Corinne Bailey Rae is very much in the heart of the flow.
Do you ever get into a flow state? That's something athletes talk about, as do surgeons, coders and musicians. Steven Kotler has spent a lot of time researching this state where effort disappears and your focus becomes a very sharp, focused point. To get a sense of what that is like in a singer, just watch Corinne Bailey Rae.
She came out in 2006 with a self-titled debut which hit number one in the UK and produced "Put Your Records On" and "Like A Star" for the world. That record has gone four times platinum. It would have been so easy to spend 20 years in the studio refining that very sunny sound. She's gone the other way really. The through line is that she's just kept on going where the music was already going.
Loss, and the long way through it
Her second album The Sea (2010) was very much the product of the death of her husband, sax player Jason Rae. The Heart Speaks in Whispers came out in 2016 and is a much softer, more open record. If flow has a heart at its centre it's not a performance trick. It's presence and that's what her best work has. That's true of the songs that emerge from grief as much as any others.
Black Rainbows and the archive
Then came Black Rainbows on 15th September 2023 (her first album in seven years). It emerged from a long conversation with the objects and archives of the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago (a space associated with artist Theaster Gates) and she has said that that experience completely altered her view of herself as an artist. The sound moved into noise, saxophone and electric guitar and the NY Times reported that she was in effect re-discovering her punk past from her time in the band Helen. A book of photographs by Koto Bolofo, Reflections/Refractions at the Stony Island Arts Bank, was released in conjunction with the album and it was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.
That is flow as a creative practice: just go into a room following your curiosity, listen and the songs will appear. She described it as 'seeing' becoming 'hearing'. aka no rehearsal.
The clearest picture of her in the zone is probably the Late Show session with pianist Jon Batiste as part of the Unrehearsed series. She was given absolutely no prep and went straight for the jazz standard "The Very Thought of You". SoulTracks called it a performance "for the ages", observing that she phrased it like a chanteuse from another era and Batiste was absolutely on the ball with every phrase. Watch it below, then watch her again on "Call Me When You Get This" (the same ease in a completely different room).
Twenty years on, 2026
This is the 20 year anniversary of that first album. A Royal Albert Hall show was announced for 27th October 2026 with Laura Mvula on support, performing the debut in full. Her first children's picture book Put Your Records On came out in March. Live in New York (the 2007 live album) got a vinyl reissue for Record Store Day. A documentary on Black Rainbows was also announced for 2026 and she's due to perform at the National Book Awards in New York on 19th November (live broadcast).
Corinne Bailey Rae 04. Till It Happens To You
Corinne Bailey Rae 04. Till It Happens To You
I know what I said
Was heat of the moment
But there's a little truth in between the words we've spoken
It's a little late now to fix the heart that's broken
Please don't ask me where I'm going
Cuz I don't know
No, I don't know anymore
It used to feel like heaven
Used to feel like may
I used to hear those violins playing our strings like a symphony
Now they've gone away
Nobody wants to face the truth
But you won't believe what love can do
Till it happens to you
Till it happens to you
Went to the old flat
Guess I was trying to turn the clock back
How come that nothing feels the same now when I'm with you
We used to stay up all night in the kitchen
When our love was new
Oooh love I'm a fool to believe in you
Cuz I don't know
No, I don't know
Anymore …
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Corinne Bailey Rae x Jon Batiste : UNREHEARSED: A Conversation
Jon Batiste and Corinne Bailey Rae link up at New York's Steinway Hall to try their hands at some on-the-fly music-making. Listen as these two dedicated professionals talk shop and then collaborate on a gorgeous one-take performance of two iconic tunes: Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" and Nat King Cole's "The Very Thought Of You."
"The Very Thought Of You": Corinne Bailey Rae x Jon Batiste: UNREHEARSED
Watch what happens when we ask Late Show musical director Jon Batiste and Corinne Bailey Rae to make music together with ZERO time to rehearse. This is their one-take performance of Nat King Cole's "The Very Thought Of You." Recorded live at beautiful Steinway Hall in New York City.
Unrehearsed collaborations like this one are one in a zillion. Chemistry, mutual respect, readily apparent love of craft, interpretive mastery. Nat King Cole was in the room after the first note, listening with pride and honor. Beautifully done.
Corrine Bailey Rae Till it Happens to you live
Corinne Bailey Rae - Till it Happens to You (legendado)
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Till It Happens To You (Live in Cologne)
Artist
Corinne Bailey Rae
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Corinne Bailey, Pamela Sheyne, Paul Herman
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The Greatest Gift Of All (Christmas In South Africa Album Version)
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Jeff & Sheri Easter
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Corinne Bailey Rae - Call Me When You Get This
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How to enter ‘flow state’ on command | Steven Kotler for Big ThinkAbout Steven Kotler:
Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of ten bestsellers (out of thirteen books total), including The Art of Impossible, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold, and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review. Steven is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. Along with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is the co-founder of the Rancho de Chihuahua, a hospice and special needs dog sanctuary.
How to use ‘flow state’ to do the impossible | Steven Kotler
