About

Malawi born vocalist Malia moved to London aged fourteen in 1992. Her soul drenched take on jazz standards, ballads and blues was much in demand on the capital's club scene. Influenced in her early life by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, she released her first album "Yellow Daffodils" onto the European market to great acclaim in 2002. Now a firmly established artist in both France and Germany following her award as "International Singer Of The Year" by Echo Jazz magazine she is rapidly gaining worldwide recognition  ahead of this her seventh album release.

The recording itself could be described as a twenty first century examination of the blues, with a jazz sensibility and even at times, a glance towards country and soul. The vocalist is the main composer on ten of the twelve compositions with a very fresh and individual take to the lyrical content. It does have a stylistic approach that she has not shown previously. If there is one influence in her writing style, it sounds as if some numbers could have come from the pen of Leonard Cohen. There have been very few vocalists with such precise and near perfect diction that have performed in a blues orientated setting with such conviction. The musicians that she has called upon fit perfectly into the mix with Nis Kotting's atmospheric  wurlitzer and the telling guitar interludes from Lars Colin being key to the albums success. Malia is above all a story teller, delivering her message clearly and with a refreshing passion across such diverse subjects of Hope, Restoration, Freedom, Love and even Death. Perhaps this album is not one for the jazz purist, but everything about it is of the highest quality and importantly gives more with each listen. – Jazz Views