Essential Jazz

Laila Biali
Toronto-based composer, pianist, and singer Laila Biali has been confirmed as one of Canada's fastest rising stars. At the National Jazz Awards in 2003 she was awarded the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Prize and two years later, at just 25 years of age, she was the NJA choice as Best Keyboardist and Composer of the Year. While Biali has been receiving local and national recognition for her musical endeavours, she has been simultaneously making her mark outside the country performing at many prestigious international venues including Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. A Canada Council grant gave her the opportunity to travel to New York City to study with Fred Hersch. Biali's youthful exuberance, fleet-fingered, soulful playing and complex yet lyrical writing make her one of the most closely-followed of the new generation of jazz performers on the scene.

After many years of classical keyboard training, this North Vancouver native's musical career changed course in her late teens when she attended Humber College on full scholarship, studying for two years with Canadian jazz luminary Don Thompson. Biali received international recognition in January 2001 when she won a spot as pianist in the All-Stars Sextet of the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Competition. Sponsored by the International Association of Jazz Educators, the group was featured at festivals in New York City, Washington D.C., Austria, Holland, France, Turkey, Spain, and Finland.

In April 2002, Biali co-founded the Canadian jazz quartet, Without Words, along with fellow Sisters in Jazz alumni Tara Davidson and Karine Chapdelaine. This unique bicultural ensemble has since headlined at festivals in Peru, Brazil, and all over Canada, winning Best Composition of the Festival at the 2003 Montreal International Jazz Festival. Performing exclusively original material, Without Words recorded for both CBC Radio's JazzBeat and their "Silence en Jazz" series, and they released their self-titles debut album in December 2003. The same year also marked the beginning of Laila Biali's tenure as a faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Worshop, where she has worked alongside legends such as Branford Marsalis, Rufus Reid, Gerri Allen, and Alfred "Tootie" Heath.

Nowadays it is her Trio (with long-term band mates and friends Sly Juhas on drums and Brandi Disterheft on bass) that is Laila Biali's main focus. For their debut CD they were joined by special guests Kelly Jefferson and Tara Davidson. The Trio was thrilled to open for international jazz diva Diana Krall at the 2005 Vancouver Jazz Festival. They were joined on stage at the Orpheum Theatre by legendary saxophonist Phil Dwyer. That encounter stimulated Laila Biali's second CD Laila Live (Waterline) which, according to The Star's Geoff Chapman, "shows her at her rhapsodically creative and energetic best."

Broadcast Time:

Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. (3:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One
Sundays at 5:00 p.m. (5:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio Two
Saturdays at 6:00 a.m. ET and 1:00 p.m. ET on Sirius Satellite 137

What happens when you throw two hot Canadian songwriters together in front of a live studio audience? Sparks fly as they harmonize on each others' hits, contemporize cover tunes and maybe even ignite something brand spanking new.

Join Fuse as musicians smash down genre barriers at sessions in Ottawa and all across the country.


This week on Fuse:
Saturday, July 14th & Sunday July 15th

Emm Gryner crafts pretty piano pop. D.D. Jackson pounds his piano with a free jazz flourish. Together on Fuse, Emm and D.D. tickle--and tackle--the ivories with passion.