You could say that Ellen Doty’s love of jazz began before she was born.

“My grandmother lived across the street from Nat King Cole in Los Angeles,” she notes. “My grandparents loved jazz music.”

They’d go dancing to the music of Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at the Hollywood Palladium on Fridays. Years later, when Doty was growing up, jazz would be playing in their house.

Fittingly, Doty now plays the genre herself: the Edmonton-based songwriter’s known for her soulful voice, and her talents have brought waves of acclaim and collaborations.

“Lately, part of my practice has been doing a lot of collaborating with others,” Doty says. “Which is really inspiring, and helps me learn about how other people think about music or how they approach songwriting.”

This just-past holiday season, she released a new single, co-written with drummer/composer Biboye Onanuga, called “Red and Green”. They partnered the release with Monogram Coffee and Made by Marcus Ice Cream to raise money for charities in Calgary and Edmonton. She also just guested with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for a run of Christmas concerts.

“I've performed with the Calgary Phil, just the string section, during Covid,” Doty says. “We did a virtual concert where I sang with them, but it's not the same as being in front of the whole audience at the Jack Singer [Concert Hall] … It honestly feels like floating when I'm up there.”

Doty’s also been working on her new album, which she’s hoping to record in February. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s Come Fall and looks to fold new sounds into her oeuvre.

“I’m continuing with the concept of my last album, which is quite minimal,” she says. “The last album was just voice, piano and drums. It was a lot of fun to work on that and leave space for the music to breathe. But this time I'm actually going to be working with a quartet of players from the Calgary Phil called Kensington Sinfonia. … I really love that sound, and the colour and texture that that brings to the music. So it'll be nice to build on that.”

Before recording, Doty is doing a string of shows across the province to road-test new material, including her January 14th show at the City Arts Space. Although she used to work at the Arden, this marks Doty’s first proper concert in the city.

“You always learn things from performing the music live—things that work really well or don't,” Doty says. “It's nice to see people's reaction to songs as well, so it's a really good way to continue to refine the songs, especially before you go into record.”

By: Paul Blinov

Please visit the Arden Theatre's website to buy tickets to Doty's January 14th concert at the City Arts Space. 

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