Diane Nalini is an incredibly nuanced jazz singer, and composer. She performs in 4 languages and teaches jazz ukulele as well. I hope you’ll join me in my fascination with the incredible range of Diane’s interests and expertise.  Besides being a phenomenal musician she also is a Rhodes scholar with Phd in Applied Physics from Oxford university and presently works in environmental  science policy for the Canadian government. Not only is she a great lyricist, but she has also written songs inspired by great literature including Shakespeare, in jazz, blues, gospel, folk and bossa nova styles. During this conversation, she performs some of her original songs for us, and I’ve added timestamps in the description of the episode for the many interesting topics we touched on as well as her incredible performances.

The video version is linked here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/e12-s2-diane-nalini

Diane Nalini's website: https://www.dianenalini.com/about/

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Timestamps:

(00:00 Intro)

(00:53) Shakespeare “Songs of Sweet Fire”

(03:30) Rhodes scholar, and Chinese calligraphy and watercolour painting with Virginia Chang, Bill Evans

(08:07) paintings for “Songs of Sweet Fire”, role as album producer

(10:55) Diane’s experience as a dancer and also starting to sing jazz songs at 3 years of age, also her experience of strict piano lessons

(14:18) National Ballet School summer program experience

(15:49) first professional jazz gigs

(16:57) Science mentors at Dawson College Richard Shoemaker and John Mohamed

(17:58) intro to her baritone ukulele and “Winter Eclipse”

(19:04) Song “Winter Eclipse”

(23:13) discussion of her song “Kiss Me Like That” and astronomy

(26:18) Diane’s work for Environment, Climate Change Canada

(28:13) discussion of her song “The Last Hurrah”

(29:50) discussion of the challenges for individuals to limit consumption

(34:48) jazz ukulele, Diane’s YouTube Ukulele for Jazz Singers, her workshops and teaching

(39:48) teaching and performing online, connecting with people worldwide

(41:37) learning Portuguese

(47:23) Syncspace Live with husband Adrian Cho

(56:00) some advantages to online teaching

(58:02) introduction to song “Le Tournesol”

(58:58) Song “Le Tournesol”

(01:02:01) discussion about languages, etymology, Diane’s father

(01:06:13) singing Schubert Lieder, learning German

(01:10:52) turning down a recording contract offer, balancing a life in Science and Music

(01:14:39) producing her first album, the process of putting together albums

(01:16:34) making new musical connections in England, joining a salsa band

(01:22:04) Diane’s ukulele made by Luis Feu de Mesquita, also history of the ukulele

(01:29:36) Future Perfect album, pandemic challenges, new songs

(01:33:42) Diane’s creative process and memory for music

(01:38:19) Diane’s music in movies and tv shows

(01:41:01) how listeners interpret songs so differently, including her song “After Dusk”

photo credit: Adrian Cho