While travelling on transit across New York City, where she lives, you may find Laila Biali tapping her feet, perhaps a little zoned out.
With her son Joshua on her lap, the Vancouver-born jazz musician can't help but fall into a melodic mesmerization. The toddler has already been an inspiration for several songs on a pop project she's working on with her husband, Ben Wittman.
"Laila Biali as a mother, a singer and musician has been completely integrated," said Biali, who is stopping at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre Friday as part of her cross-Canada tour.
"I am always a mom and always a musician so the two are constantly overlapping and in a way inspiring each other. I find respite and restoration in making music but I also find respite in doing what a mom does in caring and nurturing another individual. It is pretty amazing."
The past two years have seen a renewed focus on Biali's skills as a composer, arranger, singer and pianist.
Biali has a reputation for challenging the boundaries of music, taking the best of pop, rock, classical and soul, informing it with her knowledge of jazz and weaving it all into her musical arrangements seamlessly. Her versatility has won her touring engagements with top-tier artists including Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega, and most recently with Sting.
Biali has two projects in the works: a pop project set for release under a brand new name in the fall, and a jazz record slated for release next year.
She plans to test two songs she's writing for the jazz album while on tour, one that might even include vocals by her bassist Adam Thomas, whose voice she described as "an amazing hybrid of Sinatra and Stevie Wonder."
"It's always a little scary but unless you hear the songs in a live situation you don't quite know what they'll be like," said Biali, whose last album From Sea to Sky won a Juno in 2011 as Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.
Although the songs might not be perfect, Biali musters up the courage to test them by recalling a bit of advice she got from jazz legend Herbie Hancock while playing at a tribute to Miles Davis in Toronto a few years ago.
"I remember Herbie saying one of the gifts that Miles Davis gave his audience was he allowed them to watch him grow. He made himself vulnerable," she said. "I found that so inspiring because it challenged me to do the same because if we wait until we have something that we think is perfect, it might never be shared at all."
Being a mom has not only roused Biali artistically but also made her more disciplined, more focused. "There are very limited hours in which I write and be creative," said Biali, who writes on an apartment-sized upright piano, playing with practice pedals most of the time so her songs don't disturb the neighbours.
"Any creative person knows that at some point writing is not this mystical, inspired voice. You have to work at it," she said. "It has become a discipline for me to find a time to do that."
Laila Biali plays the Evergreen Cultural Centre at 8 p.m. Tickets are at 604-927-6555 or at evergreenculturalcentre.ca.
