Niia covers Chet Baker for new single, "I Get Along Without You Very Well," out now

NIIA

GOTH JAZZ PRINCESS
RELEASES NEW STRIPPED-BACK SINGLE
“I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL (EXCEPT SOMETIMES)”

A HEARTACHING RENDITION OF CHET BAKER’S 1954 BREAKUP BALLAD + VULNERABLE VIDEO DIRECTED BY AVERY WHELESS

TOUR KICKS OFF THIS WEEK IN DC AND BOSTON, WITH MORE STOPS IN PHILADELPHIA, PORTLAND, AND BLUE NOTE NYC ON FEBRUARY 23
+ BLUE NOTE LA ON MARCH 1

GET TICKETS HERE

LISTEN: FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM V

BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN TRADITION AND REINVENTION, CO-PRODUCED BY SPENCER ZAHN AND LAWRENCE ROTHMAN

Tuesday, February 17 – Today, Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist/pianist Niia released the intimate new single, “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes),” on Candid Records. With a stripped-back, smoky vocal delivery and unpolished, accompanying music video, Niia carries the melancholic spirit of Chet Baker’s 1954 breakup ballad – originally composed by Hoagy Carmichael in 1939, featuring a poem written by Jane Brown Thompson. Listen here // watch here.
Speaking on the classic and her inspiration, Niia says, it’s “A perfect song. Carried by giants. I’ve been there. It felt like time to sing it. I sang it carefully. With love. And a little fear.”
For her take on “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes),” Niia resisted polish. The song is a quiet breakup classic—melancholic, restrained, emotionally unresolved—and the visual language needed to mirror that restraint. Her vocal is similarly bare: soft, unguarded, and close, as if recorded in the aftermath rather than the moment itself. She sings without ornament, letting breath, phrasing, and silence carry the emotional weight.
Stripped of production and performance, the project was conceived as something intimate, raw, and immediate. Niia collaborated with artist and longtime friend Avery Wheless, whose work is rooted in vulnerability, memory, and the psychology of looking. Shot over the course of a few hours in Wheless’s residence, the session unfolded without crew, styling, or staging. Natural light shifted through the space as Wheless followed Niia instinctively—sometimes from a lover’s point of view—capturing a rhythm that moved between nostalgic warmth and present-tense aloneness.
This entire piece was filmed on an old-school camcorder to heighten the sense of nostalgia and emotional residue. No frills, no performance, no distance, no pants—just vocals, melody, and feeling.
“I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)” comes one day ahead of Niia’s tour kicking off, and continues the emotional arc exploring love, loss, defiance, and heartache of her recently released fifth studio album, V. The first show of Niia’s “V Tour” is tomorrow, February 18, at Songbyrd in DC, and continues the next day, on Thursday, February 19, at Regattabar in Boston. Additional stops include Philadelphia, Portland, and Blue Note shows in NYC and LA. Backed by an incredible band, Niia and music director Dennis Hamm (Thundercat) have curated special sets featuring surprise medleys and music from her new genre-defying album, V (released October 10 via Candid Records). For tickets and more information, visit https://niiamusic.lnk.to/tour.
A sharp, soulful exploration of desire, heartbreak, and freedom, V is Niia’s most personal album yet. It’s a culmination of years spent experimenting at the intersection of tradition and reinvention, co-produced by Spencer Zahn (Dawn Richard, Empress Of) and Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon, Kali Uchis). Living in the tension between control and collapse, the pivotal record seamlessly blends the electronic textures of experimental pop with the thrilling interplay that only live, jazz-rooted musicianship can bring. The arrangements stretch–sometimes restrained, sometimes theatrical–but always with intention. LISTEN TO V HERE.

As a classically trained musician who grew up watching Italian cinema, “I pulled from the harmonic language of jazz pianists like Bill Evans and from the psychological atmosphere of film scores,” explains Niia. That combined inspiration and influence is most evident in the songs “Angel Eyes,” a reimagined version of the 1946 jazz standard by Matt Dennis & Earl B. Brent, and “Ronny Cammareri,” a slow-burning instrumental titled after Nicolas Cage’s character in Moonstruck. Meanwhile, the music video for club-jazz anthem “Pianos and Great Danes” is a masterpiece of haunting cinematography featuring flashing, grainy edits mirroring uninhibited desires.
V explores the full spectrum of self: self-harm, self-delusion, self-awareness, and in rare moments, self-love. “Not in a moralizing way, but in a very human one,” she clarifies. “The good and bad live side by side, often in the same verse. One minute I’m performing heartbreak like it’s a role I’ve rehearsed, the next I’m quietly admitting I caused the whole thing. That contradiction is the truth.”
Balancing those heavy themes with Niia’s unapologetic sad girl humor, there are tracks like the provocative album opener “f***ing happy,” accented by sarcasm layered over melancholy, that radiate relatability. A sly nod to Fiona Apple’s iconic “Criminal” video, watch the Lili Peper-directed video here.
Also featuring emotional depth with a rebellious sonic palette is “Throw My Head Out The Window,” featuring new wave jazz boundary pushers bassist Anna Butterss and Nicole McCabe on saxophone. It is intentionally over-orchestrated with strings, dissonant piano, and a vocal teetering between aria and tantrum. Watch the minimalist video for the jazz-noir fever dream track here.
With a vision and mission to bridge the gap between control and collapse, the provocateur successfully brings that tension to life not only in her music, but in the album’s cover art as well, featuring Niia affixed with a heretic fork– an instrument of medieval torture reserved for those who spoke out against dogma and orthodoxy. Niia emphasizes, “If I’m going to make my statement in this genre, I need to be a disruptor.”

DOWNLOAD HI-RES PRESS PHOTO HERE

TOUR DATES

FEB. 18 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd

FEB. 19 - Boston, MA - Regattabar

FEB. 21 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live

FEB. 23 - New York City, NY - Blue Note

FEB. 27 - Portland, OR - Jack London Revue

MAR. 1 - Los Angeles, CA - Blue Note

ABOUT NIIA

Niia Bertino is a classically trained pianist and vocalist rooted in jazz who blends elegance with edge and a timeless voice, with razor-sharp songwriting. Her past work has received praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Interview Mag, and Harper’s Bazaar.

ABOUT CANDID RECORDS

From 1960-1963, founder, A&R, and producer Nat Hentoff recorded over 30 extraordinary albums for the Candid Records label. One cannot underestimate the breadth of these recordings - from bebop to the avant-garde, to blues. Candid sat dormant for years until Black Lion Records founder and producer, Alan Bates, bought the label in 1989. The next phase of Candid Records is happening now. Since its relaunch in 2021 the label has reissued over 30 titles to high critical acclaim. Thanks to brilliant new releases, Candid has received four GRAMMY® awards – 2024 winners the Count Basie Orchestra, 2023 winners Terri Lyne Carrington and Wayne Shorter, and 2022 winner Eliane Elias. Today’s Candid is not only committed to its legacy but looks forward to defining its future with the quality music that is synonymous with its elite heritage. Learn more at www.candidrecords.com