It’s been 14 years since Sharny Russell’s last album, and fans will be delighted to welcome her latest and most personal offering Comes a Time.
‘I had been busting to do it!’ says Sharny.
‘I really enjoyed writing these songs. It’s like a whole lot of things come into this funnel and it’s time to pour through it. I have had both knees replaced in the last four years and I have an immune disorder but I have been feeling so much better. Once I wrote my first song the rest just flowed. I am pretty quick as a songwriter. Sometimes they need a bit of mulling or working over, but not too much!’
One of the songs featured on the album is Flowers, the song Russell wrote as a birthday gift for her sister-in-law Leigh Carriage’s 40th birthday.
‘I had driven home from work after two days of teaching at the conservatorium in Brisbane and I was so exhausted. I lay flat out on the bed. I didn’t have a present. I had to be there in an hour and a half and all of a sudden this song floated out of heaven. I could barely sing it because it made me cry. We have had our moments and the song was special as we have had some real healing.’
Russell has also included some of her beloved standards, all arranged with her signature uniqueness that sets them apart from their original versions.
‘Like I am Beginning to See the Light for instance,’ she says. ‘People wouldn’t think of an arrangement like that. I was literally sitting in a resort playing in Coffs Harbour. I was bored out of my brain. All I could see were the pot plants. I thought, I can’t do this. I can’t stand singing this the same old way again. There were people sitting behind these very big pot plants who came up and said they loved my arrangement of that song.’
As a teacher Russell believes it has ‘accidentally’ improved her craft along the way.
‘I think teaching has made me more aware of technique and my father thinks I have become a better singer because of it. You think about it more. Like How do I do that? How do I get that note? Although I never think about technique when I am singing – I just see an audience and want to give them a lovely time.’
Performing is a chance to let go beliefs, says Sharny.
‘I tell students this is a chance to forget about yourself. Performance anxiety is self-centred because it’s not about you. You just have to know your stuff, be in good working order and then look at your audience and give them a gift.
‘I can be in pain, I have been in trauma, but when I get up and start singing I don’t feel a thing!
‘I have rheumatoid arthritis and my doctor looked at my x-ray and asked if I was still playing the piano. I said Yes. He asked how I was doing this.
‘I am a jazz artist and I have a good ear and I can play whatever I want in the moment…
‘I can reorganise it in the moment. It’s my ear that has got me through!’
Ears, not noses, run in the Russell family. They are musical people. Very, very musical people.
‘Dad needed a piano player for his band and he got Mum and – da da!
My mum had a great ear; Steve, Helen and I all got it.
‘It’s quite incredible, and we are a little bit famous for it because we can hear every little thing in the music!
‘Dad was a saxophone and clarinet player.
‘Mum died nearly 20 years ago. She was a choir director as well. She used to write arrangements for vocals and choirs and people would be saying those chords aren’t in the book!
Sharny’s slbum launch is a bit of a family affair with her son Sam Schlencker playing and her sister Helen on cello.
‘I have a reverence for the real tradition of jazz,’ says Sharny.
‘I have a modern twist with backing vocals and one of my reviewers said, “She’s got that with Quincy Jones taste!”’
And she does.
Catch Sharny Russell on Friday 7.30pm at the Bangalow Bowling Club. Tickets from bangalowbowlo.com.au.
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