Concert preview: Nicole Henry at Winspear Opera House (November 17)

by Gordon Jackson of Dallas Weekly

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Henry brings passion of jazz singing to Jazz Roots at the ATTPAC on November 17.

If it looks like Nicole Henry is having fun while singing jazz music, that’s because she really is. The soulful and sophisticated artist has been riding on the top crest as one of today’s most notable young jazz artists for the past five years, singing with a sincerity and love for the music that comes through to the audience.

“When I get on stage, I have a responsibility to not only entertain, but also to tell the story of the song,” Henry told The Dallas Weekly in a telephone interview. “You can’t be meek about that. My intentions are always good when I’m singing a song because I want my audience to feel.”

“I want them to come away with the sincerity of the song,” Henry continued. “Maybe I can open up another perspective of what the song means to them in their lives now. With jazz, you have to tell a new story of the same lyrics.”

Henry will demonstrate her free style while performing November 17 in “American Songbook,” at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House, as part of the Larry Rosen Jazz Roots series. Also performing will be acclaimed pianist and singer Michael Feinstein.

For Henry, she’s loving jazz and jazz is loving her back. That love has graced her in the form of critically acclaimed pieces of work, starting with The Nearness of You, the CD she recorded in 2004 that reached both national and international recognition. That and her follow-up album, Teach Me Tonight the Eddie Higgins Trio, swept Japan by storm, reaching No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the Japan’s top jazz charts. That earned Henry HMV Japan’s “Jazz Vocalist of the Year” in 2004 and the Eddie Higgins Trio CD Japan’s “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2005.

Now Russia is wrapping their arms around Henry’s music, drawing her to travel to the country 17 times in the past two years.

Back home, Henry also received substantial attention this past January, when she sang the National Anthem at the 2010 Orange Bowl, a performance so vibrant, she became compared to Whitney Houston’s powerful rendition during Super Bowl XXV in Tampa Bay in 1991. Although having performed the National Anthem several times, this moment became special for Henry because of family members present. Before her performance, an aunt told Henry: “Well, know that your (late) grandmother and grandfather are looking down on you today.”

Henry didn’t start out in jazz but was born in Philadelphia to a musical family. She delved into several forms of art growing up, including ballet and playing the cello. She earned a scholarship to the University of Miami, where she actually studied architecture before changing her major to advertising and theater. In 1998, she recorded a dance song, “Miracle,” which reached No. 8 on the Dance Billboard charts. Henry also got involved with acting, appearing in several national commercials.

By the turn of the new millennium and before the jazz bug bit her, Henry was still throwing herself into a lot of disciplines.

“I was kind of figuring out what kind of music to sing and what kind of bands to get into,” she said. “I didn’t want to be with one of these pop bands where you were singing everything that was on the radio. I wasn’t in love with things that were on the radio.”

“The Love Hour,” a regular jazz show at a South Florida club, captured Henry’s interest. She had the first full opportunity to listen fully to the lyrics and melodies of several jazz classics.

“I fell in love with the melodies, the storytelling of jazz and the freedom to do ballads and the freedom to do songs how you like to do songs,” Henry said.

Henry said her next CD will combine originals with cover of jazz, once again exploring a different genre of music. Also, having pretty much gone with the flow during her career, she now wants to more plan her future.

"I do look forward as of now taking the reigns and really sculpting out a plan. I kind of took things as they came. I said yes here and yes there,” Henry said. “Now nine years later, it’s really time to be intentional about what I’m doing and where I’m going and really set some goals.”

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