Award-winning vocalist and recording artist Nicolas Beard is known for his silky baritone and jazz-inflected R&B. Ahead of his Friday and Saturday performances at Middle C Jazz, Beard talks about his music with WFAE "All Things Considered" host Gwendolyn Glenn.
Nicolas Bearde: I was a big fan of recorded music. Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Temptations, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, just go down the list. And my brother was in the band and he was playing, you know, the marches, the sousaphone and all that sort of stuff, and Beethoven and all that. So I became a fan of classical music as well. By the time I reached high school, I actually had an offer from a producer, a local producer, to possibly get a label deal. It didn't work out, unfortunately. I had a three-man group at that time in high school.
Gwendolyn Glenn: I understand that after high school, you joined the military and that you continued to sing overseas.
Bearde: Oh, absolutely. That was my first professional band, if you will. I had enrolled in Tennessee State University and I found that I was spending more time in the student union than I was in the classroom and wound up joining the Air Force. My first tour of duty was in Japan. And at that time in Japan, there were all sorts of bands and nightclubs and, you know, there was a big scene over there. And I wound up going to an audition with a friend who was auditioning for the band and I was just, you know, accompanying him. And there was a line that he was asked to do that he couldn't do. And the bandleader looked at me and said, Can you sing it? And I said, "Yeah," and I just popped it off. And he says, "Okay, well, you're in the band." I lost a friend too, but I gained a band, yeah.
Glenn: And I was reading an article about you and it said that you credit your mom with that love of jazz that you have.
Bearde: Oh, yeah, well, she is pretty much the one that exposed me to jazz. She and her buddies would have card parties and they drank a lot of Schlitz Malt Liquor and J & B Scotch, and they get in there, cutting up and talking trash. And they had a special interest in Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, Dinah Washington. And it became a part of my life as well.
Glenn: So how would you describe your style? Because you've done all types of music and you even had a number one song in 2005 on the beach music charts, "Summer Sunday"? How would you describe your style?
Bearde: Oh yeah, "Summer Sunday". "Summer Sunday" was kind of an R&B groove-type song, laced with jazz, of course. And it just had that feel that fits that beach music scene, that shag dancing scene, as they call it. And it hit, but stylistically kind of R&B, but laced with jazz. I mean, R&B is my original path. But I expanded to jazz — I got tired of getting down on my knees and begging, you know, baby baby, please, baby, please. I could see that, you know, it was not a path to longevity for me.
Glenn: You're a baritone. And listening to some of your music, I'm picking up hints of Lou Rawls. And you even did a Lou Rawls album in the past.
Bearde: I love Lou Rawls, yeah. Lou Rawls, to me, epitomized the male jazz singer, and when I heard Lou Rawls live, it quickly became my favorite album. And it gave me something to kind of model myself after, although I wasn't trying to cop his style per se, but just an understanding of that kind of machismo and, you know, being a jazz man.
Glenn: You worked with Bobby McFerrin and the Voicestra. Tell us about that.
Bearde: I started singing with a group that was doing a cappella jazz music, run by a woman by the name of Molly Holm. And through this group -- I worked with them for about a year and a half -- she founded Bobbie. After his big hit Don't Worry Be Happy, he decided he wanted to explore some other styles of vocal jazz. So about 15 singers got together in studio with Bobby, and we just improvised. After testing it out for a little bit, for about a year, he decided he wanted to do a more comprehensive program and actually make it a recording project and touring group. So he put the word out to the singing community worldwide, and people came to the Bay Area and other places to audition for him. And at the end of that year, he decided on his group members and that became Voicestra. We started touring in 1990 -- was the launch of Voice Australia as a group, and we toured the world. It was quite an experience.
Glenn: Let's talk about some of your more recent recordings. You did "Invitation" in 2016 and it was one of the top 20 on the Jazz Week charts.
Bearde: That was with Nat Adderly Jr. He basically produced that. Quite a character and quite a musician.
Glenn: And comes from a long line of musicians.
Bearde: Absolutely. His father, Matt Adderly Sr. worked with Cannonball and had his own band as well. Quite a legacy.
Glenn: Eric Alexander, did he play?
Bearde: Yeah. Eric is on the most recent one. That's the Nat King Cole tribute.
Glenn: What was your connection to Nat King Cole?
Bearde: Just a lover and follower of his music. He's so smooth, and it was just something to emulate as a singer.
Glenn: What's your favorite on the... or do you have a favorite?
Bearde: Probably "That Sunday That Summer." That was some song that I don't think got a lot of airtime when it first came out. It had a very kind of simple appeal to me. For some reason, it really touched my heart. It's just a beautiful song, kind of innocent, you know? But I did another, put another twist on it. Josh Nelson from Los Angeles arranged it for me.
Glenn: And he was a pianist for Natalie Cole and he produced this CD, right?
Bearde: Absolutely. Yeah.
Glenn: Well, one thing we haven't talked about is your acting career. You have a lot of credits in terms of acting on stage, on movies, on television. How did you get into acting?
Bearde: I was doing a play that featured Danny Glover as the lead. And I was just fascinated with the process, fascinated by the people. I didn't have any goals. I wasn't trying to get to Hollywood or anything. Something about approaching another artistic endeavor that I felt like it would expand my kind of understanding of lyric and my approach to music in general. And I booked the first role that I auditioned for. I played the Willy Malopo in "Master Harold... And the Boys."
Glenn: And I see you were in "True Crime" with Clint Eastwood, Final Analysis with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffin. Getting back to jazz, what do you think the future for jazz is? Because a lot of jazz stations are no more. Do you see it getting bigger audiences and getting a connection with the younger crowd?
Bearde: There's always a generation of people coming up who will migrate to jazz, who will discover it and discover its beauty and its versatility. Whether it will get a larger audience or not, I'm not really sure. Jazz is a different, more intellectual, I think, approach to music, and it's not for everybody. I think it should be part of the curriculum for music students and art students and that sort of thing, but not everybody can respond to it or will appreciate it in the same way. So I think it will always be a niche market in some way.
