Singer-songwriter Nancy Ruth, whose audacious fusions of jazz, Latin music, experimental rock, and flamenco have made her a force to be reckoned with for some time now, has a new single: "Breathing In Indigo".
Beginning with a lightning-flash of flamenco guitar, the group locks into a groove equally indebted to jazz, rock, and the flamenco bulería. Nancy Ruth illuminates the track (which, like most of her material, is her own composition) with a vocal performance that radiates passion: for life, for love, and for the infinite possibilities of modern music.
With her flame-blonde curly hair, her explosive energy, and her effortlessly expressive face, Nancy Ruth has a powerful stage presence. The "Breathing In Indigo" video captures the seductive quality of her sound - the elegance of jazz, the sultriness of flamenco, and the immediate appeal of modern pop rock, all in a single package.
Ever since leaving the Royal Conservatory in Canada and following her musical muse to Spain, she's been making music all over the globe, including stops in Morocco, Brunei, Polynesia, and Panama - and wherever she's gone, she's immersed herself in the musical traditions of the area she's visiting. Nancy Ruth makes her home in Malaga, Spain between tours and time spent in her home town of Victoria, B.C, Canada. It's the ideal base of operations for an internationally recognized artist (she was recently a featured performer in Africa's biggest jazz festival in Saint Louis, Senegal) with a fearless, proudly cosmopolitan sound.
"She seems to be sucking the marrow out of life... passionately embracing the whole range of human emotions and experience." -Nikos Fotakis, Australian Jazz
NANCY RUTH - 10 FUN FACTS:
*Nancy Ruth helped build the house and sailboat she grew up in - a log house in the woods of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and a 24 foot gaff-rigged schooner in which her family spent summers, sailing up and down the West Coast.
*She was invited to sing in the Palace for the Royal Family of Brunei for a month in 1992. Singing in Malay, Indonesian and Japanese was only the beginning of that fascinating story… performing for the Sultan’s harem would be worthy of a memoir.
*Nancy had to sign a ‘high risk activity clause’ in her contract for the long running musical theatre production ‘Beaver Creek Rendezvous’ in the Yukon (she starred from 1993 - 1997), due to her penchant for skydiving, river-rafting, fascination for bear watching, and other such adventures.
*Nancy always knew she was bound for Spain - when she was eight years old, she intuitively learned the phrygian scale on the ukelele, which a lot of Spanish music is based on. Her family tree leads to the Spanish royal court of the Napoleonic Era.
*She followed her musical instincts to Spain, to write songs and study, alone. She completely disconnected from the world during the first several stays (2001 - 2008): no phone, no internet - months of self-inflicted solitary confinement a year, just to work on her sound.
*Nancy has been traveling through Morocco for the past 18 years, collaborating with musicians in Berber tribes, deserts, towns and cities from Tangier to Tiznit, and is working on a documentary about the process
*She is not related to former Canadian senator Nancy Ruth. She was born Nancy Ruth Thornton-Trump and legally changed her name to Nancy Ruth in 1996. She never liked being a Trump.
*She’s a Huff Post contributor, and her most popular articles are ‘I Forgot To Have Kids’ and ‘How I Became Fashionably Unfashionable’ . Her most recent article was written for the Canadian V13 magazine.
*She’s been the bandleader, composer and manager for most of the touring groups she’s put together, and doesn’t see being a woman in music a disadvantage, but rather, an advantage. The same goes with solo traveling, having visited or toured in over 60 countries.
*She hasn’t had much interest in watching TV since the Beachcombers was cancelled in 1990.
