Jazz singer, chanteuse, actor and francophile Louise Blackwell began her career in Geoffrey Rush’s Magpie Theatre and appeared in the acclaimed production of Small Poppies.
Louise has performed sell-out shows of A Night in Paris at Adelaide’s Fringe and Cabaret Fringe festivals for three years running and has also toured to Melbourne. The show combines songs by some of France’s best songwriters and singers, interspersed with stories about the artists and Louise’s personal experience of living in Paris
What made you decide to move predominantly to song?
I just sort of left the theatre behind and got into the music scene of Melbourne I suppose… firstly rock and folk music, then getting into the jazz scene later on.
My studies in French and cinema eventually took me to Lyon University in France, where I studied literature, the philosophy of art and the image, and translation for a year… I didn’t want to leave France at the end of the year, so moved up to Paris and began what was to become a ten-year adventure, being a student of cinema, getting into Paris in a REALLY BIG way, working around and about, in bars, cafes, and teaching English and eventually singing there, firstly in Irish pubs, then discovering great jazz vocal teachers… and slowly getting into the wonderful Paris jazz scene.
While I was studying jazz with one of my very favourite jazz singers, Sara Lazarus, who is also a fantastic teacher, I had a lucky night when I was singing Irish songs in my regular haunt, The Quiet Man, in the third arrondissement of Paris, near the archives… an Irish man offered me some money to put towards my music. I’ll never forget it; he deposited a lovely sum into my account and with this I could organise my first jazz gig in Paris, which was at a little marionette theatre in the 20th arrondissement called L’Ogresse, and then record a CD.
What can Guilty Pleasures audiences expect from a Lou Blackwell set?
A lovely mix of songs by the artists mentioned above. I’m doing my best to choose which ones to leave out, as there are so many wonderful tunes, and I have just learnt five new songs that I’m really enjoying at the moment, so we could go on all night! I experienced the amazing all-night playing that occurs in Crete, where the musicians just play for hours and hours… quite an experience! But don’t worry, we won’t! We will know when we have spoken!
Featuring at Guilty Pleasures Cabaret & Burlesque Festival on Friday night 12 May at the Brunswick Heads Memorial Hall.
Tickets on guilty-pleasures-fest.com.au.
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