Nishla Smith
Nishla is a singer and writer driven by a desire to tell stories. Her unique musical sensibility, along with this preoccupation with narrative, is recurrent throughout a diverse array of musical projects.
In 2020, she toured her first staged work, ‘What Happened to Agnes’, created in collaboration with visual artist Luca Shaw and jazz pianist Tom Harris. ‘Agnes’ was co-produced by Opera North and Leeds Playhouse, and toured nationally with support from Arts Council England.
Following ‘Agnes’, Nishla and her collaborators formed Ulita, a cross-disciplinary arts collective focused on creating music-driven theatre. She was awarded a ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ grant to work with the Ulita team on a second show. ‘Sister’ will commence rehearsals at Britten Pears Arts this summer with support from Arts Council England, and has been selected as part of Mercury Musical Developments’ BEAM, a showcase for new British musical theatre.
Outside of her work with Ulita, Nishla heads up an original jazz band, the Nishla Smith Quintet. Formed out of a residency at Sage Gateshead, the quintet recently joined Jazz North’s Northern Line artist roster and are set to release a debut album with Whirlwind recordings in Autumn 2021.
Nishla is currently making new music for the Manchester Jazz Festival originals commission, as half ‘Night Porter’ with saxophonist Emma Johnson; and is working on a solo commission for East Neuk Festival: ‘Aether’, a five movement song cycle exploring environmental crises in partnership with St Andrews University department of Earth Sciences. She was announced as City Music Foundation artist in November 2020, and will be working with CMF over the next two years to develop the various strands of her creative and performance practice.
"Nishla Smith’s original ballads sound like standards from the American Songbook … maudlin moments shoulder ecstatic reveries…" – London Jazz News
“Classic songwriting worthy of the great American songbook, suffused with a skewed, haunted quality” – Opera North
PHOTO CREDIT – Robin Clewley
Nishla Smith // Vocals
Aaron Wood // Trumpet
Richard Jones // Piano
Joshua Cavanagh-Brierley // Double Bass
Johnny Hunter // Drums
Venue information:
The Yard, 11 Bent Street, Manchester, M8 8NF.
Evening Concert + Livestream at The Yard
Monday 8th November 2021 at 7.30pm (Please note, doors will be at 7pm)