R ed B l ack
A N D B LU E
L E A R N I N G T O A P P R E C I AT E E A C H M O M E N T A S I T C O M E S
words by Ola Mazzuca photographer Wade Hudson stylist Tiffany Briseno @ Judy Inc make up & hair Dee Daily @ Judy Inc
creative direction by CHLOE Fashion Editor Amarsana Gendunova
At a studio in Toronto, Saidah Baba Talibah is getting her
makeup done, clad in garments by American Retro and
rocking Chanel combat boots. Her manager, David ‘Click’ Cox,
sits nearby and is responding to an email.
“Would your mom be pissed if someone called
her a blues singer?” he asks.
The content is for a book about blues. Talibah
isn’t having it.
“I wish my mom could talk right now. She’s not
just a blues singer, she’s not just a jazz singer…”
Rather than succumbing to a sole label, the
multi-instrumentalist, whose main tool is her
voice, prefers to omit the word ‘genre’ from her
vocabulary. Born and raised in Toronto, Talibah
is one of the city’s most polytropic artists. She
leaves eardrums ringing, wanting more, with an
idiosyncratic mix of edgy, raunchy soul, but will
always be the daughter of Salome Bey –
“Canada’s First Lady of Blues.”
From being the frontwoman of 90s metal band
Blaxam to her Chevy commercial hit,
“Revolution,” Talibah believes that “whatever
touches us, resonates with us,” regardless of
chord and verse.
“We don’t listen to one type of music because
those genres would not thrive. But because we
are humans, we have to see certain colours or
touch before we taste. That’s human nature, but
if you don’t like it, keep it moving.”
Talibah is doing just that. Her next record is all
about “finding your place, finding your voice
and speaking your truth.”
RedBlack&Blue, scheduled for release in 2014,
is a sonic memoir of familial connection. The
album’s concept is shaped by the influence
of three women: Talibah’s mother, sister and
daughter; and three animals: the red robin, Black
Panther and blue butterfly. What the vocalist
initially called a “crazy idea,” the animals aren’t
necessarily symbolic of three people, and the
context is neither good nor bad.
“It’s how they’ve influenced and inspired my life
and how I have moved from that,” she says. “We
are all dealing with different kinds of adversities
and it’s about how we get through them.”