Name: Rita Ray
Nationality: Estonian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current event & release: Rita Ray just performed at the Stuttgart JazzOpen. Her next gig is at Von Krahl Theater in Tallinn, Estonia. She will also release a new live album on September 6th 2024.

If you enjoyed this Rita Ray interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.

For a deeper dive, visit our earlier Rita Ray interview.



You just performed live at the Stuttgart JazzOpen.Tell me about your performance at the festival, please.

We had a really nice time there. We had a sold out show in a really nice jazzclub called Bix. The audience was great, we were hosted so warmly and I am over the moon that we got this opportunity to perform at Stuttgart JazzOpen.

What does the term jazz mean today, would you say?

To me, jazz has always been about the improvisation. Even if I have a structured melody and lyrics that I have to sing, I always try to bring something new to the table. And I have songs that have scat solos etc.

I think the meaning of jazz has definitely changed over the years, but I’m no jazz police to point fingers to what’s jazz and what’s not. To me – jazz is all about the improvisation, jazz language, speaking your mind through this language on a standard or on a song.

Thanks to technological advances, collaboration has become a lot easier. What's your view on collaboration and its ongoing role for the music you make?

I find collaboration interesting. I have done this in the past and will definitely try again in future.

Sometimes it can be easier to write with another person especially if I have been stuck with a song for quite some time.

In terms of the results, the process, and the satisfaction, how do making music in the same room together versus filesharing compare to you, real concerts vs live streams?

I always prefer the real thing over the experiences we get over the internet. But technological evolution has made making music so much easier if getting in the same room together is not an option.

For many artists today, the term „live“ does not exclude pre-recorded vocal parts, instrumentals, or even fully-fledged lipsync during particularly difficult passages. What does it mean to you?

Well, me and my band are 100% live. I don’t have any backing tracks or lip sync parts.

But I don’t think less of the artists or bands that use those things, if it is tasteful and real talent is out in the open. It can be very hard to emulate some genres and productions to make the song sound good live.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation?

I’m always trying to learn something new. Improvisation has to feel interesting to me, because I hate to stay in the same place for too long.

Transcribing and practising scales has also played an important role learning the magic of improvisation.

In a live situation, how does the audience influence your performance?

The audience has a tremendous impact on a concert.

To me, it’s all about the exchange of energy. If the crowd is dull, I have felt the need to pump them up more and on the contrary – if the crowd is energetic, I feel that I am more in the zone to just concentrate on storytelling and singing.

The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feels it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?

Thank god for that. Some of the live performances on YouTube have influenced me so much and I feel thankful to have experienced them, even through the internet.

One performance in particular is Etta James’s –  “I’d Rather Go Blind.” I think I have watched and listened to that one like a million times. She was just a force of nature … how she lead the band and told this story through the song was just mesmerizing.



Part of the intrigue of interpretations is that the process is usually endless. You've performed some songs many times over the course of your career. Amongst these performances, do you feel there are at least some that feel “definitive” to you?

Yes, definitely. I have a live album coming out on 6th of September. This was recorded on two nights back in 2022 when I was presenting my sophomore album A Life of Its Own.



I will never forget those shows because I really felt in the zone singing those songs.