Spotlight On: Nicole Zuraitis
by Abigail Flowers
Grammy winning vocalist, composer, and pianist Nicole Zuraitis will be performing at Rudy’s Jazz Room on Monday, May 13th at 6PM. Tickets are available here. She will be joined by Nashville favorites Jonathan Rogerson (guitar) and Jimmy Sullivan (bass).
Ahead of her performance (and before she headed off to Europe for tour), I was able to talk with Nicole on the phone about her musical background, her advice to young musicians, and more. She was funny, gracious, candid, and kind. So much of her story is relatable to all musicians, yet her success serves as inspiration for those carving their own paths.
Since our conversation a few weeks ago, I’ve been haunted by a particular statement she made about confidence. You can see the full exchange below, but she said that when she wonders if she ought to just hire someone with more experience in a certain area, she asks herself, “Where is the proof that I don’t know how to do this?” That helps her push forward in the creative process and take more risks. As someone who struggles with self doubt (and I know many women and other folks in our community can relate), this has been an incredible encouragement to me. We’re often capable of more than we realize, but don’t give ourselves permission to try. I hope you’ll find this conversation with Nicole as inspiring as I did, and I hope you’re able to enjoy her performance in person on May 13th.
AF: I would love to know about some of your musical influences—even those who’ve influenced your sound indirectly.
NZ: Carole King, for sure, and Stevie Wonder are two big songwriters for me that are super influential. And also Sara Bareilles. But then I also always loved Gershwin. I love the Great American Songbook—Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, those kinds of songs. I consider myself an old soul, like I loved theater growing up. I loved being able to see a Lerner and Loewe show and then all of a sudden hear Ella Fitzgerald sing “Almost Like Being in Love”.
I’ve always thought good music is good music. I never was a fan of just one particular genre; I really loved everything. I’ve always gotten obsessed with one song, as opposed to an entire album—I don’t know if you can relate to that.
AF: YES! And that really came across in listening to your music. Like the first track off of your most recent album is so blues—those influences really come across—and then I found your covers of “Jolene” and “Tennessee Whiskey” and it’s like… She loves music.
NZ: I’m so glad that came across. And I always thought that was my Achilles heel for so many years, because I wasn’t able to be put in a box. And since I won the Grammy is the first time that I went, “wait a minute, I think I was rewarded for being authentically unique.” For so long, people couldn’t quite put words to what I was doing. But at least “jazz” has expanded enough that they’re like, “well, I can hear the influence of Black American Music in her, and that’s enough for us.”
AF: Jumping around a little bit, but I am so curious… Once you get a Grammy nomination, you’re so much more aware of the eyes and ears on you. Did you ever feel like you had to write for a certain audience? Does that kind of success make you feel greater permission to be creative, or is there ever any pressure to fit a certain sound?
NZ: That’s really the question, right? The first month after I won, I had so many things that I had already booked pre-Grammys that I had to fulfill, so I was just fulfilling commitments—I didn’t have a chance to think because we were on the road constantly. It had nothing to do with the Grammys, it was just stuff I had booked before. And then for a month after, I was just shocked. Like, what do I do? I won a jazz Grammy, it’s huge pressure. And then people said you should do a standards album! And I said no thank you. I mean, I’m going to do a covers EP that comes out in the fall or early winter, but then… I was kind of frozen because everyone was telling me what to do. And I finally said, wait a minute, I got myself here. What do I want to do? I write music, so… I had written music over the last year. Even as we were touring How Love Begins—I mean songwriters, we’re always writing. And this music is kind of a similar vibe. Someone will say, “it needs to be more cohesive… It needs to be more swing…” Well, How Love Begins is all over the place and it won, so what do you want from me? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I’m rambling because I just had a huge coffee but to answer your question, the pressure is real. But I’m not writing the music for a Grammy. I’m writing it because I want people to hear it and I want other people to sing it. I don’t want the music to be just for me.
AF: I love that. That’s so interesting to me—it never even really crossed my mind because I don’t know that I’ve seen that sentiment a lot from contemporary writers.
NZ: I’m actually putting together a book of contemporary jazz songwriters, and that was happening pre-Grammy shenanigans. What I’ve found is… When you have big TikTok stars blowing up, and they’re getting millions and millions of streams, who’s profiting? Probably not the songwriter. Maybe their estate or Harry Fox. But we have amazing contemporary songwriters, and if we all sing each other’s songs, we can make a new songbook.
AF: I also think that because so much of our life is online these days, paper anything is what people are craving. The ability to hold a book in your hands and read music… Someone gave me a paper invite to her show last night and I was like… I’ll be there, simply because this isn’t an Instagram story. I have a friend who does symphonic pop and sells the scores to his stuff and it’s just beautiful that it invites people into the music in such a different way.
NZ: I love that! I think so too. I noticed that when vinyl came back. And I’ve been saying as a joke (but also not really a joke), “you think vinyl is coming back—CDs are coming back.” I just bought a cheap vinyl player and it had a CD player AND A CASSETTE PLAYER. And I mean people are still buying my records even if they don’t have a CD player because we put so much heart and soul into these things.
AF: Jumping around again. You sing, you write, you play piano. Have you always done all three equally or do you have a primary instrument?
NZ: Definitely voice. I taught myself how to play the piano, but I’m not really a soloist on piano. And I used to play the trombone (laughs) but that just kind of helped me grow as a musician.
AF: I’d love to hear your advice for young people getting into music. Any words of wisdom for folks starting out on that road? Or big lessons that you’ve learned?
NZ: I would say that one of the things that intimidated me about jazz until I was about 30 years old, I kid you not, was the improvisational factor. I feel like women in general, we don’t always feel permission to take a huge risk like that. So if you can find safe spaces where you can practice improvising with people that you trust… You know, sometimes we have to have permission to do that because it’s really scary to improvise. I mean, if you’re a beginning jazz musician, you need to learn the language of jazz and you have to transcribe solos in order to even know where to start with improv. But having a safe space to do that is really important, so calling sessions—and maybe people don’t get paid. If you’re just starting out, you’re just playing. You’re not on a stage, you’re not at a jam where you just play one song, you’re literally just spending 3 hours with people making music in a safe way. I think that’s huge, and it’s something we don’t do enough. But it’s something a did a LOT when I was first getting into jazz. I mean, we didn’t have any money! I was a nanny, my husband was a barista—he’s a drummer—but you know, you just go and play music, because that’s where you can take risks. And record it!
Once you get more established, try to keep women in the mix. That’s really important. There are female guitarists, female bassists, female drummers. Trying to keep an eye out for one another is really important. I’m sure that’s what you guys are doing with Nashville Women in Jazz.
AF: I’m curious to hear what you value musically. What elements of music are most compelling to you? Like I recently realized that growing up, I only loved blues. I skipped everything on the CD that didn’t have some undertone of blues. And vocal harmony is extremely compelling to me. What are elements of music that you really value? As a composer, and as a performer.
NZ: As a performer, I like people who are genuine on stage. You know like when you meet someone and they smile with their teeth but not their eyes… I feel like a lot of people are like that on stage, too. So something that’s compelling to me is someone who’s equally comfortable on-stage as off.
And then musically, I’m with you on the soul. That little bit of grit that you can’t put your finger on. I love complex harmony under a simple melody. I love anything that’s groove- or bass line-based. And then I just love a good story, and a good storyteller.
AF: I keep thinking, as I hear you speak, that I’m just so excited you’re coming to Nashville because… The more I learn about the songs that I love, I’m fascinated by the meeting of country music and what we would consider jazz. Like song form, there’s so much shared DNA, there’s so much shared history, and Nashville is a place where a lot of that history lives. I’m excited that you, as a genre-less creator, are coming back here.
NZ: It’s funny because I grew up listening to theater, rock and roll, jazz, country… Like those are my genres. And the root of all that is Black American Music. And the same thing goes for country music, as everyone is discovering now, thanks to Beyonce! And it’s all rooted in like a spiritual, blues, soulful sound that… You know, that can’t really be taught.
AF: What role does collaboration play in your creative process? Do you love it? Do you do it because you have to?
NZ: I love co-writing with the right person. I can swing to both sides of the pendulum—overbearing, or completely passive, depending on the person. So collaborating with the right person is really fun for songwriting. When it comes to my own music, I really take ownership. I make the decisions. And as I gear up to do my next record, thinking about hiring other producers… My gut just keeps saying, why? I can collaborate, but I like producing my own music. And I wouldn’t mind producing for other artists as well.
AF: Where does the confidence to do that come from? Is it just experience? What tells you, “I am qualified to lead this in every way.”
NZ: Confidence is never a word that someone would put on me—they wouldn’t say “Nicole” and “confident” together. My whole life has been me going, “is this okay? Am I doing this right?” You know?
AF: YES.
NZ: Now, with a little bit of external validation, I’m using my Socratic questioning when it comes to my next decisions. When I think, “I should hire other people who know more than me to do this,” I’m like… “Where’s the proof that you don’t know how to do it?”
AF: *mind melting*
NZ: That’s been a really crazy thing for me, because I’m not a naturally confident person. I doubt myself constantly. But right now, I have to be like… I think I know more than I give myself credit for. And here’s the proof of that. It’s a wild place to be. I desperately want other people to carry me, and… nobody’s carrying me. Nobody cares about us as much as we care about ourselves. I guess that’s my big lesson. You have to drive your own bus.
AF: How do you deal with disappointment, failure, or setbacks as a musician?
NZ: It fuels me. Like a healthy dose of competition has always been something that helps me keep powering on. And again, there’s that confidence thing. You would think that I’m a confident person, because every time I got rejection, which was 24 hours a day for 20 years… You’d think I’m saying, “well, I’m confident that I’m great!” But it was never confidence that I’m great, it’s just this nagging feeling that I had something to offer, and that the right people hadn’t seen it yet. My grandmother always used to say to me, “You’re a little bit different, Nicole. You learn a little bit differently, you do things at a different pace than other people, but you’re a special kid.” So maybe it’s the inner child listening to Grandma, like I might not do things the cookie cutter way, but Grandma said I’m special!
AF: This is a favorite question of mine. I have a friend who has a playlist called “I Definitely Don’t Want to Quit Music” and it’s those songs that bring you back to being a kid and what made you fall in love with music in the first place. What would be some songs on your playlist?
NZ: I have a playlist called “Inspiration” that is exactly that. The stuff for when I’m just like… why am I doing this? There are albums like Tapestry by Carole King, Blue by Joni Mitchell, Inner Visions by Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin—the one with “Stairway to Heaven” on it. Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley… Keely Smith and Louis Prima, that really fun kind of jazz. And then (laughing) all the Bing Crosby Christmas stuff.
AF: What about individual songs?
NZ: “The Dawntreader” by Joni Mitchell. I love the version of Brenda Russell’s “It’s Something” by Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway—that always reminds me that music is amazing. And then “You Can Have Him”, that’s a Nina Simone cover of an Irving Berlin song. I like listening to Stravinsky, The Rake’s Progress, I like some classical in there. I could go on, but as you can see it’s pretty diverse.
You can learn more about Nicole at her website, https://www.nicolezmusic.com/.
Listen to her Grammy winning album, How Love Begins, on your favorite streaming platform (or buy it on CD, vinyl, or digital songbook).
