Holly Cole: Dazzling and Jazzy

“Surviving a natural disaster can have a huge impact on your life.”

In 2011, while in Japan on tour, Canadian music icon Holly Cole was about to head to the pool when glasses on her minibar started rattling.  Out the window, she saw skyscrapers swaying back and forth.

“They are not supposed to move like that. That is just so wrong.”  The shaking accelerated and plaster began to fall. “The tectonic plates were roaring like a monster. It was super, I mean super scary. Talk about feeling insignificant.”

Everything went into slow motion.

“I thought I might die.  I wondered if the band was dying. It was so intense.”

The earthquake, which Holly survived, started her thinking more philosophically about her life.  “When we are born, we are dealt a hand.  And as I lived through the earthquake, thinking I was about to breathe my last, I thought I had been dealt a good hand.  I had been allowed to do what I wanted. I achieved success in music and travel.  At that moment, I didn’t berate myself for my mistakes. I felt grateful and happy. It soothed me.”

Gratitude, the result of that frightening experience in Japan, has been her strength and what has since propelled her forward. She says she has a lot to be thankful for.

Her spectacular voice and playful, whimsical musical interpretations have made her indispensable on playlists around the world for over 36 years.

She comes by her talent naturally. Her father, Leon, was host of CBC Radio’s RSVP as well as a classical musician, as was her mom, Carolyn.

Holly recounts how, on earthquake day, she also thought about the best day of her life.

“It was the day I got my horse. There was a feeling of great responsibility.  My parents didn’t know anything about horses. I had to train him.  I was 13.  It was the promise of the future and I loved competing and jumping.  I read up on it all and became an equine junkie. It was such an accomplishment.”

While life as an equestrian could have been her future, thankfully for us, her brother Allen, who studied jazz piano, introduced her to jazz and she discovered a love of the genre. The rest is history.

She found her voice at Humber College and her performing legs in clubs. She hooked up with Aaron Davis and David Piltch creating, at the time, The Holly Cole Trio.  Together with other great musicians, Holly has been making music for decades, magnificently covering the greats as well as making their own tunes.

Her covers of songs like “Whatever Lola Wants,” “I Can See Clearly Now,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” and her provocative, enigmatic interpretations of songs by Hank Williams, the Gershwins, Tom Waits or her own music like “Onion Girl” are mesmerizing.

Holly hails from the Maritimes (born in Nova Scotia and grew up in New Brunswick), so it is not surprising she is charming, witty and warm. Her kind soul shines through, as does her humility. Rumour has it she was a bit of a wild child. Given her sassy, sultry stage presence, that is fabulously believable.

Her parents were people she has come to value more and more as she herself ages. When Holly’s mother was ill, Holly stepped away from music to look after her.  Holly had the opportunity to really get to know her mother in a way she might not have otherwise.

“I tell everyone to let their parents know they appreciate them. When I saw the end of my mother’s life coming, I talked to her about everything. She taught me about the importance of laughter and humour, which she had in spades. We were once at a wedding where there were relentless speeches. We were moaning about it when she leaned over and said, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, sit with me.’”

One of her mother’s most important lessons was not to sweat the small stuff and to not try to fix everything, which Holly says is something she always wants to do. 

“Sometimes things are not even broken. Sometimes they can’t be fixed.  And sometimes people don’t want you to fix them for them.”

This sizzling singer hangs her hat between two Canadian homes: one in Toronto and the other is a small rustic cottage in Nova Scotia, which Holly loves.

“The cottage has been in my family my whole life. My grandmother bought it for us. You can’t walk anywhere so I got a used car. There is a fireplace and while there are electric heaters I am right on the ocean so it gets a little chilly. Water has to be delivered.  Some of it is fun, some of it is less fun. In the summer, it is glorious– in a very rugged, harsh way.”

In her endearing way, she jokes how owning the cabin has resulted in new renovation skills, like replacing the rotting toilet. “I am learning carpentry, and I love lighting.”

Part of the attraction of that rustic life is how different it is to Toronto’s big city hustle and bustle. However, she loves that, too. 

Holly says her inner compass comes from mindfulness and living in the moment, something that intensified during COVID. In fact, Holly says, it is the one good thing to come out of that experience for her, which was a difficult time.

“I realized I don’t want to spend so much time alone. I need people. I think COVID taught us that we have to help each other. Because everything stopped, everyone had to become mindful during a time when we were not happy. Appreciating the moment, even if it isn’t pleasant, is important. When you arrive to where you hope to be, it may be disappointing and made all the worse if you didn’t enjoy the journey.”

“Today, I take pause far more than I used to and that is something that might not have happened had it not been for COVID.”

She also has an appreciation for the value of detail and how that can embellish life, another lesson from Japan, and one she wasn’t expecting.

“We were on the way to the airport in Tokyo, and we were late (no surprise since I was there – I am notoriously late) but I really wanted to buy a pair of earrings at this department store.  So I made them stop the van and I ran in.  In Japan, they wrap everything, making everything look beautiful. The clerk is wrapping them up like a gift and I told her she didn’t need to since they were just for me. She stopped and looked at me with curiosity and said, ‘Just you?’  And she turned back to continue wrapping.  The look she gave me was like, ‘Why are you the least important person?’ And it stuck with me.  My perspective completely changed from that one incident. Today, I am the queen of wrapping.  I realize that little things really DO matter and make people feel happy.”

Holly and her band have toured all over the world and while she clearly has a love of Japan, Canada is home.

“I love Canada. We have a lot of liberties that aren’t afforded people in other countries, and we’re protected. The one positive thing about recent political events has been how Canada has emerged: smoking with pride. I just love it. I always wear my t-shirt that says: Canada is Already Great.”

“For my next tour I will be wearing a chunky red dress, white gloves and white boots to celebrate Canada.” 

That tour will bring her to B.C. in September. She will have a show in Vancouver and she is headlining Nanaimo’s Jazz Festival.

Biggest compliment? “I had just been back to Japan after COVID and this gentle man came up to me and said, ‘I could hear your heart beating.’ My jaw dropped. It is a humble thing to hear.”

Holly is a joyous optimist. “I strongly believe if you are an optimist and think good things, they will happen. The world is full of positive and negative things. Focus on the good and deal with the bad. It may sound corny to say, but it IS all about the journey.”

HOLLY COLE’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Holly Cole has recorded 13 studio albums, her first in 1989. She has received two JUNOS (Best Contemporary Jazz Album for her 1994 Don’t Smoke in Bed and Best Vocal Jazz Album of the Year for Shade in 2004), two GEMINI awards, two Japanese Grand Prix Gold Disc awards (Japan’s equivalent to the JUNOS), as well as the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Ella Fitzgerald Award (one of only two Canadians to ever receive the prestigious award).  She also has a 2014 honorary doctorate from Queens University.

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