Arms Full Of Roses The first thing that hits you is the voice. Devoid of affectation or theatrics, it’s a delightful instrument, one wielded with real subtlety. Technically a dramatic mezzo, it moves with graceful ease from the slightly husky sensuality of “Could This Be Love” and “Crazy Melody” to the bluesy boisterousness of “Tomatoes,” the sweet romanticism of “Look of Love” and “Arms Full of Roses,” and the gently aching melancholy of ”Fools” and “Falling Out of Love.” Its purity of tone matched by impeccable phrasing, this is a voice to be reckoned with.
Then there are the songs. OK, we have “Misty” from the American Songbook and charming covers of pop classics “Look of Love” and “Can’t Take My Eyes off You,” but I don’t recognize the others. Guess they must be lesser-known compositions from the likes of Gershwin, Kern, Cole Porter, and Rogers and Hart. Lovely tunes. Why haven’t we heard more of these ones? Let’s check the credits. All written by Robyn Hayle, the owner of that aforementioned voice. Now that’s simply extraordinary.
Debut albums as fully formed and compelling as Arms Full of Roses are as rare as plain truth from a politician’s mouth. Its arrival will alert the music-loving public to the multi-faceted talents and charms of this Montreal-born, Toronto-based jazz chanteuse. Hayle has had a fascinatingly chameleonic career as a singer, songwriter and actress, and she has been able to draw from a deep well of experience in crafting this work.
After a prolonged sabbatical due to health issues, Robyn felt compelled to re-dedicate herself to “the music and the writing. That is the core of who I am and I felt I still had something to express.” She and two long-time friends, acclaimed soundtrack composer and producer Roger St. Denis and veteran engineer Kevin Doyle (Glenn Gould, Van Morrison) decided to work together and, in Hayle’s words, “do a little album. Some of my all time favorite American Songbook but with crazy wild arrangements and surprising instrumentation.”
This initial concept took a different turn with some fortuitous advice from Doyle, as Robyn recalls. “He said, ‘Let me get this straight, you’re going to get Canadian funding to do American Songbook? You’d better start writing, girl.’ I said ‘What? You want me to start spitting out songs in the style of Cole Porter?’ He said yes, and that night I wrote ‘Falling Out of Love,’ the next day ‘Journey’s End’ started, and on and on.”
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The compositional floodgates opened up, to Hayle’s joyous surprise. “Every songwriter talks about how some songs come through you finished, you just hear them, they’re done. Every song on this album was like that. It wouldn’t stop happening, not that it’s the kind of thing you’d normally want to stop. But I’d be like ‘wait a minute, I have to sleep a little!’ It was a torrent. Now a second album is virtually finished! I can’t stop! I enjoyed writing pop music, but this is so much more satisfying.”
One valuable song writing tool for Hayle was to imagine singers of the period tackling her songs. “If it doesn’t fit with Nat King Cole’s or Ella’s voice, if that’s what I’m going for, then I know I’ve missed it. At the beginning though, it was all about Nat. I just kept asking myself, ‘would Nat say that?’ ‘Arms Full of Roses’ was for him, as was ‘Falling Out of Love.’ There’s one on here, ‘Could This Be Love,’ that was originally written as a duet with Frank Sinatra. I had to alter the lyrical style in places to fit a more female sensibility.” The Chairman of the Board would surely have loved the song.
So convincing is Hayle’s take on the Songbook style that the elite group of Toronto players enlisted for the sessions were convinced these original tunes must have been standards, a comment that gave their writer “goosebumps.” “It was the highest compliment they could have given me.”
With Roger St. Denis on board as producer and arranger, the sessions for Arms Full of Roses took place in his Toronto studio. The core band included guitarists Justin Abedin (Jacksoul), Rob Piltch (Emilie-Claire Barlow) and Kevin Laliberte (Sultans of String), bassist Scott Alexander (Carol Welsman), drummer Davide Direnzo (Holly Cole), and St. Denis on keyboards, while the horn section of Bryden Baird (Feist) Colleen Allen (Molly Johnson) and William Carn (The Hilario Duran Big Band) add rich textures to such tunes as “Can’t Take My Eyes off You” and “Crazy Melody.” Guesting on two tracks apiece are jazz harmonica legend Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans and guitar virtuoso Kevin Breit (Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson).
Hayle describes the recording experience as “glorious. We stayed true to our intention, musical integrity, first and foremost. The musicianship on this album is out of this world. Going to the studio was just so exhilarating, so joyful.”
The musical, vocal and lyrical maturity so evident on Arms Full Of Roses is eloquent testimony to Hayle’s lengthy commitment to the crafts of singing and song writing. She began vocal and piano lessons at the Royal Conservatory in Montreal at age seven, and won her first International Music Competition at nine, singing “Faust.” By thirteen, she was performing in city clubs, singing backup for major Quebec star Tony Roman.
At 15, Robyn became the youngest music student ever at McGill, but soon defected to the rock ’n roll circus. She toured with such stars as Johnny Farrago and Patsy Gallant and headed her own bands, prior to relocating to Toronto. There, Hayle was soon in demand for jingles and voiceover work (in both languages), and a detour into acting quickly paid dividends.
She worked on children’s programming for TVO, including Sesame Street, and the acclaimed Today’s Special, an internationally popular series on which Robyn played the computer TXL Series Four as well as doing all the animated voices, earning a global cult following in the process. A stint in New York City studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse to hone her acting chops was followed by a move to Los Angeles.
Robyn’s first screenplay attracted significant studio interest, and she simultaneously kept writing and recording her own adventurous material. Such musical heavyweights as Elliot Randall (Steely Dan) and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) were keen to work with her, but the fickle hand of fate conspired to prevent these plans from coming to fruition.
Any such career setbacks are now in the past. A creatively and physically rejuvenated Robyn Hayle is now set to show the world what she has to offer, and Arms Full of Roses is one impressive calling card. “The roses are a metaphor for the sweetness of life,” says Robyn. “I’m grateful. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do what I love again. As long as I can keep doing that and I have the chance to share it, I have arms full of roses.”
This vibrant talent is one to be welcomed with arms wide open. Show less
