Michelle Nicolle and I have been aware of each other for a very long time. As she reminds me, she ‘grew up’ watching me on television and was aware of my work with the great Vince Jones and others; I became over time aware of her trajectory toward becoming one of the greatest jazz singers Australia has produced.

 

One day we met and began a conversation around songs we like, and it was immediately clear that our tastes converge at the melancholy, the testimonial, the heartbreak ballads that speak of love’s sometimes bitter ironies. The Covid lockdowns certainly helped with focus around this project, which led to the recording of our album ‘Noir’, a collection of standards and originals that reveal sentiment rather than sentimentality, great beauty in deepest shadow, empathy and calm.