Jazz singer Emma Pask began her career at 16, entering clubs through the kitchen.
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The teenager was discovered by jazz musician James Morrison when he played at her high school.
The ARIA nominated jazz singer will play Suttons Music House this Friday.
“In the second half of his performance with his band he said ‘we’ve heard this performer, we’d like to see if she can cut it’,” Pask, who has performed with Morrison now for two decades, says.
“When I did first start working with James back in those days 16-year-olds weren’t allowed in many of clubs we were playing so I’d have to be walked through through the kitchens out the back - and I’d be the act.
“For my first few years on the road I was studying for my HSC so it wasn’t the glamorous, it was very much gigging, getting back to the band room, studying your maths, studying your Japanese.
“School work did fall by the wayside a bit. It (touring) was magical, I had no idea what I was doing.”
When I did first start working with James back 16-year-olds weren’t allowed in many of clubs we were playing so I’d have to be walked through through the kitchens - and I’d be the act.
- Jazz singer Emma Pask
Her first song with Morrison was Billie Holiday’s God Bless the Child – one of the few jazz songs in the 16-year-old’s repertoire.
The pair have played now been playing the song together for 20 years.
“Unbeknownst to me that was him testing me out to see if I could cope with that experience,” Pask says.
“We had to choose on stage and I was standing there like a stunned mullet, I knew God Bless the Child and I’d only known that because I was singing that with my school band he said ‘what key did you do it in?’ and I said ‘I don’t know’.”
Next he asked for a swinger. Pask suggested George Gershwin’s You Can’t Take That Away From Me – but only knew some of the words.
“I finished God Bless the Child thinking I’d gotten through this horrifying test and then he said ‘how about a swinger?’ and then we worked out to play You Can’t Take That Away From Me.
“My mum was in the second row and she knew I didn’t know all the lyrics so she quietly mimed the lyrics to me.”
Emma Pask will play on Friday, April 28 at 8:30 pm.
Tickets are $30 plus booking fee pre-sale and $35 at the door.
Contact Suttons House of Music: 5333 4393 or visit www.suttonshouseofmusic.com.au.
Jessica Black
Ballarat journalist.
Ballarat journalist.
