Tonight the festival featured the Kellylee Evans and saxophonist Seamus Blake.
This Juno award winning artist from Scarborough Ontario is a soulful jazz singer with a slew of accolades under her belt and is an esteemed academic at Carlton University. James Hale asked Evans some really pertinent questions and Kekkylee’s replies were outstanding. We learned from Hale that Evans gives motivational speeches at Carlton University and its no surprise because everything she said was so inspirational and gracious. It’s no surprise why she is in such demand.
She discussed the many challenges she had to face during the lock downs, as she was quarantined in April upon her return from a tour in France. She talked about still be plagued with symptoms from getting stuck by lighting in her own home in 2013! Miracles and blessings happy she survived! Although the lock down was reminiscent of when she was recuperating from the accident. Evens’ optimism and wisdom is refreshing.
The video was well done and creative for a remote performance between musicians who haven’t played together before. The sound quality was top notch, the mixing and the editing really pulled it together nicely.
You can tell that the musicians had fun making the video and they were all solid. The song they played, “Hands up” was written by Evans back in 2014 after her deadly encounter with the forces of nature.
Evans did her own backup vocals and the edits had them nicely in sync. All the musicians played flawlessly and its always such a treat to see Clayton Connell from the Prime Rib Band on keyboards and vocals.
Everything Evans said about positivity resinated with me and it was very touching how she talked about her mom and how she was so “effervescent.” Happy shinny people are so beautiful and powerful. Bravo to this remarkable artist and she is definitely one to follow!
Artist List:
Kellylee Evans – vocals Seamus Blake – saxophone Clayton Connell – keyboards Caylan Penny – bass Stephen Adubofour – drums
Follow the Kellylee Evans on Twitter and check out her site:
@kellyleeevans
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