Laila Biali

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Laila Biali

Laila Biali (born October 3, 1980 in Vancouver ) is a Canadian jazz singer , songwriter and pianist who also works as a radio host.

Live and act

Biali turned to the piano when she was five years old. She received classical music and piano lessons at school and then studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music . During her studies, she developed an interest in jazz . At the age of 19 she received a scholarship to Humber College in Toronto.

At the age of 23, Biali released her debut album Introducing the Laila Biali Trio ; she was awarded the Galaxie Prize (Rising Star Award) at the National Jazz Awards . Two years later she won awards for SOCAN Keyboarder of the Year and Composer of the Year at the National Jazz Awards. Then she moved to New York, had numerous appearances, including with Dave Brubeck and Paula Cole , and led her own groups. On a tour of Cole, she met her future husband, the jazz drummer Ben Wittman . In 2007 their second album, From Sea to Sky , was released on CBC. Sting hired her as a background singer; she is involved in his live DVD A Winter's Night . Appearances with Chris Botti , Suzanne Vega and others followed. Her album Tracing Light (2010) was nominated for a Juno Award . She made annual appearances at Glenn Gould Hall . Her album Live in Concert: Sold Out (2011) was featured on numerous North American broadcasters.

In addition to her motherhood, Biali concentrated on trio appearances in New York and Toronto over the next few years. In addition, she wrote more of her own songs and began to arrange them. The album House of Many Rooms (2014) was recorded with a large orchestra and the Toronto Mass Choir . Biali also became a member of the crossover quartet Rose & the Nightingale , which toured with Esperanza Spalding . In 2017 she hosted the nightly jazz show Tonic on CBC Radio 2 and then took over the management of the station's Saturday Night Jazz program. Her album of the same name, released in 2018, to which Ambrose Akinmusire also contributed, won a Juno Award in 2019 for the best vocal jazz album in Canada.

Discographic notes

  • Introducing the Laila Biali Trio (2003)
  • From Sea to Sky (CBC, 2007)
  • Tracing Light (self-published, 2010)
  • World Jazz for Haiti (2010)
  • Live in Concert (2011)
  • House of Many Rooms (self-published, 2014)
  • Laila Biali ( ACT , 2018)
  • Out of Dust (ACT 2020)

Web links

Commons : Laila Biali  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Juno Awards 2019
personal data
SURNAME Biali, Laila
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian jazz singer, songwriter and pianist, also radio presenter
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd October 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Vancouver