Nicky Schrire is an inventive and versatile vocalist and
composer. She has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, London, Dublin
and South Africa with musicians ranging from Sibongile Khumalo and Arno
Carstens, to Grammy-nominated pianists Gerald Clayton and Gil Goldstein. Born
in London, raised in South Africa, five years in New York, and now returned to
her birthplace, Nicky Schrire has created a highly personal travelogue with her
new 5-track EP “An Education.” Touring North America, South Africa, the UK and
Ireland as a jazz musician, she realised that her creative focus was shifting
towards the folk tradition of telling stories, rather than compositions
overflowing with jazz complexities. Encouraged by US critics comparing her to
Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Mary Chapin Carpenter, she bought a guitar, left
New York and spent two months in Cape Town writing new songs and teaching
herself how to play. She focused on weaving her nomadic experiences into her
music. Schrire explains: “I`ve moved home several times, but leaving New York
was such a liberating change that the process of writing and recording this EP
ended up feeling necessary – and cathartic.” Schrire arranged all the songs for
‘An Education’ to be played with ’cellist and childhood friend Ariella Caira;
then helmed the one-day recording session at Cape Town’s Digital Forest Studio.
The result is a stunning collection of songs infused with a feeling of real
acoustic clarity. In July 2015 Schrire introduced the new EP to audiences in
Birmingham at Cherry Red's as well as at the famed Green Note in Camden,
London. “Things have been so busy that I have not had time to properly launch
the EP in South Africa. The Café Roux performance will showcase the new songs,
so it will be our intimate, Cape Town EP launch.” One of Schrire and Ariella
Caira`s exciting recent projects was the re-imaging of Tresor`s single “Never
Let Me Go” for 8 Cellos and 8 Voices in Split-Screen. They recorded their
individual parts, overdubbing as the ensemble grew from one guitar, one voice,
and one cello, to seventeen instruments at the song’s highpoint. It was an
ambitious undertaking but the end result is a beautifully realised video and an
inventively re-imagined version of the song. Tresor said of the finished
product, “I love the feel Nicky and her team gave “Never Let Me Go”...with the
beautiful mix of cellos and smooth voices, they created an exquisite rendition
of the song.”
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