Jane Mortifee is having a good day: yoga, massage, a bit of work and, tonight, the theatre.
“I’m living my best life,” said the Vancouver singer, actor and BC Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee.
Just before the pandemic, Mortifee came out with her first novel, titled Out of the Fire.
Now that the restrictions have lifted for performers, she’s back on the road — starting 2023 with a concert at Port Moody’s Inlet Theatre as part of Bill Sample and Darlene Cooper’s Inlet Theatre Music Series.
The show — featuring Sample on keys/vocals, Cooper on vocals, Tim Porter on guitar, Miles Foxx-Hill on bass and Randall Still on drums — will be followed by two more gigs in March in Vancouver, plus a new CD this fall.
The recording will be a mix of ballads “and some of the more ‘up’ tunes that I probably will be doing at the Port Moody concert,” she said, adding, “I’ve been wanting to do a CD for years, but I change the songs for it often because I’m in a different place and I start singing different songs, depending on where I am in my life.”
She’s got a set list for the Port Moody show, though: “Put A Woman in Charge” by Keb’ Mo’, “Compared To What,” as covered by Roberta Flack, and “Love Sneakin’ Up On You” by Bonnie Raitt will be performed.
Mortifee said she’ll change her program based on the venue. Last November, she played a show with Sample and Cooper before 30 people in a small Port Moody suite, “which has a different energy than a theatre.”
“With the theatre, there are more rollocking songs because it’s such a bigger space to fill musically.”
Mortifee said she got to know Sample in the 1970s while playing in projects in Vancouver and Victoria.
She sang at the Variety Club telethons, of which Sample was the musical director for a decade. And he’s been Mortifee’s musical director for the past 25 years to work on dates, arrange the music and conduct bands.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, “it used to be a pretty tight community [in the performing arts industry]. We were all playing gigs and interchanging in bands, so Bill and I have known each other for a long time.”
She added, “I think it’s such a wonderful thing that Bill and Darlene have created out there [in Port Moody] with the Inlet Theatre Music Series. It gives people a chance to sit back and listen to some good music.”
Responded Sample, “Jane Mortifee has a voice that can be powerful and full of drama, but then she can also sing with tenderness and pure emotion. We are stoked to be able to present her at the Inlet Theatre, with her world-class band, four of whom are from Port Moody.”
Tickets to see Jane Mortifee at the Inlet Theatre (100 Newport Dr., Port Moody) on Saturday, Feb. 18 are via eventbrite.ca. The concert starts at 7 p.m.
Next up:
- Mar. 31: Dawn Pemberton Band (blues/soul)
- May 6: - Vince Mai Quintet (jazz, Latin groove)
