Music is and always has been my language. I think in music speak. Somehow, much of life is answered in a composer’s lyric or phrase.

This is especially true at this stage of my life, when as a performer I have sung so many songs and vocally danced with so many composers.

Now that I’m in my nineties, I no longer wish to sing about romantic love. I am more interested in exploring universal love, healing love, or investigating life script lyrics that express this moment in time or my belief system or unexpressed emotions, like Joe Raposo’s “Bein’ Green” or Artie Butler’s “Here’s to Life.”

My earliest connection to music was as a young girl joining in the singing of old-time songs or African American spirituals at church or with my Uncle Bert’s family band. A tradition was in place that whenever the cousins got together, as children and then in later life, we would begin to harmonize. That was how we connected with each other; it helped us express our shared background, affirmed us a family. The harmonizing just felt good physically and emotion- ally. It’s such a pity that later generations have lost this tradition.

We were all living separate lives of survival and despair as we tried to navigate an often-hostile world. Coming together to create a harmonic blend brought us much joy and allowed us to forget the challenges and stresses of our lives. It felt like fun! We didn’t need to articulate the various roadblocks in our lives; we just needed to create some music. In an instant we would feel soothed and supported by each other and by the very tradition itself.

I recently went to see the a cappella vocal group Take 6 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. The music and the performers had a profound effect on me. It was very healing to physically engage in that call-and-response type of music. “Mary Don’t You Weep” reminded me of songs we sang as children in Sunday school, like “This Little Light of Mine.” But here the songs were presented with fully orchestrated arrangements, so as an adult, I could employ what I was hearing to heal the child within.

I found myself moved to express myself physically as a response to the call of the music. It became not just a song but an experience.

Nowadays I am very attuned to lyrics. We are never too old to learn or to be reminded of former life lessons; call it learning through song! I’m thinking of the lyric in “Here’s to Life” that says that all you get from life is all that you give. I love riding along in my daughter’s car and hearing great music on the radio or a tape. That really elevates my mood, even on a trip to the doctor’s. It brings emotional relief! Yes, music I like can still ease my stress and give me an overall feeling of well-being.

Eleanor Collins was the first black artist in North America and the first woman singer in Canada to host her own national TV show; called The Eleanor Show, it debuted in 1955. Vancouver’s “First Lady of Jazz” was a star on many other early CBC TV and radio shows. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 2014, on her ninety-fifth birthday.