OFFBEAT PRESENTS: KANDACE SPRINGS & TRIO

It's only once in a blue moon that a new singer emerges who manages to incorporate a variety of musical influences while still sounding remarkably fresh and unencumbered by the past. Nashville-born 27-year-old singer, songwriter and pianist Kandace Springs does cite style icons like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack and Norah Jones as her idols. But on "Soul Eyes," her brilliant debut album for Blue Note Records, she doesn't imitate any of her heroines.

With her melodious alto voice, Springs roams through terrain ranging from soul to jazz to pop, channeling the aforementioned influences into her own unique sound. "The female artists who inspired me the most all sang completely naturally," Springs says. "That helped me find my own sound."

It's not like Springs discovered that own sound overnight. Her debut EP, "Kandace Springs," released in 2014 and produced by Pop & Oak (Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Miguel), still had a distinctly contemporary R&B/hip-hop feel.



At the same time, Springs caught the attention of Prince, who had heard her version of Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" on Okayplayer's website. Prince invited Kandace to perform with him at Paisley Park for the 30th anniversary of the release of "Purple Rain." "He encouraged me a lot before I recorded the album, especially during the time when I was trying to find my own sound," Springs recalls gratefully. "He told me to just do what was in my nature. He was absolutely right."

In recording "Soul Eyes," Springs again worked closely with her well-rehearsed songwriting partners Rogers and Sturken. She received additional support from producer and multiple Grammy winner Larry Klein (Lizz Wright, Melody Gardot, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock), who helped her better showcase her individual artistic attributes.

Klein, in turn, raves about Springs' "natural talent." "In these times when dazzle and a hunger for fame are often equated with talent, she's one of the few people who sings and plays because she feels that's her calling," Klein says. "The first time I heard Kandace, I was hooked after just one song. Her smoky voice coupled with a sense of phrasing that many her age simply don't possess, and the edgy way she accompanies herself on the piano immediately won me over."

In recording the eleven songs on "Soul Eyes," Kandace Springs was assisted by an illustrious group of excellent musicians: including trumpeter Terence Blanchard, guitarists Dean Parks and Jesse Harris, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, organist Pete Kuzma, bassist Dan Lutz and percussionist Pete Korpela. The repertoire includes original compositions by Kandace as well as songs by Jesse Harris ("Talk To Me" and "Neither Old Nor Young"), Shelby Lynne ("Thought It Would Be Easier" and "Leavin'") and British singer Judie Tzuke ("Place To Hide"), the funk classic "The World Is A Ghetto" by the band War and, of course, the standard "Soul Eyes" by jazz pianist Mal Waldron, which also gave this album its title.

"The album is exactly as it should be," Springs says confidently. Kandace owes no small part of her inspiration to her father, Scat Springs, who is a highly respected session singer in Nashville. Through him, she grew up listening to music,

and he encouraged her to take piano lessons when she was ten years old. But she didn't really find music until a few years later, when a friend of her father's gave her Norah Jones' Blue Note debut album, "Come Away With Me." "The last track on the album is 'The Nearness Of You.' And that song really inspired me to learn to play the piano and sing. Her version was so soulful, simple and straightforward. It really touched me at that time. At that moment, I realized, 'This is what I want to do.'"

Then a few years later, she went New York to really throw herself into composing now. One of her new demo tapes recorded there landed on the desk of Blue Note president Don Was, who then invited her to audition at Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles. She took the producer by storm with a stunning performance of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" (the original had been produced by Don Was himself). "That song is so soulful," Kandace says. "The first time I heard it, it moved me to tears. A few years later, I wrote my own arrangement, which I then played to Don Was."

With her wonderful debut album "Soul Eyes," Kandace Springs has also effortlessly conquered international audiences. She formulates her own aspirations more modestly: "I'd like to be known as one of the younger artists keeping jazz and soul alive," she says. "Because I love the authenticity of jazz and soul."


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.