An Evening with Dominique Fils-Aimé
Théátre Raymond Kabbaz, Los Angeles
Review and Photos by JULIE ANN SHAW
LOS ANGELES – Multiple award-winning French Canadian jazz vocalist, Dominique Fils-Aimé, made her Los Angeles debut on the heels of releasing her fourth masterpiece, Our Roots Run Deep, and I had the privilege of spending this evening with her and her insanely talented band.
I arrived at the Théátre Raymond Kabbaz around 4:30 p.m., and walked in to find the band, Harvey Bien-Aimee, Etienne Miousse, Danny Trudeau, and David Osei-Afrifa, setting up and joking around with their sound engineer who was working his magic. They were speaking French, and therefore I sadly could not understand them, but it was clear that they have the best time with each other on and off the stage.
After roughly 20 minutes of watching, listening, and photographing these artists, they quietly revealed a secret that I honestly could not believe. Each member of the band, without saying a word, moved from the instruments they were just playing flawlessly on to the instruments that they actually play on stage.
The musicians accompanying Fils-Aimé are: Bien-Aimee on percussion and drums, Miousse on guitar, Trudeau on bass, and Osei-Afrifa on keyboards. They’re so incredible, it took me a few minutes to release what was happening and I was just in awe of the talented people before me.
After the basic adjustments were done, Dominique Fils-Aimé came out and started her sound check, with a cup of hot tea in hand. Every musician that was on this stage is nothing less than extraordinary at what they do, but that does not mean that they don’t take every chance they get to have the best time while working. They took every opportunity to enjoy the banality of the millionth sound check that they have done, such as making funny sounds into the microphones to check levels, instead of a boring Do-Re-Mi. Faces were made and jocular insults that only family can make were thrown.
Being privy to inside jokes that erupted in laughter that filled the theater, even if I didn’t understand them, and being allowed to experience this group as just the simple, kind, and hilarious human beings that they are was truly an experience that I will never forget.
Once the sound check was done, it was time for food, wine, and a nap, so I let the band just be while they did normal human things in preparation for the performance to come.
Dominique Fils-Aimé made her way to her dressing room, along with her sister, who flew in specifically to see her perform. After she changed clothes, I went to her dressing room where I got to spend some time with her and her lovely sister. We bonded very quickly over our mutual obsession over all things glitter and nail polish.
Dominique was gushing over being in Los Angeles for the time, and being in our warmer weather as opposed to the cold of Montreal. She made sure to ask that I take full advantage of living in such a diverse city and I assured her that I do every chance that I get. For the next hour, our conversation remained fairly casual. We shared personal anecdotes about our families and lives as Dominique continued to put on her makeup, did her hair with help from her sister, did a last minute polish change, and put on the last of her accessories. The time came for the show to begin, and Dominique’s sister and I headed to our seats as Dominique and her band headed to the stage.
Dominique Fils-Aimé was given a brief introduction along with a little history of the theater by one the people who run the theater. Dominique took her place behind the microphone and remained silent for a few seconds, slowly letting her voice fill the space.
She opened with “Feeling Like A Plant,” and “My Mind At Ease” from her fourth album, the first of her second trilogy, Our Roots Run Deep, released late last year. Dominique took a moment to introduce her band and inform the audience that, even though applause is welcome and appreciated, it is not necessary, as she wants everyone to just just experience the moment they are with every part of their being.
The rest of the set was comprised of a few songs from each of the albums in her first album trilogy, Nameless (2018), her 2020 Juno Vocal Jazz Album of the Year winning album, Stay Tuned! (2019), and Three Little Words (2021), and the remainder were from Our Roots Run Deep. Dominique continued on with two songs from Nameless, “Home,” and “Birds,’ and then “Fall And All” from Three Little Words and “Old Love” from Stay Tuned!
Within the first few seconds of hearing Dominique Fils-Aimé’s voice, there is no question that she deserved her Juno Award, and every single award in existence. Her ability to both make you cry and feel safe and calm in the same song with her voice is nothing short of remarkable. Her use of silence as negative space as a part of the piece as a whole demonstrates how powerful she is as an artist, and as a woman. “Love Will Grow Back” from Our Roots Run Deep is the perfect example of how her voice portrays calm, beauty, hope, and pain in one single song.
Dominique Fils-Aimé continued on with “Love Take Over,” and “Mind Made Up” from Three Little Words and “Big Man Do Cry,” and “Free Dom” from Stay Tuned!.The remainder of the set was from Our Roots Run Deep, “Just Let Me Go,” “To Walk A Way,” “Give Me A Reason,” “Cheers To New Beginnings,” “Or Let It Burn,” and closed the evening with what can only be described as a flawless emotional masterpiece, “Our Roots Run Deep.”
