Alita Moses
Words by Antonella Madrid Photographs by Willow Shields
We're sitting on a quilt in the garden of a house overlooking Hampstead Heath. It’s a slightly-too-hot and sunny day in August. With the London weather in our favour for once, Alita Moses, Willow Shields and I sit in a triangle, sipping on our waters and mentally preparing for the photography-filled evening that is to come. Alita has just come back from an extensive world tour as a vocalist and part of Jacob Collier’s band for the Djesse Vol. 3 World Tour 2022.
Alita was raised in West Hartford, Connecticut, later studying jazz vocal performance at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and now, is based in New York City. I question her on what she believes the highlights and lowlights of growing up in a town like that were for her. “I will say the best part of West Hartford, was how artistic my specific school system was,” she states. “It's kind of like your typical suburb of New England, and growing up, we had to get creative in ways to entertain ourselves.” Moses has been singing from an early age, with her mother on and off Broadway since Moses was three. “I was just really fortunate to grow up, being involved in literally every single choir you could possibly imagine and doing shows and performing here and there. So even though I did not go to an art school, it kind of felt like I did.”
When Alita was 17, the time came for her to go to university. She details why moving to Philadelphia was the right choice for her. She did in fact explore conservatoires including Berklee College of Music, as well as the possibility of studying at The New School in New York. “Just the thought of moving to a big city when I was 17 was just a little too much,” she admits. She shares how intimidating the alumni she spoke to made these universities seem. Admitting there was definitely a personal fear of feeling like just a number in an environment of thousands of talented individuals. “When I went to Philly and saw that school (U Arts), I don’t know, there was something very comfortable about it, in a good way I felt,” she nods. I ask her if she felt any of the big fish-little pond effect, or the opposite of it. “You know, it's funny. I think there, it kind of did feel like a big fish, small pond situation. To be honest, that's kind of why I chose that school in retrospect.”
Alita is known as a jazz singer to many, her performance with Al Jarreau in 2015 perhaps solidifying this belief. I ask the question of if Moses feels as if she’s confined to a genre, especially from having worked with so many individuals in the jazz sphere. “Yes, absolutely,” she answers. Her focus on jazz at university shaped the circle of musicians she knew once she moved to New York, musicians who offered a helping hand in getting her career going. “When I got to New York and started singing jazz, I kind of felt a little out of place because I don't consider myself solely a jazz singer, even though I've been labelled as such, pretty much my entire career.” She explains how she didn’t feel “jazzy” enough to be a legitimate jazz singer, and how hardcore jazzers most likely shared that sentiment. “I kind of backed away from the jazz world just because I didn't feel as welcomed as I would like to feel. I also knew that that's not exactly what I wanted to pursue, so I just kind of left it there and started pursuing other things and other genres.” During her time at university, she explored R&B, Neo-Soul, and the classic Philly Soul sound. She describes her personal music style as “a mixture of pop, soul, and singer/songwriter. A total mixture of genres and feels.”
The musician’s DNA resembles that of a mosaic, with the small fragments of lifelong musical influences, when pieced together, making up one large, sonic identity. Alita’s childhood was made up of Top 40 pop, from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Shakira. “I remember this stack of CDs that I would just have on rotation. I loved pop,” she laughs. Her father was a classical professor of voice and classical aficionado, having Maria Callas, Renée Fleming on rotation, she adds. “He also had an appreciation for jazz… Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and also Natalie Cole in particular, I always loved her because of him,” she notes. Growing up, Moses’ mother travelled a lot, and many of her musical memories take place on long car rides. These car mixes consisting of Shania Twain, Seal, Faith Hill, and Broadway cast albums from the musicals Once on This Island and St. Louis Woman. “It was just a total myriad of styles and artists with her as well.”
In May 2022, Alita released her debut single, ‘Still’ where she worked alongside producer Jake Sherman. Moses credits Sherman for helping her hone in on the vision she had for the song going into it. “It was definitely a collaborative effort in creating what we created. And also, it had many iterations, many lives, through the recording process,” she explains. Alita details how the first demo of the song differs greatly from what the song actually came to be. With ‘Dancing On My Own’ by Robyn being an inspiration, Alita wanted a song that was both danceable, yet melancholy in substance. “‘Still’ is a breakup song basically. It's kind of about that numbness and that space of just not knowing what to do, or how to be right after you go through a breakup, which is kind of a heavy space to sit in.”
Alita is featured on other released music, most recently singing on a ‘Dancing Queen’ cover on Jacob Collier’s album Piano Ballads – Live From The Djesse World Tour 2022. ‘Still’ however, is the first released single that only she performs and has written on. I've been writing since I was in middle school basically, and I've been performing my songs since then,” Alita reveals. One could wonder why she would release music now after more than a decade writing songs. “I think to be honest, I just let fear take hold for way too long.” For Moses, as for many artists, there is a lingering fear during the music release period that streams will be little to none. “Fortunately, that was not the case with ‘Still’. It's been doing really well… It feels amazing to have something of my own out there, because again, I've been featured on a lot of people's records before.” Moses shares that she has plans to release more music in the future and experiment with more producers.
As an artist, finding one’s voice can be a lengthy, complex process. It's easy to emulate inspirations subconsciously, sometimes a bit too much, where you risk losing your own voice because you're trying to resemble someone else. “I think I'm still on my way to finding my own voice in some ways,” reflects Alita. Her history of singing along to musicians she admires while covering an array of genres gave her the ability to replicate and incorporate their styles into her own singing in different ways. “It's kind of hard to describe how you put your own spin on your idols and inspirations,” she expresses. “I started to figure out, ‘how do I want to sound? How do I want to stand out from the crowd?’ And then just put my spin on it the way I knew how to.” She shares a heartfelt example of being told she channels one of her inspirations. “On this tour, the drummer, Christian Euman, said that he could hear Nancy Wilson in my voice a ton. And it was such a beautiful compliment because Nancy Wilson is one of my all-time favourite singers.” Moses believes she’s currently on the journey of finding her own artist, “I'm now in a phase of wanting to really just figure out my own thing.”
Alita began touring with Jacob Collier in April 2022, an opportunity which came about before the pandemic and through mutual friend and singer, Michael Mayo. Mayo, who was in Jacob’s band at the time recommended Moses to fill in for a different singer. When Covid hit, Moses worried that the opportunity had vanished. She laughs, “I was like, ‘well, there goes that. Who knows if I'll ever be on his radar again?’” Fortunately, the possibility to tour arose again, and Moses attributes staying in touch with Collier to a video of her duetting his TikTok Stevie Wonder ‘#OverjoyedChallenge’ back in 2021. “Social media! You never know, you really never know.” They got back in touch, and Moses was then able to sing with Jacob at his show at Blue Note in New York. “He just FaceTimed me out of the blue one day after that and was like, ‘would you like to go on tour? I'm trying to bring this tour back and I want you on it.’ And I said, ‘yeah, absolutely. I would love to do that.’ And so yeah, that was basically it.”
The world tour kicked off, and Alita and the rest of the band ended up playing 69 shows in four months. A highlight, Moses states, was playing Paradiso in Amsterdam. “I love Amsterdam in general. That show was just kind of a standout moment, like a bucket list venue to play for me personally.” Another one of Moses’ best moments from tour was playing at O2 Academy Brixton in London the first night, having special guest appearances from Stormzy and Mahalia. “Specifically, when Stormzy came out, there's something about the way he was received by the audience that truly made me emotional. I started to get choked up on stage,” Moses expresses. “It was just this super powerful moment of knowing how much of a hometown hero he is, how much of a hometown hero Jacob is, and that we were all there just making music together in front of this group of people that were just so ready to receive all of it. And it was just a magical moment.”
Moments of gratitude happened on and off stage for Moses. She tells us about a specific travel day evening in Pensacola, Florida after playing a long stretch of shows during the US tour. “We all (the band) got in the water, the water was the perfect temperature, there was the sunset in the background, and I looked around at everybody and we were all just blissed-out and just totally like in love with everything that was surrounding us,” Alita smiles.
With rehearsing and performing for months on end, touring can be musical overload for some. While on tour, Alita reveals she only listens to music she already knows, or not much at all during the little downtime there was. “But this being said, the girls and I, Emily Elbert, Bryn Bliska, and I all shared a green room most of the time, and we would always put on some tunes to get ready for the show and get pumped up. And it varied from genre to genre, but the latest was listening to the new Beyonce album, which really got us going. It's just a fun album to listen to,” she nods.
As for rock and roll stories, which is what we’re all about here at Groupie Magazine, Moses tells us about her experience being recognised on the street. “I mean, it happens to Jacob all the time, like literally wherever we go. If he's with us there's going to be at least one to two people who asks for a photo, which was amazing to witness. But it also happened to me a couple times and just like out of the blue, which felt kind of crazy! Being, across the world and still being recognized like that,” she laughs. Another rockstar moment was pushing through a debilitating stomach bug that took out the whole band one by one. “We were just troopers because we just pushed through. As far as being a rock star and feeling at your utter worst, and then going on stage and still performing to an audience of thousands or hundreds of people, I feel like that's a pretty rock star thing to do.”
Some pieces of advice Alita will keep in mind for her next tour:
- Don’t Overpack.
“I am a notorious over packer in general. But for this one in particular, I just brought way too much, way too much. And it was a lot to lug around every single day,” she states.
- Listen to your body.
“It's very rare that you have solo time or just a moment to be alone unless you seek it out yourself specifically. I think just knowing when enough is enough and knowing when you do need to step away and just do your own thing versus going out with the group. And it's nothing against the people, it's just a matter of just needing to maybe sometimes be on your own, do your own thing.”
In 2017, Alita performed with Vic Mensa on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a background vocalist. Growing up she was in a very choral environment, she sang in choirs, as was previously mentioned, as well as in acapella groups. Having both solo and background experience under her belt, she explains the similarities and differences that come with singing with each. “I think doing some of these background gigs, like with Vic Mensa, Shawn Mendez, and even Jacob Collier…it’s a fun exercise in just listening to the other singers and making sure we're all in tune with each other,” she states. She notes that she can easily switch between blending in and standing out, singing with more vibrato when solo than as a background singer. “In Jacob's case, he kind of wants us to stand out and do our thing and gives us a lot of freedom of musical choice, which is amazing.” Singing solo is a totally different mindset, allowing you to focus on emoting more, she notes.
Alita won the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in 2014. A competition that accepted entries from all over the world and had Sweet Georgia Brown was a judge. “To this day, whenever I do think about that moment, I do get a visceral reaction,” she laughs. Applying to the competition as a way to earn some money after university, Moses had no expectations of winning. “When I got there, the talent was just, unbelievable. And everybody was also so unique.” After the preliminaries were announced and Alita’s name was called she thought, “well, okay, there's no way I'm moving on so now great, I can go enjoy the festival. I can like stay up all night and go to the jam session!” It was time for the finals and Moses says she felt like something clicked right before going on stage. Realising the competition was more than a contest, but also a performance with a live audience and judges who wanted to be entertained, she performed and felt good about it. “My mom came with me for the final round. We were sitting together as they called the finalist ... And we were holding hands and she was grabbing my arm. And they called, third place, second place, and obviously I was the only name left. So, when we both realized, I think we looked at each other and screamed, we were just completely, flabbergasted. Tears were shed in that moment.”
Alita’s relationship to live theatre is unique, having a mother on and off Broadway as well during her childhood, being in musicals herself, and recently working on a VR proof of concept video for the musical A Beat in June in 2020. She would visit her mother who would tour all across America, watching the shows from backstage multiple times. “By the end of it, I would always have the script pretty much memorized. I'd be able to pick up on little differences and choices that actors were making. I even started taking notes at some point when she was in Mary Poppins from open to close on Broadway,” she laughs. “I was just infatuated with her life and just the stage in general, but I feel like that was always her thing.” I ask her if she ever had any dream roles she’d be up for playing. “Honestly, I would die to be Mimi in Rent. I was just obsessed with it when I saw it in, I think I was in middle school. And it just rocked my world kind of. It seemed so modern, edgy, and deep as well. And I think vocally, her role also just felt like it suited me.”
Moses’ history with music is extensive. She shares that she played the cello during the end of elementary school going into middle school, as well as what she still applies from that experience. “I think I would say listening, to be honest. You have to just be in tune with your fellow instrumentalists and your peers. And I think between that, and again as I said, the choirs that I was involved with, just really learning how to listen to other people and just try to sync up with everybody around you, specifically with playing the cello. But it's been so long, and I will admit, I miss playing the cello,” she says.
Vocal care is crucial for any professional singer, routines and practices varying from person to person. Alita tells us about her experience towards the end of the pandemic of visiting an ENT, due to vocal fatigue after not singing at the same intensity for so long. “But from that, and from those appointments and studies, I started to have a much more regimented warm-up and cool-down. And there's this straw technique, basically, you use a straw, and you blow bubbles into a glass of water, and it stops so much air from passing through your vocal folds. So, it helps them work a little less hard,” she elucidates. In addition, some full-diva-mode days are necessary for healthy vocals. “Sometimes you have to go on vocal rest, like if you have back-to-back gigs and you just don't have much to give, sometimes you do have to take that diva moment and just be like, ‘you know what? I'm going to use this app and type everything out’. Or bring a little notepad and write some words out and hope that people pay attention [laughing] because it is difficult.”
Like many artists during the pandemic, Alita had to perform virtually on multiple occasions. In 2021, she took part in the Apollo Resounding Virtual Spring Benefit, singing a cover The Supremes’ ‘You can’t Hurry Love’. She shares her thoughts about the performance medium with us. “It's so weird. We all got used to that, but because that was the only way of performing over the pandemic. I remember there was this one live stream I did for this venue in New York called The Django that I have gigged at for years. And it was just so strange, you know, feeling like I just sang my heart out and knowing that people are watching, but then there's just silence,” she sighs. She explains that although many lovely people were tuned into the stream sending heartfelt comments throughout the performance, she felt like she was very alone in an empty environment. “There's nothing like feeding off of a crowd and feeling that response and feeling all that love and warmth, and in person. It's a total exchange of energy as well.” Another incomparable in-person experience for Moses is when an audience is incredibly reserved and quiet throughout the show, only to at the end, give a standing ovation. When selecting songs to cover, Moses relies on the classics as well as what she likes. “It's fun to throw like a curve ball in every once in a while,” she smiles.
We briefly discuss social media, Alita expressing her stance on it as a creative. “I think it's a total blessing and a curse,” she voices. “I know I'm not alone in feeling that, especially as somebody who basically like has to rely on social media to work and to further my career.” As was mentioned previously, social media gave way for Alita’s opportunity to tour, and the case is the same for many artists. “You never know who's watching.” She details the pressure of capitalizing off of any online momentum, if it does come, and finding balance with posting and resting. “It's kind of one of the only ways now to be noticed and to get yourself out there. And there is a balance. I know there is. But you’ve just got to find it.”
Having visited so many cities across the globe, Moses addresses why New York is the best place for her. “New York City is just the mecca of so many things and it is kind of its own land of opportunity. And also, I'm an East Coast girl, I'm a New England girl. And all my family is really close to New York, so I think I also wanted to stay close to home in that sense,” she adds. “It is tough, and it'll beat you down, but it's kind of like a dance. You have to figure out how to work with the city. Figure out how to make it work for you.” I ask her about the music culture in New York and if the people based there are distinguishable. “I heard something recently saying that New York people are not nice, but they're kind. And there is so much merit to that. There's the New York edge, you know somebody is from New York because there's a little emotional barricade between people. But at the end of the day, everybody's there for each other. It's definitely another city of brotherly love.” Alita talks about tapping into the London scene and meeting musicians in the area, learning a lot from bassist and producer Robin Mullarkey. “I'm getting to a place where I'm more open to finding a new home, I think. Maybe in the future, London might be it. Who knows?”
As the August heat begins to get to us, our phones overheating and our waters now lukewarm, we conclude our chat by delving into some of Alita’s interests. Some underrated artists that she recommends are Max Swan, Miranda Joan, Melissa McMillan, and Sam Wills. “If anybody is interested in just having their soul filled to the brim with Philly, soulful goodness, he's just brilliant. I've admired him since I met him. And it's just so innovative. Like he's really bringing something new to the table musically that I feel like not a lot of people know about,” states Moses referring to Max Swan. Regarding Sam Wills, Alita quotes,“ luscious. His voice is so yummy. And I actually got to sing with him when he played in New York recently, like prior to this tour. I've loved his music for so long, and he's just great.”
If you, like us, were dying to know what Alita’s favourite film score is, worry no longer. “I love the film score from Love Actually (composed by Craig Armstrong). It is iconic. Also, the moment where Colin Firth is with the Portuguese, housekeeper or whatever her role is, and his papers go flying into the water and she dives in after them. Whatever music plays behind her there (‘The Lake Scene’) is just perfect and it's the best. And I love that movie so much. And it's an earworm because it gets caught in your head. Everybody go watch that movie, it’s the best,” Moses laughs.
It seems Moses is a master of all things music, but she reveals the non-musical activity that she wishes she could master, sewing. “I wish that I could make clothes so badly. And actually, my mom a long time ago, she taught me to knit, and she taught me the basics of sewing. But I don't know how to operate a sewing machine yet. I love fashion and I love figuring out a look, and I wish I could just make it myself.” And finally, a burning question for all of us, Alita’s favourite colour. “I'm a big blue fan,” she answers.
