Diane Nalini is an incredibly nuanced jazz singer, and composer. She performs in 4 languages and teaches jazz ukulele as well. I hope you’ll join me in my fascination with the incredible range of Diane’s interests and expertise. Besides being a phenomenal musician she also is a Rhodes scholar with Phd in Applied Physics from Oxford university and presently works in environmental science policy for the Canadian government. Not only is she a great lyricist, but she has also written songs inspired by great literature including Shakespeare, in jazz, blues, gospel, folk and bossa nova styles. During this conversation, she performs some of her original songs for us, and I’ve added timestamps in the description of the episode for the many interesting topics we touched on as well as her incredible performances.

I was honoured to speak with Kellylee Evans, who is an amazing award-winning singer, songwriter and motivational speaker. Kellylee Evans: “And then I was interested at that time in minority rights and representation and in legal philosophy. And so I was doing my masters of arts in law. My parents, their hope I think would've been just like most immigrant parents a lawyer, doctor, engineer. And I tried to... I wasn't trying that hard though to really be a lawyer. I really was hiding in school. My goal was to just keep my head down and stay here as long as possible. Because school is awesome, and if you figured out the path, if you know what to do, you attend, you finish the assignments, you hand them in. You do the reading, you get a mark, everybody's happy. That's something that's very doable, I think if you can just follow the script. But real life outside of school is scary. And the music industry, what's the path?”

Towards the end of the conversation, she gives us the gift of an incredible a capella performance of one of the most-requested songs in her repertoire, "Feelin’ Good" by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. We speak about the many challenges she's faced, including two near-death experiences. To learn more about Kellylee Evans, her recordings and current performances: http://www.kellyleeevans.com/