Also performed with True Margrit, Michael McIntosh, The Medicine Ball Band, Andrew Bacon, Gary Hobish, Jimmy Sweetwater, Mike Anderson, Lisa Mandelstein, Alex Walsh, Danielle Rosa, Amy Meyers, and L J Murphy.
Influences
Chronologically:
Judy Garland, Carole King, Karen Carpenter, Janis Ian, The Beatles, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd, Yes, Laura Nyro, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Sylvia Plath, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Jarrett, Elton John, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hartman, Theolonius Monk, Memphis Minnie, Rory Block, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Bessie Smith, Gene Harris, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Etta James, Nina Simone, Blossom Dearie, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace and anyone ever taken lessons from or played
with in a group.
Sounds Like
People say... Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Maria Muldaur, Tori Amos, Eva Cassidy.
Singer/songwriter Dianne Nola is one of those low-key San Francisco artistic gems. While she doesn't push to gig at every opportunity, she can blow an audience away with her powerful, heartfelt blues and piano playing. Which is what happened when I heard her sharing a gig along with several other local songwriters a year or so ago. While we hadn't met earlier, we found we both attended UC Santa Cruz around the same time, where she studied dance and music. In the year or so since we met, she's been quietly working on both a self-produced CD of traditional blues tunes as well as a collection of original songs. Over a strong cup of Blue Bottle coffee not far from her home in the Richmond District, we discussed her work.
DC: Where are you from? Have you always been a singer?
DN: I’ve spent half of my life in San Francisco, but I’ll ALWAYS be a country girl at heart. I grew up on orchards in Northern California. I started singing when I was 10. So no. I’ve always been a dancer and an artist. I have a lot of identities. In this society we box and label everything and that goes against my nature.
DC: Tell me about your new blues project--how is it different than your other CD that you're doing?
DN: It’s really an old blues project. I mean I started performing the blues in college and sometimes I feel like I’m in a tunnel when I play. It’s such an altered state of consciousness that it is one of the few things things that make me believe in past lives. However, the recording project is comprised of blues covers ranging from the 20s-50s. Just piano and voice. I’m editing the vocals now. The other CD is originals and has a lot more production on it: a band, harmonies, some horns.
DC: You mentioned you're into soundscapes....what are those about?
DN: The soundscapes are about my internal process and aren’t necessarily musical. They incorporate more of my voice-over aspect, and frustration with life. Topics range from drugs, the last election, moods, relationships. Some people love them, some don’t get them. They’re very edgy.
DC: Who do you count as your main influences? I know you've an interest in classical music as well as blues?
DN: In the past 10 years I’ve been influenced by local artists and friends. In the last three years, I’ve had a lot of trouble with being inspired by popular music. For that matter, I’ve hardly listened to popular music in the past 20 years which is strange for a musical artist... For about five years, I was really digging in, studying and playing early classic blues. I wrote the article on Wikipedia on Classic Female Blues! I was obsessed at the time—playing 6 hours a day. I love it when I go through cycles like that! In regards to classical music, I’m not a fan of [much] Baroque. Anyhow, classical (especially solo violin or cello) is the only music that emotionally moves me these days. I retract that. Billy Strayhorn is god but he’s a composer/lyricist. There’s a lot of jazz and jazz players I worship. MARTHA ARGERICH! I feel really connected to her these days.
Dianne Nola is a singer/songwriter/pianist/voice over actor based in San Francisco.
Though compared to Laura Nyro and Tori Amos in both poetics, strength and soul, her jazz and blues roots make her music challenging to categorize. She has shared stages with luminaries Ralph Carney, Wavy Gravy and Holly Near.
Nola grew up on an orchard in the Central Valley of California and began writing and performing in cafés during high school. She attended the University of California at Santa Cruz where she earned degrees in Theater and Music. There, she once had the opportunity to study with songwriter, Carole King.
She became active in the jazz scene after college, performing and fronting small ensembles. In 1986, she formed a duo with vocalist Gail Clark. They performed on the folk and women’s music circuit with a repertoire that included Nola’s originals as well as jazz standards.
She moved to San Francisco in 1990 to promote her new album, When Are You Gonna Move To L.A.? and to be a part of the burgeoning neo-folk scene. Within months, she assembled local jazz players to form Dianne Nola with Driving On Ice. Her song, Where Have My Years Gone?, recorded with the group, was chosen as one of the finalists in the Best of the Bay 1992 competition.
By the late 1990s, the performance art group Food Sexy, was playing original songs about the erotic nature of food. The group included Nola on lead vocals, various instruments and tap dancing, alongside San Francisco-based singer-songwriter True Margrit.
In 2001, having been frustrated by the music industry, she returned to college to pursue a degree in jazz education. However, inspired from the local scene of Austin, Texas, she began again to perform either her own compositions or in a blues act donning period attire.
Some of the notable musicians she has studied with are Paul Peña, Caroline Dahl, Patti Cathcart (Tuck & Patti), Mark Levine, David Gordon, Joe Gore and members of Bobby McFerrin's Voicestra, David Worm and Rhiannon.
As an instructor, she has taught through Parks & Recreation, The Public Unified School District, as well as, privately.
She entered voice over acting when audio engineer Ron Calonje got her an audition for game company, Strategic Simulations—she was subsequently cast in 1995. Since then she has worked on Broadcast, CD-Rom, Film and Industrial Narration projects, including all of the female characters for the international award-winning game Warlords Battlecry III,The Director in the cult-classic by Telltale Games, Sam & Max and supplying the voice of The Computer for Hollywood Pictures' Judge Dredd.
Hey D..thx for the shout and for the kind words.. yeah Margrit was very cool, and rocked! glad the east coast/west coast piano player club is representin'! ;).. hope u are well.. -c
hilarius:)...you are such a great actress....you are a triple threat, dance, sing and act :)...is that someone to watch over me a new version...you sound so amazing...when are you performing? You should play philz...of course keyboards, his piano is only decoration.
I had to listen to "gray man" about three times. Quite haunting. I love that style of lyric, braiding disparate connections into a fusion of feeling. (so to speak) Ok, I'm jealous. I wish I had written it. ;-)
hey Dianne..thx for finding me on here, and thx for the compliment! :) was nice meeting and hearing you @ Vivaldi as well! hope to see you around again soon..-c btw, i have a show thurs night in the LES @ a place w/ a great grand piano!..if you're free.. (info on my page)..c ya..
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