Woman In Blue ... Her Majesty feat. Rita Chiarelli (Live at VI Musicfest 2022)
Channel: mediahound
Date: 2022-11-28

Perhaps the thing Vancouver Island MusicFest is most known for Internationally is their once-in-a-lifetime on-stage collaborations. There have been so many over the years!

This year’s ‘Her Majesty’ performance will be a collaboration that will go down in history as a ‘remember when’ MusicFest Moment.

“When I considered such a collaboration there was only one person who came to mind to curate this for us and that person is the brilliant singer and music fan, Shakura S’Aida. Shakura is someone who is no stranger to MusicFest, in fact, last time she was here we had her close for Ry Cooder!

Having run into her at various Festivals and conferences, we always had these wonderful deep conversations about music. Be it blues, jazz, gospel, funk or folk, I always came away from these conversations having learned something from Shakura and always appreciated her reverence for the music and the music-makers. I always thought, this woman should be an Artistic Director. When I asked her to curate a Woman’s Blues revue for our Festival, she jumped at it and in doing so, put together a powerhouse group that no one else could have put together!”

Doug Cox, MusicFest Artistic Director

The group Shakura has managed to put together is indeed an unprecedented gathering of Women who have made their lives in the Blues as musicians and singers from Canada and the United States.

Introducing the participants of ‘Her Majesty”:

Featured Vocalists

    Lady A Seattle, WA
    Melody Angel Chicago IL
    Annika Chambers Houston, TX/Florida
    Rita Chiarelli Toronto, Canada
    Nikki D Toledo, Ohio
    Thornetta Davis Detroit, MI
    Shakura S’Aida Toronto, ON

Featured Musicians/Band

    Colleen Allen Sax Toronto, Canada
    Melody Angel Guitar 
    Anne Harris Violin Chicago, IL
    Anna Ruddick Toronto, Canada
    Tamara Williams Drums Houston, TX

Rita Chiarelli, Canada’s most highly acclaimed female roots and blues artist, has just released the soundtrack for her award-winning documentary, Music From The Big House, her 9th recording. With a JUNO (a Canadian Grammy) award and four subsequent JUNO nominations, she is known across Canada as the “Goddess of the Blues”. Chiarelli is a gifted songwriter and an entertaining performer, but it is her soaring three octave voice that sets her apart from her peers, inspires awe and often tears in her audiences, and causes critics to gush. ” a voice so blue it could make the angels weep”… “a voice that can growl at her demons or soar with the angels, a gift for lyric, an ear for melody and the heart to combine them”.

The one thing Chiarelli is not; is predictable. Over the past five years she has released Cuore, a recording of traditional Italian folk songs, which won the World Music category at the prestigious Canadian Folk Music Awards; Uptown Goes Downtown Tonight, a highly acclaimed collaboration with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra; and Music From the Big House, a documentary movie filmed in Louisiana, at Angola prison, which premiered in New York and L.A. Her CD Sweet Paradise heralds a return to Chiarelli’s blues roots and is her first album of all original tunes since 2001’s JUNO nominated Breakfast at Midnight.

Over the past decade Rita Chiarelli has won every major Canadian blues award, including multiple Maple Blues awards, CBCs Great Canadian Blues Award, Toronto Independent Music Awards, Hamilton Music Awards, Manitoba Blues Society, and the Hamilton Blues Society’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. Most recently Rita was awarded the prestigious Maple Blues ‘Blues With A Feeling Award’ for Lifetime Achievement.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Chiarelli continues to tour incessantly in North America and Europe and intends to spend more time performing in the U.S. over the next few years.

https://www.ritachiarelli.com/