Gillian Margot & Geoffrey Keezer

Gillian Margot is the rarest sort of singer – the kind that makes people sit up and listen. She has an exquisite voice, a disarmingly wide range and a style that is deeply rooted in the tradition of the great jazz vocalists, yet she possesses a gift of storytelling and emotionally intelligent lyrical delivery that is refreshingly free of “jazz singer” clichés. Trained as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and dancer, Ms. Margot feels equally at home in the musical worlds of jazz, R&B and pop, and delivers a stage presence and confidence honed through years of performing for audiences worldwide.

A native of Toronto, Margot got her start in jazz the old-fashioned way, playing several sets a night and leading a wide variety of ensembles and studying under a generation of jazz legends including Oscar Peterson, Freddy Cole, Carol Welsman, and Norman Simmons. She credits her love of multiculturalism and mixing of genres to her educational background in both music and anthropology. Considered a young stalwart of the Canadian jazz scene, Gillian Margot has expanded her talents beyond borders through collaborations with artists in the United States, Australia, and Asia, where she’s earned a devoted following by constantly gigging and touring in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

A voracious collector of songs across many genres, she’s made a name for herself as a stylist who eschews jazz singer clichés in favor of an original, interpretive delivery grounded in a song’s lyrical and emotional content. She’s played major venues throughout several time zones with top-tier talent from several continents. Her vast experience includes sharing the stage with a host of greats including soprano Kathleen Battle, conductors Wayne Marshall (London Philharmonic) and Jukka-Pekka Saraste (Toronto Symphony Orchestra), as well as performing for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Peter Gabriel, and the Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander.

In 2010, Gillian Margot independently released A Pink-Filled Sky with her chamber project, the Gillian Margot Trio. An acoustic collaboration of voice, piano and double bass, the album features a spectrum of original contemporary jazz which reveals hints of Margot’s classical training and improvisational tendencies. Captured live in concert, A Pink-Filled Sky showcases the trio’s penchant for in-the-moment arranging of standard jazz repertoire, their element of surprise and healthy irreverence echoed in the delighted applause of the live audience.

Ms. Margot’s new album Black Butterfly stands in stark contrast to 2010’s A Pink Filled Sky. Her first solo effort, Black Butterfly speaks to the singer’s passion for musical diversity, an artfully crafted set that showcases her multifaceted talents. Produced by jazz trumpet star Jeremy Pelt, and involving some of the most in-demand musicians on the New York scene, the album blends Great American Songbook standards, intriguing jazz originals, gutbucket blues, contemporary hip-hop flavors and uniquely personal covers of songs by Curtis Mayfield, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Bobby Caldwell and even 80’s English rockers Simply Red. Black Butterfly is Ms. Margot’s first direct overture to the U.S. and international markets and her first recording on HiPNOTIC Records.