Source: Jetro Emilcar / Jetro Emilcar

When you think of jazz, a particular sound comes to mind: sophisticated chords, expressive syncopation, and the call-and-response patterns. Dominique Fils-Aimé, an award-winning musician from Montreal, redefines the age-old genre by adding meditative vocals and amplified harmonies to her live recordings. Not to mention, the “Go Get It” singer’s stage presence is quite distinct, typically all-black attire, glittery makeup, and embellished box braids–totally a new wave of jazz. 

During her rceent U.S. tour, Fils-Aimé scatted across the east and west coast, making stops at concert halls like the Blue Note. And becoming one of the very few artists to perform back-to-back at the legendary venue.“​​It makes me so happy to see people actually sink into the process of letting themselves go and just closing their eyes,” the free-spirited artist tells MadameNoire. She adds, “Or just feeling like they’re taking in the music as a personal journey, vibing with it like that. It makes me super happy.”

With her American tour concluding soon, in preparation for her Canadian run early next year, Fils-Aimé spoke exclusively to MadameNoire about her personal sound, live music preparation, and forthcoming multi-album project.

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MadameNoire: The U.S. leg of the tour began on the East Coast, which included the Blue Note (NYC), and then you traveled to the West Coast. How has the tour been going so far?

Dominique Fils-Aimé: Yes, the first date [was] Boston. Firstly, it’s been amazing. People have been so kind and welcoming. I feel extremely lucky that I get to do this honestly, with a wonderful band and a beautiful team. It was a milestone to do the Blue Note in New York, because that’s a place I never even imagined in my wildest dreams. So that was pretty incredible. We just did the Blue Note in LA as well, and now we have Napa [too]. So, we’re the first tour to have three Blue Notes. It feels like a very humbling privilege, because I know many people [who] would deserve it as well, and for us to be the lucky ones is just a privilege and an honor.” 

During your live performance at the Blue Note, you asked the audience to close their eyes and reminisce on their childhood. Take us back to your upbringing, being raised in French Canada by immigrant parents from Haiti, and your overall musical journey.Yeah, music was very present in general. I like to think that we all start our life singing, because the first thing we do is to make sound, to scream for air. And the joy of being alive is the first sound we make, really. But music was just always there. My sister studied piano. She tried to teach me. She gave up very quickly. I had zero discipline [laughs]. My mom loved music playing in the house from everywhere and every type of music. So it was an environment where it was seen as just part of the scenery, always, and not necessarily something I ever thought of as a job. Way more as just a way of life, in a sense.

Source: Jetro Emilcar / Jetro Emilcar

Being able to have access to the European culture, Canadian, American—Montreal is very multicultural, very open-minded, so that was definitely a place that is a great and fertile ground for art. Even street art is everywhere, just like New York. There’s something about walking down the street and seeing art everywhere that kind of stimulates the mind and the creativity.

You acknowledged your band and the sound technician at the beginning of the show, rather than towards the end. It’s clear that sound and instrumentation are extremely important to you. How do you all work together on the set list and figure out what parts to do a cappella?

When we created that show, I really wanted it to be a play or a movie. So that’s why I wanted things to kind of merge one song into the other. So that there would be something seamless and an evolution. And a narrative that people could really sink in and let themselves kind of imagine a world within their minds as they’re listening to the show. So it was a lot of work with the band. I wanted the show to convey narrative curves.

We all together created something that flew the way it does now, with little sections and topics that I wanted to underline throughout the show. So that was a really fun process. It feels like another form of creation that is more collaborative, that allows my album to have a new light and a new life. They really transform the songs, and they make it their own. So it becomes something else as a band, and that’s something that I really love doing.

The band really came together super organically. Montreal is a very small network of musicians. There’s a very strong culture of jamming. So this is where you meet everybody. Everyone knows each other. You discover who you get along with, who has a fit that makes sense. So throughout the past seven years or so, the band has been building slowly but surely into what it is now. And now it’s been about six, seven years, that is the same band, except for the drummer…So, I’m surrounded by beautiful humans who are as kind as they’re talented.

Speaking of sound, how would you describe yours? Genre-wise, you’re classified as jazz. But also blues, soul and R&B. I noticed that there’s a bit of spoken word in there too.

The concept of trying to label things I have a hard time with. So I feel like the most honest answer to how [I] would describe my sound would be I wouldn’t. And me trying to be my most authentic self and having [the] most fun, and it creates something that sounds like me. I guess, or I could describe it as free. Because I think that’s the essence of jazz. 

So that’s what I took away from observing and listening to jazz artists, I feel like there is an academic side that kind of studied jazz and decided these are the notes and the sound. But in reality, jazz has never been about a structure. It’s always been about seeking personal freedom, seeking collective freedom, and having it leak into music. Or the freedom they found in music leaking into society. It’s an exchange between the Black community freedom. So, this is my vision of jazz. I think this is why I feel like I’m a jazz artist.

You released your debut French single last year, “Moi j’et aime”? Do you see yourself entering more so the global music space, similar to artists like Burna Boy, YoYo Ma and Angélique Kidjo?

Yeah, the song just came on its own. When I create, it’s a very organic process where things just happen in a way. So I even wonder sometimes, how did I even write any of those songs. And that one just came to me in French, so I went with it. I think most of my musical education was education being everything I listened to because I didn’t go to [music] school, but I feel like I was taught by the ones I listened to growing up. It was mostly done in English, so that’s what came more naturally. But that one somehow just felt right. The lyrics came in, in an hour, it was written, and it just made sense. So I figured, I guess this is the start of my first French journey in music. So we’ll see if it goes any further.

[Also] I don’t see myself [as a global artist] I don’t really project in the future. I’m just so happy in the now. So, I wouldn’t be able to really say. I guess I’ll just keep doing what feels right, and then it will take me where it’ll take me. Especially that I have a beautiful team that gets to plan these kind of projects in the future for me. So I can just enjoy the process and follow my instincts to say yes or no when things feel right or don’t. I’m already just amazed of everything that’s happening. I can’t believe this is my life. I’m just here for the journey and grateful to get to do this.

Your latest album is a live album: Live At The Montreal International Jazz Festival (recorded in 2024 and released in 2025) What inspired you to release a live record?“

Source: Cecilia Baguerre Martinez / Cecilia Baguerre Martinez

We had thought about making a live album for a while, because the shows and the studio albums are so different that we would talk about it once in a while, like, “you know, it would be nice to have the show immortalized eventually.” And there is a form of legacy in the concept of jazz because there’s something very raw and authentic about “that was the show,” and with all the imperfections, if we can pull it or rather the things that make it human.

After the Jazz Fest, he [my manager] told me, I think that should be the one. And we record every show. So even for example, Blue Note New York, we have the recording of it. The option to make a live album kind of experience. [The live album] is very special as a first on the big scene at the Montreal Jazz Fest, with the choir, with the percussion, the trumpet, everyone being there, and the energy of that that night was so warm and vibrant. I’m very happy. This is the first one we got to produce as an album. So maybe in the future we’ll see another one. I would love the Blue Note New York to be the next one. Just because I had such a great night. Yeah, so that’s in the back of my head. Maybe one day.

Also, you mentioned that your fourth album, Our Roots Run Deep, released in 2023, is the first album of a trilogy. Can you tell us more about that project collectively?

Our Roots Run Deep was the first of my second trilogy. Before that, I had done a trilogy already, but that was based on the history of music and my understanding of the emotional components. So, the notion of us uniting the first one, I wanted to also underline my gratitude for all the work our ancestors put in for us to be where we are today. To also let them know that I will do what I can to add my brick to the building in the most honest and loving way possible. And just reminding myself and whoever of all these connections that exist between us. That was kind of the starting point.

And now for the continuation, it’s going to be about diving further into the notion of seeking personal and collective freedom through art and life in general. So every time there’s an element, there’s a color linked with [the] time frame. These elements are still going to remain, and there’s also connections to chakras for each color. So if people pay attention to the progression of the albums, they should be able to guess the color of the next album, and therefore the chakra that is linked to it.

The green one was the first. So basically, the first trilogy was all primary colors. And now the secondary colors for the second trilogy started with green, and it’s basically a mix of the yellow and the blue from the first album. Even the energies of the first trilogies are kind of brought into the next one as a continuation.

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The post Meet Dominique Fils-Aimé, The Haitian-Canadian Star Redefining Jazz For A New Generation: ‘This is My Vision’ [Exclusive] appeared first on MadameNoire.



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