WITH STYLE AND FROM THE HEART
Why would someone who is a stone's throw away from a Ph.D. want to be a pop star? When asked, nicole rue says with a shrug, "Music is my passion, but in the past it's been on a back burner. School has always come easily, so I've never had to give one hundred percent. I can give one hundred percent of myself to my music without a second thought." She adds, with an impish grin, "Besides, I can get a Ph.D. when I'm forty, but I can only prance around in a miniskirt while I'm young!"
At twenty-seven, although nicole rue is poised for success in both music and academia, she chooses music. As a singer, she has extensive experience singing jazz, funk, rock, soul and R&B. Her music might be described as neo-jazz infused with soul and fused with pop. With an earthy but velveteen voice, she sings both with style and from the heart- belting out heartfelt pleas to her lover in one moment, then crooning sigh-like notes to him in the next. Drawing from influences that range from Stevie Wonder to Van Morrison to Ella Fitzgerald, nicole's vocals and lyrics capture a richness that is often absent in the music of young musicians today.
She started performing at 13, with the jazz chorus and gospel choir at her junior high school. "I always wanted to sing a solo, but because I danced, I always had to do dance solos and choreograph moves for the chorus to do in our shows. I enjoyed it, but I wanted to sing!" As a dancer from the age of five, it is understandable that the choral directors wanted to benefit from her ability. Studying at the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York for much of her training, she decided at age sixteen not to pursue dance professionally. "I knew God had something else in store for me," she says.
She got her chance to sing a solo at Amherst College, where she sang with a 25 piece jazz ensemble. "It was a great learning experience," she remarks, "I would love the chance to do that again." She also sang with the gospel choir, an a cappella group and two funk bands. "Yeah, I was doing my thing, but it was all part of my education… and my grades were fine." Between college and graduate school, she sang briefly with The Hush, a dark melodic band with a cult following. While in graduate school at the University of Michigan studying Comparative Literature, she started a band of her own, Bar Sugar, which became a small local success playing in coffee houses and at venues like the Blind Pig. "It was fun, but I finally knew what I wanted to do. I had wanted to pursue music seriously since 1996, but back then I was too scared- of both failure and success. It was only last year, in 2001, that I was ready- mentally, spiritually, vocally- to do this."
She moved back to her hometown of New York City on September 11, 2001. When asked how she felt about coming home on the day of the bombing of the Twin Towers, she pauses to think, then replies, "I choose to link the two events on September 11 in this way- I live my life as a memorial to those whose lives were taken. I live as if I cannot fail, and each day I push to see just how far my dreams can take me." She moved without a pre-determined plan, but with an assured certainty that "if it were meant to happen, it would happen." Within a month she was working closely with producer Marcelino Thompson, a former bassist for Chaka Khan, on recordings, singing with a band [Source of Madness, Straight Jacket Records], writing new songs, and renewing contacts with old friends in the industry.
She still sees her musical explorations as education. "I am still trying to find a way to capture the way I sound while performing live. I'm learning how to get my heart into studio recordings. I'm a live performer by trade, so I give my all at a show, but I'm now learning how to do that in a room with one other guy who is staring at a computer screen..." But now she also draws from her education while writing, recording and performing. She explains, "Tom Hanks once told Oprah that he tries to do what he calls 'the three E's- educate, entertain, and enlighten.' That's what I am trying to do as well. I want for people listening to my music to see that love is not co-dependence or obsession, but that living fully and deeply leads to a different experience of love. The Last Poets put it best when they said, "Put more meaning into everything you do- more meaning into loving, eating and living- and there will be more meaning in you, which means everything!"
nicole rue has something unique to offer this world. And she is already giving it freely- with style and from the heart.
