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NYT Syndicate

When she found herself at a creative crossroad in the midst of making her debut album, Kandace Springs had a good friend to turn to for guidance: Prince.
The late superstar discovered the Nashville jazz and soul singer two years ago, when he found a video clip of Springs singing Sam Smith's Stay with Me online. He retweeted it to his followers, causing a viral rush, and then sent her a direct message that led to an invitation for Springs to perform at a 30th-anniversary concert for his 'Purple Rain' album at Prince's Paisley Park complex in Minneapolis.
"I walked in and saw all his plaques and awards and stuff," the 27-year-old Springs recalled, during a telephone interview,"and then this door opens to my right and goes boom! And it's like, 'Omigod, Prince is here!'
"I didn't realise how short he was," she added with a laugh."I had to look down to see him. But I ran and gave him a hug, and he was a little, like, 'Whoa ... ' But I think he liked it."
Prince became a friend, mentor and sounding board to the young musician ” which proved helpful during the recording of her 'Soul Eyes' album, which released in June.Though her own orientation was in jazz, record-company executives were trying to steer her in the more mainstream pop and even hip-hop directions that had populated her EP 'Kandace Springs' (2014).
"People would tell me, 'Jazz music doesn't sell. Nobody will want to listen to that (garbage),'" Springs recalled.
'Kandace Springs' did get her several appearances on late-night television and at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Afropunk, but still she didn't feel comfortable with the music.
Prince provided validation for that perspective.
"I played that stuff for Prince, and Prince hated it," Springs recalled."He would call me, harassing me: 'Kandace, go back to playing Sophisticated Lady and The Nearness of You and Rain Falling, the real jazz stuff. You could be the Roberta Flack of your lifetime.'
"I mean, he would get angry," she said."He even called my producers and told them to take me back to jazz."
In the end Springs got her way. Produced by Grammy winner Larry Klein, who has worked with such big names as Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell, and featuring jazz luminaries such as trumpeter Terence Blanchard and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, 'Soul Eyes' has been received with rave reviews, earning five stars from The Times of London and four stars from Mojo magazine. The Guardian applauded her"rare ability ... to sound like an old soul, just doing what comes naturally." The Wall Street Journal called her"a suave songstress," and Essence magazine dubbed Springs one of its New & Next artists.
In their last visit before he died, Prince also gave his thumbs-up.
"I played him this organic record, and he was like, 'Yes, this is it. This is great,'" Springs said."I got his approval, so that felt good."
"It's feeling like it should now," added the musician, who was performing in England when she learned of Prince's death and as a tribute went onstage wearing a black-leather jacket he'd given her."It feels honest. This is the kind of music I always wanted to make, and that I think I do best."
Music is in Springs' DNA. She was raised in Nashville, daughter of a recording-session backup singer for a wide range of artists, from Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan to Garth Brooks and Vince Gill. He took Springs along to recording sessions, and between those and church she grew up with music ingrained as a way of life.
"I just always was submerged in it," said Springs, who began playing piano when she was 10."Dad was like, 'Kandace, you need to sing. If you sing, it'll take you to another level.'
"He would make me and my little sisters get in a line and sing gospel hymns and everything," she recalled."We would cry our eyes out, 'We don't want to sing gospel hymns,' and he'd be like, 'Come on, baby girl, you can sing ... '
"After awhile I was like, 'I kind of like singing,'" Springs said."I would creatively sing when no one was in the house."
Then came Norah Jones' debut album, 'Come Away with Me' (2002), a Grammy winner whose diversity validated Springs' own wide-ranging tastes.
"When that last song on the album came on, The Nearness of You, a jazz standard, I was like, 'Omigod, what is this?,'" Springs recalled."I stopped everything I was doing and was like, 'I want to do something like that, man!' So I went and learned that song."
Springs sang it in public for the first time when she was 15, performing at the Kids On Stage summer camp in Nashville.
"People there were like, 'Wow, we didn't know you could sing,'" she said.
Music isn't Springs' only passion, however. She is also, of all things, a gearhead.
"I'm absolutely obsessed, sometimes more than music, with cars and the automobile industry," Springs said."I get under the hood. I'll do a tune-up, change plugs, change oil, all that (stuff), hoses, wires, sensors. I used to buy and sell cars for a living under the table.
"That's my dirty side."
These days she owns a Corvette and a"monster" Jeep, Springs said, but ultimately she picked music over automobiles and hasn't thought twice about it. The rest of her year will include shows in the US and Europe, as well as a booking at Daryl Hall's Rock 'n Soul New Year's Eve Party in Pawling, NY.
As for 2017, it's shaping up to be even busier, as 'Soul Eyes' continues to gain traction and fans.
"It's very organic, and there's not a lot of people in the younger generation making this kind of sound, with real instruments and stuff like that," Springs said."It's been a long journey, but I'm really happy to be where we are now. I'm overwhelmed, really. I just take one day at a time and try to be thankful."
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23/10/2016
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