DELTA — As anyone who’s ever tried to forge a career out of something creative knows, artists subsist on little cash and rarely have dental plans, let alone the hefty pensions that that their government-employed peers enjoy.
North Delta-born jazz singer Jaclyn Guillou, who’s releasing her third album, called Winter for Beginners, knows that, like the days of getting rich off of your music, jazz clubs are also going the way of the dinosaur.
That’s why the well-travelled chanteuse, who got her first big break performing at Vancouver Jazz Festival in 2009 and subsequently won the CBC Galaxy Rising Star Award, has decided to launch her latest album at Coal Harbour’s PAL Studio Theatre, in Vancouver.
PAL is a social housing complex that provides subsidized living for artists over the age of 55.
“I just wanted to keep with my personal feelings with working together to keep the arts community happy and healthy and PAL Theatre is a very interesting place because of the nature of the building,†Guillou told the Now.
“It’s important and it’s something that, I hope when I’m 55 I get the opportunity to live there and get taken care of in that way, because artists need support as they get older because we don’t have pension plans,†she said.
Released on Oct. 6, Guillou’s latest record is a nine-track disc that explores emotion and nature.
“It evokes a lot of different ideas,†she said. “It’s very dark and moody.â€
The album, partially crowdfunded through a Kickstarter campaign, is on the Cellar Live label, headed by former Cellar Jazz Club owner Cory Weeds. The Cellar Jazz Club, based in Kitsilano, closed its doors in February this year.
“[The album] explores the role of nature and the four seasons and how people react and respond to each other and their surroundings,†Guillou said of her latest release.
“In the same context in that matter, the actual title Winter for Beginners has a lot of different meanings but one of them is based on a memory of when I first moved to Toronto to go to school, and it was so cold in the winter that I just couldn’t handle it. I had felt like I was such an inexperienced beginner, walking out across the street to the school and I had a little tear because I was crying… and the tear froze on my cheek.â€
From the record’s title track to the lyrics on “Castle Garden,†the album is woefully introspective and intimate, making the 100-seat PAL Studio Theatre an appropriate venue for its release.
“The venue is quite small and jazz is just really best heard in an intimate environment. We can bring it to a stage of 1,000 people but there’s this physical feeling about having an intimate show where the audience reacts and responds and is kind of working with the artist to give back a certain vibe,†the singer said.
Guillou’s record can be purchased online on iTunes, at Cellarlive.com or at the singer’s personal website, Jaclynguillou.com.
Jaclyn Guillou performs at the PAL Studio Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the intimate concert are limited to 100 seats and are available at Northerntickets.com.