“I’ve always been this way,” laughs Térez Montcalm, “I started singing when I was eight years old and as I looked so small people always thought I was ill because I had this deep, husky voice. Then, when I started to make a name for myself in the professional world, people in the industry thought I must have nodules on my vocal cords. I’d have to convince them by saying, ‘No, if I had nodules on my vocal cords, I wouldn’t be able to sing for a normal length of time!" Térez even went to see an ENT specialist in Montreal to investigate this strange state of affairs. “He put a camera down my throat to film my vocal cords,” she explains, “and found that they were perfectly healthy. They were just bigger than normal. Radio Canada even did a special programme on them! My vocal cords produce powerful blasts and I can really draw on them. That’s what gives the deep, husky effect!"

On her new album, Voodoo, Térez serves up a series of jazzy reworkings of pop and rock classics by the likes of Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, The Eurythmics and the late French singer Claude Nougaro, leading one to wonder if she could have chosen another musical path in life. “A number of well-known producers have actually approached me over the years,” she says, “suggesting I become a rock or a pop singer. Well, I love rock, but I’d never have been happy limiting myself to singing just that. Music is something I totally enjoy, but I don’t take myself too seriously. I happen to have a gift, my voice, that I want to exploit to the full, but it’s important to do what I love. I think at my live shows and on my albums people can hear that I’m really enjoying myself. And I think this honest approach appeals to them!”

Asked whether she ever finds the jazz world narrow or limiting in any way, Térez retorts that "It’s other people who confine jazz within its own territory and don’t want to know more about it. Voodoo is a crossover album, but that’s still a pretty underground thing. My new album’s not Diana Krall or Norah Jones – and jazz purists certainly won’t like it either! My audience are a bit more intellectual, they like to get their grey matter working. They’re people who appreciate music, who have a real knowledge of music. And it’s wonderful singing for people like that!"

Térez strives to maintain a kind of linguistic balance in her work, too. "My father’s an English-speaking Canadian,” she says, “He was born in Toronto. That’s where he grew up and that’s where his first children were born. Then he moved to Quebec and that’s where I was born. At home, everyone would mix French and English quite happily. My first three albums are in French with a few songs in English thrown in. But Voodoo is mostly in English. This is my bid to open the market up a bit. I won’t be able to make a living if I limit myself to singing jazz in French in Quebec. Imagine, in Europe, you’ve got 342 jazz festivals a year! And one has to face the fact that the majority of the jazz repertoire is in English. And, no, I won’t be doing French translations of the rock songs I’ve reworked on this album."

France has long glittered as an Eldorado, beckoning singers from Quebec, but Térez Montcalm insists she does not want to export another French Canadian take on ‘variété.’ She is impressed by the potential overseas, however. "You people are crazy over there. There are so many festivals, you can tour a show for six months at a time. Back where I come from, you can’t really make a living from music. Jazz musicians end up starving to death. A lot of clubs have closed and there are no proper venues to perform in in Montreal. Toronto’s not much better, either." Let’s hope we see more of Térez Montcalm this side of the world in future then!