June 20th, 2022 7pm Stage
Nadia Ackerman
She dreamed about touring the world at age 11 as backing vocalist to Karen Carpenter. No doubt she could have and never missed a note in perfect harmony to every song ever written on all of their ten albums. Nadia was the star of the bedroom and the lounge room with a real microphone (not a hairbrush), encouraged by her father to limber up the vocal cords and sang her heart out to his record collection from the 1970s. The Carpenters may have missed out on her vocal prowess, but Nadia made up for it after moving to New York City from her native Sydney in 1998;
Nadia decided to pack her suitcase and move from her native Sydney, Australia to New York City to pursue her dream of being a jazz singer in the big apple. Seven pop albums, the singing voice on national jingle campaigns, appearances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, SNL and Good Morning America, and performances as a backing vocalist with music industry greats for Sting and Trudie’s Rainforest Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall, including Sting, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Billy Joel, .. she has crammed a lot into her career as a singer.
When meeting Nadia in person, her infectious enthusiasm for life, like an infinity pool, spills over the edges of her conversation. She draws from a pandemic of creativity, swept up and away with her seedling ideas, watering them until they bear luscious ripe fruit. Like the title of her sixth studio album, 'The Well' released in 2019, Nadia draws from deep inside her well of imagination to create music and art as symbiotic counterparts.
Nadia has busied herself diving into multiple creative projects between the last two virus variant years. One of her rewards was a fiberglass cow to paint as part of the 2021 NYC "Cow Parade" and a solo art exhibition, 'About Last Night,' 13 oil on canvas paintings depicting her dreams, opening on April 8 at Brooklyn’s “Established Gallery.”
Her seventh and most current release available on all major platforms is a six-track EP titled 'Coconut Bunny Cake.' Divided into three refreshing new interpretations; Paul Buchanan’s 'Let's Go Out Tonight,' and back to her days in the living room, the Alessi Brothers, 'Sea Bird' from 1976, and The Hollies 1970 hit, 'Too Young To Be Married.'
The EP opens with Ackermans' 'Where are You Headed Now.' A tune she says she just had sitting around somewhere from 2010. An edifying questioning lyric set into the perfect pop symmetric, so hooky whether you can sing or not, the catchy minor 6th melodic sequence rolls off the tongue effortlessly. The second original tune on the EP 'Wide Open Spaces' penned by her partner and musician, John Deley, is filled with luscious major 7th block chords and glides the listener into a hypnotic body swaying trance. Lastly, on the title track 'Coconut Bunny Cake,' Ackerman takes us back as voyeurs to her childhood home and sits us down in her living room. It's a snapshot of the six-year-old we see pictured on the cover in her blue velvet dress, blowing out the birthday candles on her coconut bunny-shaped cake, a real-life situational drama. It hits the soul right between the eyes as it pumps the 4/4 rhythmic pulse steady as a heartbeat.
Her stellar band includes Tony Mason (John Scofield, Norah Jones, Natalie Cole, Darlene Love) - Drums, John Deley ( Dido, Valerie June, Phoebe Snow, Elvis Costello) - Piano, B-3 Organ and Mellotron, Richard Hammond (Patti Austin, Joan Osborne, Hamilton, Father John Misty) - Bass, and Robin Macatangay ( Hamilton, Lizz Wright, Jen Chapin, Lin - Manuel Miranda) - Guitars. Recorded at Mission Sound with Oliver Straus and Vocals at Engine Sound with Matt Anthony.