Hollie Smith becomes label-mate to Norah Jones
29.05.07
On the week of the release of her much anticipated debut solo album Long Player, Wellington's soulful Hollie Smith signs to the prestigious Manhattan Records label in New York, a boutique pop label within the legendary Blue Note group, home to Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones.
"You can hear that voice and you can hear the songs and you know right away- this is somebody very special." – Bruce Lundvall. President, Blue Note Records
In a signing that crowns New Zealand Music Month and will take a New Zealand artist to the world, Wellington singer-songwriter Hollie Smith – Who topped the New Zealand charts with her version of Don McGlashan's Bathe in the River from the film No. 2 — has signed a worldwide distribution deal in New York with Manhattan Records, a subdivision of the famous Blue Note label.
Smith who flew to the Big Apple offices of Blue Note on Fifth Avenue and played two songs live on the grand piano in the label's lobby, has won the enthusiastic support of the Blue Note's president Bruce Lundvall, the man who signed Norah Jones and rejuvenated the Blue Note label.
When Lundvall took over the Blue Note label in 1984 he started a pop label, Manhattan Records — which currently has Celtic Woman, Van Morrison, Tim Finn, Raul Midon, and Diana Ross on its roster — and brought life back to Blue Note through a substantial jazz reissue programme and by signing the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Anita Baker, Al Green, Joe Lovano, Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones.
A man who began his career working with the likes of Miles Davis in the 60s, Lundvall knows the music business intimately and is a passionate believer in nurturing long-term talent rather than signing fast-turnaround sensations. And in Hollie Smith he believes he has another great talent.
"I think Hollie is simply an original and I don't know where she is going to end up going in terms of her direction," he says. "She's certainly a soul singer, but obviously there are soul singers everywhere. She happens to be one of the good ones. Really one of the best I've heard in a long time and that's where we start. She's also a good writer, a beautiful woman . . . She simply has that star quality you can't describe."
Lundvall initially heard two tracks from Smith's debut album in his car and immediately called his colleague Ian Ralfini, managing director of Manhattan Records. At that time Lundvall had no idea Smith was from New Zealand. After listening to the tracks together, Lundvall and Ralfini contacted EMI management in New Zealand and invited Smith to New York where she spent a week in discussions, listening to the affable Lundvall's anecdotes about the legendary artists he has known, and finally signing a worldwide deal with Manhattan Records' Ralfini.
"When I heard Hollie Smith for the first time," says Ralfini, "the thing that drew me to her music was her storytelling. She has, for a young person, a depth and passion that I hadn't heard for a long time.
"I think that Hollie has a great future in the music business and the kind of music she is doing needs to be taken to as wide an audience as one can reach. I think that she reaches a very big, wide audience."
And Lundvall says he heard something unique in Smith that was thrilling. "It was one of those things that very rarely happens. When you hear someone this exciting you don't think about anything other than, "Let's sign her as quickly as we possibly can!' And that's what we ended up doing."
For Hollie Smith, the future begins now.
