Juno-award winning singer heads back home for B.C. tour

Canadian jazz singer Sienna Dahlen, best known for her Juno-winning work Notes on Montreal is returning to her roots for a concert tour around British Columbia.

Dahlen now divides her time between Toronto and Montreal, but she was born and raised in northern B.C.

"When I was young I left home. I knew from an early age I didn't want to stay in the little town I grew up in," said Dahlen during a conversation with host Margaret Gallagher on CBC's Hot Air.

Dahlen wrote her first song when she was 12 and living in Dawson Creek, B.C. From there, she went on a cross-country adventure, ending in Quebec, where she committed herself to music.

"I had a real desire, and need I think, to find my own voice," said Dahlen.

She wasn't sure what that voice would sound like, but she knew she wanted to combine popular music with jazz styling.

At the beginning of her career, Dahlen felt confined by the accepted conventions of jazz music, and wanted to find a way to bring her own flavour to the genre.

"I wanted to establish myself as myself, and I needed to figure out who that person was."

Through her teen years, Dahlen studied the piano and saxophone, playing in small jazz bands. When she began studying musical composition at McGill University, she used her instrumental experience to inform her burgeoning singing approach, especially when it came to improvising. 

It's a skill set that Dahlen employs each time she is challenged by a new piece of music.

"The act of having a horn in my mouth ... really informed me on an improvisational level," said Dahlen. "Those earlier experiences helped me later on when it came to scatting and soloing."

Dahlen's tour will feature her new album Ice Age Paradise. She plays Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver on Sunday night, before heading to the Courtenay, B.C. and Nanaimo on Feb. 2 and 4.

With files from Hot Air