THE ORBIT ROOM is a hole in the wall on College Street, and on the small stage, backed by a five-piece band, stands Richmond Hill’s Jully Black, wearing brown motorcycle boots, a denim miniskirt over black tights, a fitted beige jacket and a smile from ear to ear.
The music is loud, thumping, a sound Black calls “durban rock,” rock ’n’ roll urban dance tunes. The group runs through several blistering numbers from The Black Book, the 31-year-old’s third album, and then Black hugs all the musicians and takes a momentary breather at the classic old bar.
“I’m ready to celebrate life, love and opportunity,” she says, as she catches her breath on a recent Friday afternoon. “You know, the first record was dedicated to my mother, and my last record was dedicated to my sister who passed, but I’m now at a point where it’s not the victim’s story. This record is a jubilee, a celebration, it’s triumphant — a little bit of oomph to start your day.”
Black has spent her days making music since her mother moved the family from Jamaica to the Jane and Finch neighbourhood where she was born.
Instantly, Black was marked as a talent, and she was signed by a record label in 1998 and recording songs with Kardinal Offishall by the time she was 18. For a girl at the centre of a small world in a rough neighbourhood, Black thought she was on her way to fortune and fame.
“I would assume that she learned a music industry truth that is very real, but not very glorified: that the overnight success story you often hear or dream about is seldom a reality,”says Rez Digital, an influential DJ at Toronto’s New Flow 93.5 FM.
Black’s label went out of business before her first album was released. After starting off as a teenage sensation, she was cast aside and spent the next years eating Mr. Noodles and playing small shows for uninterested crowds.
“I’d say Jully lived the story where you learn that if you pay your dues, sacrifice, study the ins and outs along the way and work your ass off it can lead to incredible success,” Rez Digital says. “Jully’s story isn’t about her being different; it’s about her simply being the best.”
The way Black looks back on her story, she sees the rapid emergence and subsequent disappearance of her music career as an inevitable path. One that she also sees intricately tied to Richmond Hill.
“I finally had bragging rights in the ’hood and then … my mom moved our family to Richmond Hill,” says Black, who not only had to say goodbye to her friends, but also her music career.
Black attended Seneca College, where she studied law enforcement, but all the while she continued to sing.
She says adjusting to life in Richmond Hill wasn’t easy. But there seemed to be a lesson attached to everything that she did. She continued to make music and, eventually, settled into her new home.
“I didn’t want to go, are you kidding me?” Black says, with a laugh. “Yonge and 16th? I’d never gone past Steeles! But my attitude changed. I made my first friend, and she’s still my best friend.We’d go to Victory Gym and be the only two black girls.
I realized, in the inner city, sometimes you get too comfortable. Richmond Hill became symbolic: ‘What do you really want to do?’”W hat Black wanted to do was to continue to make her soul-shaking music, which eventually was released as the album This is Me, in 2005. It had been six years since Black worked her last day job. And the album was nominated for the 2006 Juno Soul Recording of the Year.
“I knew it was the right thing for her to do because I knew she enjoyed singing and did it well,” says Black’s mom, a mother of nine, who, like her youngest daughter, still lives in Richmond Hill. “That made me put my faith in her and encourage her to keep going and never give up. I told her if she puts her trust in God she will surely get everything her heart desires.”
Once Black had a chance to get her music out, accolades followed her from city to city and show to show. She recorded with Missy Elliot and Destiny’s Child and, with so much momentum behind her, released Revival in 2008, which contained the number one single “Seven Day Fool.”
“It’s not a bad thing to be an underdog. When it seems like things are too perfect, what is there to strive for?” she says. “I feel like an underdog in our country, and that’s where I want to be. I’ve won a Juno and realize that’s not a golden ticket. There is no golden ticket! If you jump in your car, tell me where you can go without making a turn? You’ll run into your neighbour’s house, even if you don’t live in Richmond Hill.”
The day at the Orbit Room is organized chaos, and Black is seemingly doing a thousand things at once. She tapes a commercial to promote her upcoming appearance at the Vancouver Olympics and then hops back onstage to play “Running,” the first single from her latest disc.
The album represents Black’s influences, everything from Michael Jackson to David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper to Madonna, Prince and Peter Tosh. “We didn’t have black radio where I was growing up, we had radio,” she says. “I’d hear Phil Collins, Run- DMC,Bob Marley and Kenny Rogers. It’s the language I speak. That’s what I grew up listening to.”
Young Pete is the producer of Black’s new album, and he says that while she’s a perfectionist in the studio her long road to the top has given her a serenity when it comes to dealing with fame.
“Nothing has come easy for Jully, but what’s amazing is that she said, ‘Fine, if no one’s behind me, I’ll just go my own way,’” the Atlanta-based producer says.
“You can hear endurance and passion in her singing. She’s real, and that’s what makes people love her so much.” On the small stage, Black is smiling as she directs the two guitarists who help her round out her new durban rock sound.
The Black Book is an album that Black says celebrates the twists and turns that have made up her life. When the band is finished, she’s laughing. She then asks everyone to run through it again.
“As young as I am, with no children and no ties, my music is my baby and I owe it everything,” the Richmond Hill resident says.
“It’s not money, it’s not fame, it’s your significance that matters. I feel significant to me, that’s why I’m successful. I hope people like The Black Book because it’s me: everything that I’ve been through and everything that I am.”