Wise, Candid and Talented Jazz Harpist-Vocalist Margot Sergent Answers Six Questions

Margot Sergent hat — Photo by François Mallet

French-born Margot Sergent began her musical studies at the tender age of four. At a still early age, she began her professional career performing as a classically-trained harp player. That endeavor brought her to prominence in France, playing in national orchestras and chamber groups in major French venues and eventually beyond on a worldwide level. By the time she moved from Paris to New York City in 2015, Sergent had also become a jazz vocalist and the leader of So French Cabaret, performing at jazz clubs such as Club Bonafide and Jules Bistro, as well as the Albertine Library at the French Embassy and the Air France-sponsored Central Park Marathon. She has also participated in tours with Archie Shepp’s protegee, Monica Passos and number-one pop selling artist in France Nolwenn Leroy. Pursuing her jazz education, and before settling in New York City, Sergent attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying songwriting and jazz improvisation, and vocal performance with Maggie Scott, former vocal teacher to Diana Krall and Esperanza Spalding.

On Thursday, February 16, Sergent returns to Birdland Theater with an encore of The Edith Piaf Experience at 8:30 PM, performing with Pat Brennan on guitar, Alec Safy on bass and Linus Wyrsch on clarinet. Sergent, on harp, will offer renditions of Piaf classics.

NiteLife Exchange (NLE) asks Margot Sergent (MS) Six Questions:

NLE: You began your career as a classical harpist. What compelled you to switch to jazz and to become a jazz vocalist?

MS: I had a beloved uncle who introduced me to jazz through the albums of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. I didn’t know it was called jazz, but I remember it being among my warmest and happiest childhood memories. Later on, as a classical student, especially on piano, I was intuitively attracted to all the composers oriented on richly-colored harmonies (Bach, Shubert, Debussy, Ravel), or percussive narratives like Bartok, and all the early French Cabaret literature, such as Poulenc and Satie.

I developed as a requested chamber classical musician and orchestra player, but I was eventually hired by a Brazilian singer to sing backing vocals under the supervision of the jazz legend Archie Shepp. So I was introduced to jazz though Brazilian music and the genius musical director Jean-Philippe Crespin. After the number-one selling pop artist in France hired me for her tour, I met bass player Laurent Cockelaere, a Berklee College of Music alumni, who suggested I study jazz more deeply, as well as songwriting. Even though jazz was very new to me, I took his suggestion very seriously and attended Berklee for vocal performance with the legendary Maggie Scott and other masters in songwriting, jazz improvisation, harmony and any other class I could take. When I relocated to New York in 2015, I had the chance to develop a jazz language both on harp and voice the traditional way, meaning performing and jamming with my peers for the past eight years. Jazz was absolutely my language from the start, but it took me years to discover it and to plug in to it entirely.

NLE: European cabaret and American cabaret are performed in different styles. How would you compare those differences? How has each influenced you as a cabaret artist?

MS: Once I became established as a classical musician, I felt the need to get an acting education, too. I was also maintaining my love of dancing as a hobby, turning instinctively to modern dance, jazz and then Horton technique. Without knowing it, I was attracted to the three main directions of a Broadway artist, which is not necessarily the way artists grow up in France. I switched to jazz, though the Parisian Cabaret as my very first gigs were curated by Antoine Larcher, whose parents owned a Cabaret des Familles, one of those places in which Edith Piaf certainly started singing. The Cabaret side in France was just in front of my eyes, but as it was not that much of a French thing to be multi-skilled, I had to wait for my American journey, especially the NY journey, to embrace it fully.

To me, the French cabaret was more a song factory where established songwriters were sharing the stage with more inexperienced performers and musicians in genres like burlesque. It was a way to tell about the lives of the invisible of the society, first to entertain the high society classes, but it quickly became a tool for the blue collars to have a voice and empower themselves. The song acts were not necessarily meant to entertain but to channel tough emotions or situations though music. It was more an introspection than an evasion. I am still discovering the magical world of the American cabaret, but so far I am blown away by this uplifting witty world that can turn any heavy topic upside down, question deeply while presenting it in such lively ways that it puts the hardest topics into perspective. Broadway artists are to me, as a European-raised performer, an ideal for performing.

NLE: How did you discover the jazz form and who were your jazz inspirations growing up?

MS: As I mentioned, Ella and Sinatra were my first crushes. Later, I was introduced to traditional jazz through Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, Jo Stafford, Lola Albright and Blossom Dearie, who were all added to my growing list of jazz obsessions. At Berklee, Maggie Scott introduced me to the Great American Songbook and I was hooked, especially by traditional jazz and swing. My musical journey would change forever, as I finally found what really resonated in me in the vast jazz family.

I also always start my day extending my repertoire as a performer and a songwriter, getting back to the roots. Through passionate research, I am plugging into a time when artistic commitment was about getting in the heart of courteous love, with delicacy, moderation, simplicity and patience. It seems to me the goal at this time was to find the right note and right word that would describe the indescribable, the subtle, the ephemeral and the complexity of human feelings. Getting back to studying the standards keeps me sane and grounded as an artist and nourishes my songwriting.

NLE: What compelled your move to the U.S. and how have you found living here.

MS: I gave up my entire professional French life for a big jump to Boston for the love of jazz and have stayed ever since, as I understood it would take me way more than a few school semesters to be fluent in jazz, especially on the harp. I also stayed because of the musicians I met and for all I still have to discover in my dual word between jazz and cabaret.

There are good and bad sides of a culture in every place. At this time of my life, New York is exactly where I feel home. It is a paradise for me musically and professionally. There are some sides of the American culture I adore, many that seem natural and almost familiar to me, and some I have a hard time with. I could say exactly the same for French culture. I didn’t give up my French heart; my heart expanded this past eight years with a complementary American part. I don’t feel French anymore, but not yet American—if I ever will. I feel like a happily hybrid French-American.

NLE: Your upcoming show at Birdland is a tribute to and about Edit Piaf. Many vocalists have created shows about her. What sets your approach to her music apart from the others?

MS: After I arrived in America, my first gigs were writing French lyrics to Great American songbook tunes. But once I arrived in New York and people recognized my accent, they would request Piaf songs. At first, I was reluctant because I thought it was keeping me away from what I wanted to perform—which was jazz. I also had a narrow vision of Piaf’s work. Even in France, Piaf was represented by her dramatic songs, a powerful vocal belt, and a very recognizable vibrato. While I was doing my research to incorporate more Piaf songs in my sets, I discovered much more about her and the wonderful mutual admiration between the French and American cultures between the 1920s and ‘40s with Josephine Baker, Sydney Bechet, Boris Vian and Prévert.

Then I really dug into the Piaf world. The more I was learning and immersing myself in her world, the more I felt the most valuable parts of the Piaf legacy were missing; her sense of humor, her irresistible and charming optimism, her resilience through life; the wisdom she developed through the trauma she went through; her generosity for lifting people up and revealing talents. She was selflessly giving herself through the character of her songs, like an actress channeling someone, even at her weakest moment when her health was declining. This to me is what made her performances so incredible, way above the power of her voice. Piaf surfed on the bumps of life with a sense of humor, cherishing the blue notes instead of fighting against them. She was jazz. And she inspired me to swing through it as a way of life, finding an uplifting dialogue between the up and downbeats.

When I play Piaf’s music, I am vocalizing with the harp, using my voice as an instrument, and inspired by Piaf, blurring the borders between singing and acting by channeling the story or the character. I have been determined to channel her spirit instead of offering another impersonation.

NLE: You’re also a songwriter. What is your particular style of writing? What inspires you when you create a song?

MS: The songs that resonate in me are those which are about the complexity of human feelings. I love songs that are about those battles, doubts, and inner voices. Loving and being loved is wonderful, almost easy on the good days, but it becomes an act of bravery when it’s challenging or complex. My upcoming album (to be released in June) is about all the shades of love that are not the passionate, consuming romantic ones, but more about friendship, gratitude, inspiration, listening and appreciation. My original songs are “thank you notes” to people or situations I experienced that help me grow and be more at peace with the wilderness of life. In songwriting, as in life, complex feelings ring a bell in me. There are songs that took me out of the darkest places, or brought me to imaginary places I thought I would have never explored. Some songs gave me courage to make the right choices and stand for myself.

I value the power of songs more than anything else. I think writing a powerful song is a miracle and this is for sure the most vulnerable content I am sharing, but the one I am the proudest. It took me seven years to finalize my second album. I needed to be patient enough to find the perfect team to understand my songs and take care of them, and to play them with me in the studio the best way I could have imagined possible. Through those songs, I am sharing years of developing a sound on the harp, with the exact team who helped me achieve that vision. It was definitely worth it to be patient and I cannot wait to share my original album with an audience.

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