Connie Lansberg is an American singer-songwriter, jazz artist and published author based in Melbourne Australia. With an inclination to story telling, the artist enjoys loading her songs with passionate soliloquies that explore the spectrum of human emotions. Boasting world class talent such as Mark Fitzgibbon on jazz piano along with Danny Fischer, Brian Losch and Ben Robertson, Deep Dark Down and Blue is Connie Lansberg‘s latest album.
Founding the Album
Your breakout track is Deep Dark Down & Blue featuring exciting artists like Mark Fitzgibbon, Ben Robertson, Danny Fischer and Brian Losch. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience of making music with them?
Exhilarating! When you have musicians this talented and you let them do their thing, this is the result. My process is to work with Mark first because he will take my chords and expand on the colors, find the musical hooks and so forth. So, when Mark and I know what we’re doing, we have a rehearsal and then take it to the studio. We don’t mess around in the studio either. We get a lot of work done each day because these guys don’t make mistakes. Brian Losch is a Grammy award winning mixer and he took all my songs (I have over 40 recordings) and mixed them all at the same time.
Deep Dark Down and Blue is drenched in nostalgic vocals and molten jazz instrumentals. The mellow melodies float into Lansberg’s vocals and they swish away like leaves in the wind. The piano dances through the song delicately and flourishes beautifully in its solo. Better Things sports a slower tempo and softer tones. The song depicts the renewal of life in the protagonist after a heartbreak. The piano is lilting and consoling as the lyrics gently powers and pushes the protagonist to better things.
Jazz is an Excellent Storyteller
You found your musical expression in jazz. What roots you to jazz and how did it help you shape your artistic persona and articulate yourself, musically?
I didn’t study jazz, but jazz has a depth that I needed for the stories of my songs and I wanted great musicians to improvise over the songs, so I have to write tunes and chords they will enjoy. It’s like a great movie needs a great soundtrack. I also love jazz standards, because the melodies and lyrics are brilliant. It’s why this music is passed on to each generation. I write short stories and put them to music. The jazz element is the harmonization and the improvisational aspect in each song.
Round Midnight has tense tonalities and mystery shrouded vocals. Sadness cascades, like blue ribbons, over the song as Lansberg recounts the memories of a broken heart with hopeless longing and vanquished love. Angel Tears lifts off with shimming piano melodies and the playful tempo of the vocals. The piano arc of the song flutters and flurries on the wings of the drum beats and cymbals.
Connecting to Jazz
Can you tell us the story of how you got acquainted with jazz and some jazz artists that inspire and influence your sound?
I don’t remember why I was learning big band songs from a Sarah Vagahn Backing track CD, but someone asked me to sit in with their big band. So I did and I loved it. I went on to have my own all girl big band and then got my quartet together. I had to learn on the job whereas most Melbourne singers have gone to “jazz” school. t’s a small but very talented scene here in Melbourne.
Something Cool is introduced with bass string work through which the inky piano leaks through. The vocals slowly nudge the song along. We see a brief tempo rise in the middle before it tapers into the trickling stream of twinkling piano and pausing vocals. Lonely Passion is the fifth track of the album. With a traipsing tempo, Lansberg tells the story of how invalidated passions can cost you your innocence.
Keeping up with Musical Fluency
Were there moments in your album where you set out to challenge yourself?
I don’t have to set up a challenge. Every second in the studio is a challenge to get it right and quickly. Jazz musicians hardly ever need more than three takes so I have to keep the pace up. My real challenge is to write songs that challenge the musicians.
Secret Garden sports a sensual theme, delivered with the heat of bodily passion and cold anger. The piano compounds the protagonist’s tale by conveying unspoken words, nameless emotions and unrealized hopes and dreams. Perfect Tears spells out all the humanly beautiful ways of loving somebody; in a way that nourishes the beloved and wards off their pain and sadness. The song wonderfully employs the tenderness of the cello melody to complement the song’s theme.
A Compelling Flow
What seek to achieve with this album and what do you want your listeners to take away from it?
The album is full of beautifully composed songs, arranged around themes of secrets and dreams, longing and heartache, combined with compelling storytelling for an album that is whimsical, layered and rich. If you like your jazz with both words and music, Deep Dark Down & Blue is out now on Bandcamp!
Still is the penultimate song of the album. Devastations carry a wealth of epiphanies and revelations. This is what the song delves into. As the pillars of her world crumble and fall to the ground, the protagonist sings about staying still as she waits for her life to make sense again. Whistling Away the Dark ends the album in a hopeful tone emerging out of the darkness of heartbreak. Hope engages your mind and pierces through despair like a whistle. Like lightening bugs, the glinting piano melody lightens the way to the protagonist’s new world.
Listen to Deep Dark Down And Blue by Connie Lansberg here –
https://professionalhumanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/deep-dark-down-blue
Do you like what you hear? Check out our playlists here!
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Promotional Disclaimer: The content in this post has been sponsored by the artist, label, or PR representative to help promote their work.
