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Emily Braden

Emily Braden is the flick of the match. When she opens her mouth to sing, the opera hall becomes a footloose dance party, the festival stage becomes a back-alley club, the dusty attic shimmers with disco lights. Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia, Harlem – wherever she is, Braden brings the heat and builds her home with keys, strings, mics and things. For this fearless vocalist, composer and lyricist, to sing is to live and she is living it up.

From Nat King Cole to Queen, Braden heard it all first through her grandmother’s speakers in her hometown of Boise, Idaho. As a young girl, she spent hours memorizing classic vocal solos, writing poetry and singing into the walls of her bedroom. Early love affairs with powerhouse voices such as Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan fanned the embers for what is now recognized as her signature style. Bold, innovative, rhythmic. Her creative influences stretch far and wide and she has studied it all: Billie’s scat solos, Langston Hughes’ poetry, Cuban novels, the warbling heights of Yma Sumac…

Braden cultivated her craft under mentorships with Dave Barduhn (former arranger for Stan Kenton) in Oregon, legendary jazz musician Louise Rose (student of Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson protégé) in Victoria, BC, and New York pianist Misha Piatigorsky. Supporting internationally acclaimed artist Harry Manx, she recorded on multiple award-winning albums and performed for packed houses across Canada.

Braden’s debut album Soul Walk is a bright collection of sonic colors that showcase the clarity and flexibility of her voice. Created by an endlessly imaginative team of players, Soul Walk is a soulful mix of evocative originals and flipped out jazz standards. Producer/composer/pianist for Soul Walk, Misha Piatigorksy testifies, “As a singer, Emily has no boundaries. She gives me goosebumps.” With its fervent gospel spirit, flairs of African and Arabic sounds, and warm R&B inflections, Soul Walk is more than a debut – it’s a landmark recording.

Drawing from her Masters Degree in Latin American Studies and deep love for words and rhymes, Braden shines on Soul Walk as a bilingual lyricist. She has a penchant for Joni Mitchell-esque lyrics (I see blue skies through the hole/of a sun-bleached pelvic bone), cutting honesty (every time the ballad begins/I’m just as alone as I’ve ever been) and Spanish lyricism (Hace mucho que no escucho el canto tuyo/ It’s been so long since I’ve heard your song).

Of her life-long passion, she says: “Music is that one thing for me. It alters me chemically, rewrites my reality, enhances and romances me, cleanses and connects me, drugs, heals and soothes me, forgives and accepts me, intensifies and satisfies me. Such a hold it has - and I am lucky to be wrapped up in such a love affair.” To see her live is to feel the heat, and you will leave believing.

Braden is a big bad beauty – smokin, smokin hot.