Jazz singer returns home

After two decades of singing in jazz clubs across Europe, vocalist Barbara Leah Meyer has returned home like a prodigal daughter.

Not stopping to take a breath, the St. Albert jazz singer is making her debut on the local music scene at Jeffrey’s CafĂ© and Wine Bar on Friday with backup from two of the best around — St. Albert pianist Bruce Mohacsy and Edmonton upright bass player Mike Lent.

“I’ve worked with Bruce since 2000 and we have a lot of history together. We worked together in Europe and at the Montreal Jazz Festival. We have a deep connection. He’s very flexible, very lyrical,” says Meyer.

“And Mike is world class. He’s played with everybody. He has a great pitch, a great feel and a great attack. He plays all styles and he’s very tuned in.”

A 1982 graduate of Grant MacEwan’s music program, Meyer founded Alley Scatz, a trio of female vocalists with a hip Andrews Sisters-Manhattan Transfer feel.

“It was a good time to come out of Grant MacEwan. There was lots of work. We played clubs, TV, radio and toured across Canada.”

But by 1989, Alley Scatz fizzled and Meyer flew to Sweden to try her hand at piano bar work. One gig led to another. Soon she was recording, performing in scores of jazz festivals across Europe and being offered spots as a guest soloist at philharmonic orchestras. She even completed a United Nations tour of Israel, Cyprus and the Canadian Arctic.

But when the Canadian Embassy invited her to perform in Turkey in 2005, the performance turned into a highlight. “It was so wonderful to be at a Canadian event with the national anthem playing. It was very moving. It rattled my roots and it made me want to come home.”

For the better part of two decades, Germany was her base. “But try as I did to put down roots, I couldn’t feel at home. I never fit in and unless you are totally fluent in the language, you cannot feel totally immersed in the culture.”

After 21 years on the road, Meyer returned to St. Albert in September with two children in tow. “I wanted my children to beef up their English and I wanted to be around family.”

Over the years countless singers have influenced Meyer, from Ella Fitzgerald and Joni Mitchell to Sarah Vaughn and Van Morrison. In fact, her first high school band at Austin O’Brien High School was a Celtic-folk trio called Comely Cog.

Come Friday night, Meyer is planning a mix of old standards such as I’ve Never Been in Love Before and Blame it on Youth with a few originals such as Winter Child, a ballad of a mother’s dreams for her child and Saudade, a haunting piece of a beloved who passed away. In a humorous twist, she’s even prepped an obscure Gershwin brothers’ chart Slap that Bass and Duke Ellington’s Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce.

“My biggest goal is to move yourself first and if you move yourself, you move others. I go deeply into the lyrics and try to make it personal and people appreciate that.”