Sounds of Inspiration: Eliza Roze Selects

Amy was the key to the door of female vocalists for me, she was the singer that opened my eyes to the world of Jazz Motown and soul and I’ve never looked back. She shaped my influences and in a way made these sounds more palatable. I started listening to Amy when I was about 15/16 and so was introduced to these sounds relatively young and it was music that I had little knowledge of previously. At that time I was really only into UKG and RnB but Amy opened my eyes to these other genres. I was lucky enough to be working at flashback records at the time and so also had all these records to choose from as well as collages who would pick things out amazing artists for and so for quite while I went down a thoroughly enjoyable Jazz vocalist spiral.

The first Jazz singer who I fell in love with after Amy. She is such a talent and a person who lived in such turbulent times but was able to produce such beautiful music born from a lot of suffering. I have always admired artists who are able to create things of beauty from pain and Billie is one of the best at doing this.

I love Nancy’s tone, and this song is one of my favourite Jazz standards. There’s a number of amazing versions but Nancy’s rendition is my favourite for sure. I wanted to pay homage in a way to this song, and also wanted to have the mixture of arguably my two favourite genres; Jazz and UKG, side by side, and so the lyrics of ‘such an easy evil, such a sensuous sin’ were taken from his track as a nod of appreciation.

Nina what can I say? One of the most incredible artists to have ever lived. What I love about Nina is she was constantly pushing boundaries. She was fearless and true. I listen to Nina when I need to feel inspired and so she’s a direct inspiration of any kind of music I make.

What a fantastic artist! I think there’s quite a lot of similarities between what myself and Nicolette do. Those jazzy vocals over a driven beat, I think it’s hard not to draw comparisons here. This came out in 1991. She was certainly a pioneer.

This is the track that really made me fall in love with M4A4 productions and this whole EP made me really want to work with him! He is such a talented producer and so still young and already his back catalogue is incredible. I have nothing but admiration and I am sure we will work together again and again!

This would have been a big influence on me for the vocal on ‘Trouble maker’. It’s such a perfect mix; raw but balancing, with the sultry sexy soulful vocal to match – certainly something I tried to emulate on ‘Trouble Maker!’

I’ve been absolutely rinsing everything on this label for a minute. I’ve got nearly everything from the label on wax and I’m desperate to finish the collection as I just love everything about this, from the remixing of some of my fave tracks to the artwork. Most of the tracks are 20++ years old as well but still sound timeless. When I’m looking for some inspiration for lyrics I go through my records and just pick something out. ‘All Night Long’ defo took some lyrical inspiration from the title of this one.

The perfect mix of that bumpy UKG with some wicked vocals from one of the best. I feel like this one is one of those that you can play out in a club, driving your car or cleaning the kitchen at home, and I like to think the same goes for ‘Shades of Red.’

MJ Cole is undoubtedly one of the best producers of UKG and so to team up with one of the best vocalists of this generation of course something unforgettable was going to be made.

I love this one as I feel it’s such a crossover tune, as I’ve said before I am very interested in revamping and presenting the ‘old skool’ for a new audience, hoping that the people who do have respect for these more retro sounds will also appreciate the more modern electronic tracks. This tune is a perfect example of what I am trying to emulate.