Meet hybrid musician Vanessa Collier, who sings and plays the saxophone on the same song

The word “incomparable” gets thrown around a lot when it comes to artists. But in the case of Vanessa Collier, it’s pretty spot-on.

Collier is a hybrid performer: She sings and plays the saxophone, often during the same song.

There aren’t many other musicians who bring that combination of skills to their work — and it’s helped Collier carve out a unique niche in the blues world. She has received 15 Blues Music Awards nominations and has won multiple times.

Collier will be performing at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix on Tuesday.

She spoke with The Show and said she knew from a young age that there weren’t many female artists who were both vocalists and instrumentalists. And that meant it wasn’t always easy to find role models.

Full conversation

VANESSA COLLIER: You know, saxophone is one of those things that, it is so close to the human voice, and so mostly you study singers. You know, in that way, there are a plethora of female musicians that you can kind of look at and look up to and, and kind of model, you know, and, and that's usually it is, like the story of how they've come into the music industry and how they've gained a name for themselves that carries more weight for me than than necessarily, like playing, having to play saxophone.

SAM DINGMAN: So what were some of those stories about coming into the industry that were exciting to you? I mean, I know that Sister Rosetta Tharpe is a huge hero of yours.

COLLIER: So I came across her because I was, I was, and still am, a huge Wood Brothers fan. And so they do a cover of a song that she became famous for, "Up Above My Head."

[SONG CLIP]

Such a good song. I mean their version is great. Sister Rosetta with Marie Knight, like it's seminal.

[SONG CLIP]

And, so then I kind of like, who is this Sister Rosetta Tharpe person? And, so I ran across this biography called "Shout, Sister Shout." And so I started reading it, and just some of those stories, you know, like she was one of the first women to have her own like bus to take her across the country. She was a huge household name. She got married, you know, in a baseball field with thousands of people that all just came to see. Like she didn't know them personally. They just came to see her get married because she was such a big name, you know.

But you know, if you think about that she was, she was in a male-dominated world, as the music industry, you know, still is, definitely was, and so making a name for herself as an instrumentalist, like that's kind of unheard of, like you didn't see women playing guitar, and kind of started to see what was possible.

So why not me? Seeing somebody else do it makes it, "oh OK, this might not be so hard," you know?

It inspired me to want to find my own thing on the instrument.

DINGMAN: Yeah, well, finding your own voice is a wonderful segue to my next question for you, which is, I'm curious how singing informs your saxophone playing and vice versa.

COLLIER: The approach to saxophone is very much the same as singing. There are a lot of similarities. So on saxophone, when you're going for like a low note, you're thinking like an "ah" vowel, an "ah" or an "aw." And what that does for you is that it helps you to reach the richness of the low end of the horn.

And so it's very much the same in vocals. You know, you're really you're really concerned about texture, you really want to get a particular tone from your voice. Low notes, you're going to think, "ah." You're going to open your throat. Your tongue is going to be at the bottom of your mouth, right? And then in the mid range, you're thinking like an "ooh." So your tongue comes up a little bit to the middle of your mouth.

DINGMAN: It's very interesting to hear you lay out this approach to sort of singing through the horn, because I love the way that you structure your solos. And one of the things I love about them is that they're they're very melodic. I feel like there are a lot of sax players who just, you know, kind of just try to blast a million notes as soon as they start their solos, which can be awesome, you know, virtuosic and whatever,

COLLIER: Sure, sure.

DINGMAN: But I have a sense of you thinking like a vocalist when you go to play a solo. Is that something you're doing consciously?

COLLIER: Absolutely, yeah. And I was never really drawn to the theatrics, just in terms of playing a solo that, that kind of has no feeling and no, no melody, like as you're saying. And so I definitely am thinking of lines as I'm playing, and I have always liked the melodic approach of, it's sort of like a thread being woven through a tapestry, right? So, of course, that thread might change color at some point, but the point is that it continues through the whole thing, and you can draw that entire line rather than all this, as you said, virtuosic stuff, which is impressive, but it lacks the heart and the soul for me, I want you to feel emotion, and I want you to feel like you almost know where the line's gonna go, because the melody rings true to you.

DINGMAN: You are a genre defying musician in a couple of different ways, and I feel like in listening to your most recent record that there's a bit of a clue about what that is like for you. On the title track, "Do It My Way," you sing, among other things …

[SONG CLIP]

COLLIER: Growing up, you kind of don't feel like you fit in anywhere. I mean, I was, I was a musician, an athlete, a scholar, and so in all the ways, like, sure, I fit in, in a way, but I felt that the way that I think has always been kind of different from from most people, and it definitely gives you this special approach to things, because you think about the world in a slightly different way.

And so I have decided to go this route and basically put out records on my own independent label, and do all the, all the work myself. It's very DIY. And there are a lot of people that are like, "oh man, I just, you know, you're just not good enough. You're just not, you know, you're not allowed enough, you're not a you're not an entertainer in that way."

And I have always believed that there's a way to quietly be those things. You know, I love the word sonder.

DINGMAN: What’s that word? Sonder?

COLLIER: Sonder, yeah.

DINGMAN: I don’t know that. I’ve never heard that before, what?

COLLIER: I hadn’t either, honestly. It’s the name of a Marriott hotel. It’s basically that, you know, I can be living a beautiful life in my own way. And, yet my neighbor who is either next door or all the way across the country, can live an equally rich, beautiful life that is completely different from mine.

[SONG CLIP]

COLLIER: That’s been my word for the last years. Like what a beautiful thought.