I really threw myself into physical activity to get myself out of that darkness that was surrounding us all. Swimming was a great sense of moving forward.
I concentrated on the now and bought it back to how fortunate I was that I had a roof over my head, food in my fridge, and a family who I adore. Stripping it back to those necessities, you realise how much you do have when you've had so much taken away from you.
Is there somebody you would love to collaborate with?
What a cool prospect. There'd be so many people. Well, I mean most of the people I want to do something with have passed away [laughs]. When I think about the jazz greats – doing something alongside Carmen McRae… that would have made my day. Actually, I probably would've wanted to shut up and just listen to what she was doing.
What’s your next career goal?
I'm working towards one now as we speak – I'm about to announce a show next month along with an album launch in June. So I've got two really big projects that I'm working on at the moment, musically. A goal that I have with one of my best friends, musician Ross Irwin, who’s a trumpet player and arranges for and plays with the Cat Empire, is to sink our teeth into a big-band orchestral project with some of the music we love and adore. We'll get there one day.
If I look back at my career, so many things have come up unexpectedly, and I really loved those times and feeling that exciting sense of what's to come – there's always something fun around the corner. I really like the element of surprise along with the hard work.
Catch Emma Pask : Sunday 20 March, 3pm at the Spiegeltent, Arts Precinct Wollongong.
Tickets at spiegeltentwollongong.com