Molly Johnson, the Canadian songstress known for captivating audiences with her smoky-toned pipes and brilliant renditions of jazz classics, is booked to play lakeside next month as guest vocalist with the Guido Basso Quartet. The Jazz Greats shows are scheduled for January 11, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 12, 2:30 p.m. at the Auditorio de la Ribera.
Johnson has been in the entertainment business since the age of four, when legendary Toronto producer Ed Mirvish put her on stage at the Royal Alexandra Theatre for a role in “Porgy and Bess.” A few years later she was enrolled in the National Ballet School, where she built on dreams of becoming a choreographer.
She turned to singing as a teenager, experimenting as a performer with various rock, punk and rock-funk bands. “I never made a conscious decision to get into music. It was something I always did as part of my up-bringing,” she told the Reporter in a recent long-distance telephone interview.
Johnson revealed that she first developed an interest in jazz in her 20s, but didn’t come into her own in the genre until reaching maturity. “I knew that jazz and the American songbook in particular needed a certain amount of gravitas and life experience in order to bring authenticity to the material,” the 54-year-old singing sensation observed.The first of the six albums she has released to date came out in 2000. Since then she has gained heaps of accolades for both her recordings and live appearances. The 2008 album “Lucky” won the Juno Award for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.” The following year she was named as Canada’s top jazz vocalist.
In her short career she has performed in Europe and the U.S., as well as her home country, sharing the stage with leading Canadian artists and international stars such as B.B. King, Oscar Peterson and the Count Basie Orchestra. Another feather in her cap was entertaining the Prince and late Princess of Wales in a private command performance aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Speaking about her upcoming appearances here, Johnson anticipates performing a mixed bag of familiar Gershwin and Ellington tunes, along with some of her original songs.
Although it will be her first trip to the Chapala area, she has fond recollections of previous visits to Mexico. She spent close to a month in Cuernavaca at age 12 when her mother – a civil rights lawyer and social activist – went there to study Spanish. More recently she had a fabulous time exploring Tulum with her husband and teenage children.
Part of the appeal of taking part in the Jazz Greats program is lending support to the Niños Incapacitados program. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Johnson has gotten involved in numerous social causes and charity activities. In the 1990’s, she launched the Kumbaya Foundation and Festival, to raise awareness and funds to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, a disease that she says is now more rampant in northern Canada than in Africa. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008 in recognition of her philanthropy and contributions to Canada’s cultural scene.