Name: Tammy Weis
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Nationality: Canadian-British
Current release: Tammy Weis's new album Soul Whisper is out now. Buy a physical copy via her bandcamp store.
Recent event: Tammy Weis is one of the artists appearing at this year's EFG London Jazz Festival. The event will take place 15-24 November 2024 and feature artists such as Anohni, Imelda May, the Crosscurrents Trio, Charles Tolliver, Veronica Swift, Brandee Younger, Ill Considered, Tashi Wada, Yazz Ahmed, Spencer Zahn, Melike Şahin, Fabiano Do Nascimento, Belle Chen, the Neil Cowley Trio, Matters Unknown, Mark Kavuma, Avishai Cohen, Tigran Hamasyan, and Fran & Flora.

For tickets, head over to the festival's official website.

[Read our Ill Considered interview]
[Read our Tashi Wada interview]
[Read our Yazz Ahmed interview]
[Read our Melike Şahin interview]
[Read our Fabiano Do Nascimento interview]
[Read our Belle Chen interview]
[Read our Neil Cowley interview]
[Read our Matters Unknown interview]
[Read our Mark Kavuma interview]
[Read our Tigran Hamasyan interview]
[Read our Fran & Flora interview]
[Read our Anouar Brahem interview]
[Read our Dawn Richard interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Tammy Weis and would like to find out more about her music and upcoming performances, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



The London Jazz Festival is just around the corner. Tell me just a little bit about your performance at the festival, please.

I am releasing my new album at the festival which is based on poems set to music.

The album showcases 11 of Portuguese Legendary poet, Fernando Pessoa’s poems, set to music by myself, with contributions from Grammy Awards winner Terry Britten and Portuguese jazz artist Carlos Barretto. Soul Whisper draws inspiration from Pessoa’s life, tracing his journey from South Africa to Lisbon’s Alfama district.

Debuting in Portugal and later performed in Canada, Soul Whisper will come to life at Pizza Express Soho, featuring the Pedro Velasco Trio and special guest Julian Joseph (OBE). Actor Luis Filipe Eusébio will narrate the story behind the project and recite selected poems in English and Portuguese.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?

I am doing an album launch so they are the same.

I love the recording we created in the studio but If I'm honest I prefer the energy of performing it live. Feeding off the band and the audience and creating something new every time is what music is all about for me.

In as far as you have any experience or insights, what's your view of the London jazz scene?

It's a vibrant scene with amazing, talented musicians. World class.

There is a strong comradery in Britain between musicians which I like.

Music has become a lot more global and incorporating elements from other parts of the world or the musical spectrum is commonplace. Do you still think there are city scenes with a distinct, unique sound? What holds these communities together?

I am currently living in Portugal and you can definitely hear a distinct latin influence with the jazz players.

I haven't experienced it as much as in other countries, so the answer would be yes.

What does the term jazz mean today, would you say?

For me it means freedom. When you improvise/ harmonise, it makes the song different every time you sing it or play it. That is the joy of jazz.

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. As of 2024, what kind of materials are particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

I have been listening to Vijay Iyer's new album compassion. Very good album.

[Read our Vijay Iyer interview]

Thanks to technological advances, collaboration has become a lot easier. What's your view on collaboration and its ongoing role for the music you make?

I love collaborating. Again, it's an energy thing for me. I also love the writing process with another like minded creative.

I remember writing for my last album with Tom Cawley, we wrote a song for my Mum who had passed away years earlier. Together, we wrote something very emotional.

I needed him to help me to see a different perspective of my experience through his eyes, and still describe it in a way that would honour myself and my Mum.

In terms of the results, the process, and the satisfaction, how do making music in the same room together versus filesharing compare to you, real concerts vs live streams?

I prefer recording in the same room together. I am big on working off of one another's energy.

Same thing with live performance; you get a much more diverse performance.

It is often said, that the energy in the room on any given night will influence the performance. I have often wondered how this energy manifests itself. What is this like for you and how does it have an effect on what's happening on stage?

Yes, for me, energy is everything. Energy helps to push the band to go places you wouldn’t go musically.

Having an active audience can be inspiring to me as well.

Ímprovisation is obviously an essential element of jazz, but I would assume that just like composition, it is transforming. How do you feel has the role of improvisation changed in jazz?

I personally haven't noticed huge differences in improvisation. I think it has always been a huge part of jazz and remains a very personal interpretation.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation?

For me, it is based on how I am feeling at the time, and how my musicians motivate me. It's an impulse based on whatever is happening at the time. The joys of jazz.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument – is it an extension of your self/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?

As a vocalist it is who I am.

I love the freedom of the voice. Anywhere, anytime, I can be creating, inspiring others and myself.

The term identity is an important aspect of many communities. Are you acting out parts of your identity in your improvisations which you couldn't or wouldn't through other musical approaches? If so, which are these?

Music allows me to explore different emotions in complex ways.

I think music allows me to heal, to be free, to be happy, in ways that are more difficult off the stage or when I am writing.

I have always been fascinated by the many facets of improvisation but sometimes found it hard to follow them as a listener. Do you have some recommendations for “how to listen” in this regard?

I think you just need to feel it. Let take you where it is supposed to take you

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. When an improvisation ends, is it really gone, just like a cup of coffee? Or does it live on in some form?

I think part of it lives on. It’s expression, it touches the soul and some part of it may have impacted you in a profound way.