She’s classy, sassy and a little bit bad.
She’s also quite lovely.
Montreal-born Vancouver musician Andrea Superstein played for small, intimate show at The Arts Station last Wednesday along with drummer Nino DiPasquale and pianist Jen Lewin.
Her show broke all the rules.
Her unabashedly sultry rendition of Eartha Kitt’s “I Want to be Evil,” broke all the rules.
“I love it because it’s playful,” said Superstein. “I do a less serious take on it and it’s fun to perform.”
Her highly experimental rendition of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” also broke all the rules.
Superstein’s argumentative approach to music challenges norms by taking unique approaches to classic songs.
“It’s something that interests me in life and in music,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of grey in the things that we do and in the way that we live. Good things and bad things kind of balance each other out. I think life is about trying to make sense of those things and to coexist with them.”
Superstein said she has always wanted to pursue music in some capacity. A graduate of McGill University’s theatre program, she originally intended to go into acting, “But after I finished theatre school I realized I didn’t want to be an actor at all.”
However, an endemic desire to express herself drew her toward the jazz scene like a moth to a dramatic flame.
“I couldn’t deny it,” she said. “It just kept coming back and popping up. I think it’s really important to be able to follow your passions and I think that’s what’s happening now.”
In 2010, a break-out performance at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival earned her a nomination for a Galaxie Rising Star. Her 2015 album called What Goes On was listed as one of the top five vocal jazz records of 2015 on !earshot, and was featured in BC Musician Magazine.
She has since been touring her album between raising a family and a full-time teaching job.
Superstein said she enjoyed The Arts Station’s good vibes.
“I liked the fact that it was so intimate,” she said. “We can chat with members of the audience. I like that. I think that’s the magic of a live performance. That’s the difference between listening to a record and coming to a live show.”
She is working on a new album with three-time Juno nominated artist Elizabeth Shepherd. She said her next album might be released in late 2018 to early 2019.
“I think being able to express myself creatively in public and have people have an automatic response to the music is cool,” she said. “That space that is created. That interaction between the audience and the band.”
“For me that’s the money right there,” she said.
