Interviewed by Rob Cope & Tara Minton
Montreal-based saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen has been described as, “an original voice on the international jazz scene… [and] one of Canada’s most compelling composers,” by Mark Miller of the Globe and Mail. According to Greg Buium of Downbeat Magazine, “Jensen writes in three dimensions, with a quiet kind of authority that makes the many elements cohere. Wayne Shorter, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler come to mind.” After a performance at the 2006 Montreal International Jazz Festival, Scott Yanow wrote, “She’s rapidly developing into a major force … as a player and as a writer.”
Jensen is equally at home performing in small and large ensemble settings. Her latest opus, Treelines – The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra on Justin-Time Records, won her the 2011 Juno Award for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year, along with Quebec’s Opus Award for jazz recording of the year. Downbeat magazine described it as“…a stunning orchestral debut… ****1/2 stars”. She recently performed at various jazz festivals across Canada as well as at Dizzy’s Jazz Club-Lincoln Center in New York with this ensemble. “Jensen’s formidable orchestra is the glistening sunlight, the tranquility and force of the ocean, and the majestic trees that her music imagines.”-Jazz Times
London Jazz News| 27 February 2023
“Mothers In Jazz” is a new series, started by vocalist Nicky Schrire. The initiative aims to create an online resource for working jazz musicians with children, those contemplating parenthood, and jazz industry figures who work with and hire musicians who are parents. The insight of the musicians interviewed for this series provides valuable emotional, philosophical and logistical information and support that is easily accessible to all. “Mothers In Jazz” shines a light on the very specific role of being both a mother and a performing jazz musician.
Saxophonist, composer and conductor Christine Jensen was described as “an original voice on the international jazz scene and one of Canada’s most compelling composers.” (Mark Miller, Globe and Mail) Equally at home with a small ensemble or at the helm of a jazz orchestra, she has collaborated with a diverse array of musicians, including Geoffrey Keezer, Donny McCaslin and her sister, Ingrid Jensen. Christine is a multiple JUNO Award winning musician whose work as educator has included teaching at McGill University in Montreal, and most recently an Assistant Professor post at Eastman School of Music. Christine is originally from Nanaimo, British Columbia but now resides in Rochester, New York, with her 12 year-old daughter, Liv.
Christine Jensen. Photo credit: Randy Cole
LondonJazz News: What is the best advice you received about balancing/juggling motherhood and career?
Christine Jensen: There is never a good time or a bad time, for that matter, to start this journey of motherhood. With new challenges come rewards, and there is nothing more rewarding than watching your child grow up from that starting place of pure joy and innocence. My advice from my dear friend incredible pianist/composer/bandleader Mom Maggi Olin…just go for it!
LJN: What information or advice do you wish you’d received but didn’t (and had to learn through trial and error or on the go)?
CJ: I can’t remember any big advice, except that I had to start prioritizing touring choices, especially once Liv entered school. Now I feel like, aside from raising my daughter, I split my time and energy in different ways with the categories of teaching (more), touring (less), practicing my instrument (always not enough), composing (more), and business (always too much to do there). I have a new appreciation for expressing myself through music once I am up on the bandstand that I did not have before motherhood.
LJN: Your top tip(s) for other mothers in jazz:
CJ: Find your village, where you have loads of love, support, and trust.
LJN: Baby/child gear tips for travel/touring/gigging:
CJ: There are so many different periods. There are so many types of baby carriers and strollers. Spend some $$ there for the comfort and lightweight factor and you will be so much happier.
LJN: Best general travel/gig/tour-with-child advice:
CJ: Older kids: A deck of cards ( or games that are portable) is the best thing to get away from the screen. Really sturdy headphones for kids that block noise so they are happy when you have to practice or have meetings in the same room, like a hotel room. We all feel less exhausted with noise-canceling headphones on both parent and child on flights. Oh, and snacks. Lots of snacks.
LJN: What has surprised you about becoming a parent and remaining engaged with your professional activities and ambitions?
CJ: That, somehow, I can do both. I am surprised that I am able to attain a certain level of artistry with my projects. I thought that demand for my work would slip and fade, but I seem to always have an abundance of opportunity even though I have this big job of raising a child.
LJN: What boundaries have you set for yourself as a mother in jazz (could be related to travel/touring, riders, personal parameters, child care decisions, etc.)?
CJ: I am really picky about gigs, whether they are one night out, and touring. I just have to be more focussed on each event having a strong opportunity for myself with as little pull on me in the position of being around for my daughter. If it is absolutely necessary, I will bring her with me and make certain that I have time for her and me. Life is too short!
Christine took up the position of Professor of Jazz Composition and large ensembles at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York in Fall 2022. Christine says: I am so inspired by the faculty and students that surround me here, as well as giving my daughter an incredible education. I still keep up my Canada sounds, touring with my cordless quartet collective CODE Quartet.
In 2023, Christine will release two new albums. The album “Day Moon”, with her quartet comprising Steve Amirault, Jim Doxas and Adrian Vedady will be released in late spring on Justin-Time Records. A new Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra album, comprising music written over the past ten years and featuring her sister, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and pianist Gary Versace, will be available in Summer 2023.
Ottawa Citizen | 24 June 2019 | by Peter Hum
Montreal saxophonist/composer and bandleader Christine Jensen is in her creative prime. PHOTO BY RANDY COLE /christinejensenmusic.com
When the distinctively named = Jazz Orchestra makes its debut Tuesday at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, it could not have a better woman at the helm than Christine Jensen.
The Montreal-based saxophonist and bandleader, 49, has led her own jazz orchestra for more than a decade, winning a Juno Award for each of its two recordings. She and her sister, the world-class New York-based trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, have been role models for women in jazz in Canada and beyond since they made their first recordings in the 1990s.
In the NAC Studio on Tuesday night, the = Jazz Orchestra, a gender-balanced big band uniting musicians from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, will celebrate a subset of Canada’s jazz sisterhood. In the band with Jensen are pianist Marianne Trudel, a fellow Montrealer, plus the Toronto-based horn players Allison Au, Tara Davidson and Rebecca Hennessy, and the New York City-based Canadian expat Anna Webber. The project is fully in sync with the jazz festival’s goal of achieving gender parity in its bookings this year.
Below, Jensen discusses the special project, which she hopes will be more than a one-off.
Q: How did this new band come to be?
A: It was a bit of a brainstorm that I was having with Petr Cancura at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, about presenting more of a balance in big bands, while looking at the future of where the music is going.
At the same time, Petr and Catherine (O’Grady, the jazz festival’s executive producer) are really working on a balanced festival program this year with gender balance. I was at the Monterey Jazz Festival last year, and it was the most amazing balance going on there, with the greatest vibe among musicians and audience.
We started planning this winter, after I got really inspired after putting a really strong orchestra at the Oscar Peterson Jazz Festival. Its artistic director, the amazing Renee Rosnes, requested that I perform my music with a Toronto-based horn section. I was able to get four women in the horn section, plus Ingrid as soloist.
This time, I am able to get six very strong female voices out of the 13 horns, plus the amazing wizard of spontaneity Marianne Trudel, who is adding her music with some excerpts from the suite that she wrote a few years back for the orchestra national jazz de Montreal.
Somehow the overall repertoire of this concert is, to me, “the voice of the now,” with compositions from Marianne, myself, Rebecca, Tara and Anna. Oh — we are adding Carla Bley’s music, because her music is not performed enough outside of her own band.
Q: Tell me about the connections you have or are about to have with some of the orchestra’s other women.
A: I love Marianne’s energy. We float through different combinations of ensembles in Montreal and always have a lot of fun performing together.
Anna was once in a McGill ensemble that I directed. I also love her energy and her quest, new music meeting improvisation at an extremely high level. Allison and Tara are gems, with equally strong composition and improv skills and great sound. They worked with me on my concert at the Oscar Peterson Jazz Festival with Renee, along with Rebecca, who is also going down a really creative path.
Q: Do you hope you can get other bookings for this project down the road?
A: It would be amazing to keep working on this concept of presenting living composers, with an even more even voice in composition and performance.
Q: Overall, what progress is being made in jazz in terms of combating discrimination against women and advancing gender issues?
A: There’s lots of pluses going on right now. These are changing times. Women still have a ways to go in breaking the glass ceiling on the main stage, and in the more elite jazz institutions. But there is a lot of work getting done with everyone becoming more conscious and finding solutions. There are more opportunities for young women to explore in a safe space with educational opportunities and jam spaces. Everyone, especially the younger generation of musicians, is so more aware.
= Jazz Orchestra
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival
When: Tuesday, June 25, 7 p.m.
Where: NAC Studio
Tickets: ottawajazzfestival.com
CBC News | British Columbia | 25 June 2017
Two-time Juno award winning saxophonist is this week’s special guest on Hot Air
Jazz musicians Ingrid, left, and Christine Jensen, right, will perform in Vancouver, June 26 and in Victoria June 27. (Northern Tickets)
Montreal-based jazz saxophonist and composer, Christine Jensen will be revisiting her West Coast roots when she plays at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival this week.
Born in Sechelt, B.C. and raised in Nanaimo, she remembers dancing around the living room with a view of the Gulf Islands while listening to the likes of Oscar Peterson.
“We spun records over dinner to keep everybody happy,” Jensen told host Margaret Gallagher, host of CBC’s Hot Air.
Coastal life meant plenty of opportunity to hike and sail and gave Jensen a sense of freedom, which she said shaped much of her personal music writing style.
Her latest album, Infinitude, is a collaboration with her sister, Ingrid Jensen, New York’s internationally acclaimed trumpeter.
Infinitude also features guitar heavyweight Ben Monder, who notably worked with David Bowie on his final album, Black Star.
“When you watch him play it’s nearly like an octopus on the guitar,” said Jensen.
Jensen’s intimate compositions have earned the artist two Juno awards.
In 2013, her album Treelines won best contemporary jazz album, an award she took home the following year for the follow up album, Habitat.
Jensen has taken her music on tour through India, Peru, Denmark, Turkey and beyond.
When she’s not writing or performing, Jensen conducts the Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal. She also teaches composition at Sherbrooke University and her alma mater, McGill University.
The sisterly duo will be performing with Monder as part of the Vancouver and Victoria jazz festivals on June 26th and 27th.
Montreal Gazette | 16 June 2017 | by T’Cha Dunlevy
Montreal jazz festival: The sisters’ latest collaboration takes them into uncharted territory alongside the renowned jazz guitarist.
Montreal jazz saxophonist Christine Jensen is enjoying an expanding international profile as a big band composer and arranger on her own Juno-winning albums and with the Montreal Jazz Orchestra. PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF /Montreal Gazette
Christine and Ingrid Jensen caught the improvisation bug early, growing up in Nanaimo, B.C. Their music teacher mom enrolled them in piano lessons from the time they entered grade school; then around ages 11 or 12, each picked up a horn — Ingrid the trumpet and Christine, a few years later, the saxophone.
“We had this great band teacher,” Christine said, sitting in her St-Henri apartment on a recent Thursday afternoon. “We all had to play horns in band; that was the rule. He was a jazz fanatic. He loved dixieland, and he fed us the jazz idea of improv. That’s a big one, finding people that get you to improvise in the moment and not be self-conscious. And it just kind of grew, like in a garden.
“He and other teachers in Nanaimo, who were also teachers of Diana Krall, were just like, ‘You can do it, just try to use your ear. Don’t use the page all the time.’ It’s a big lesson for young players. It’s amazing how it frees you up.”
Decades later, the Jensens are still exploring that freedom. Ingrid is an acclaimed jazz trumpeter based in New York City, while Christine has an expanding international profile as a big band composer and arranger on her own Juno-winning albums and with the Montreal Jazz Orchestra.
The sisters’ latest collaboration, Infinitude, takes them into uncharted territory alongside renowned American jazz guitarist Ben Monder, who has been a red-hot commodity since playing on David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, in 2015.
Ingrid and Christine Jensen’s new album Infinitude was made in close collaboration with featured guest Ben Monder on guitar. The album was a critic’s pick in the March issue of DownBeat magazine. PHOTO BY RANDY COLE
Released in February, Infinitude was a critic’s pick in the March issue of jazz authority DownBeat magazine, which gave the Jensens a two-page spread, putting their names above the masthead on the cover. The publication’s 2016 year-end critics poll named Christine a rising star arranger and the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra a rising star big band. Downbeat had previously made her 2010 album Treelines its lead review, following with a five-star assessment of her 2013 album Habitat.
“DownBeat’s been good to me,” she said.
Marked by strong melodies, sweeping textures and vibrant interplay among all parties (the lineup is rounded out by Ingrid’s husband Jon Wikan on drums and Montrealer Fraser Hollins on bass), Infinitude is the result of a musical exchange that began in a live setting and is ongoing.
“It came from gigs, if anything,” Christine said, “gigs with Ben. I heard Ingrid play with him a lot in the mid-’90s to the 2000s with other people’s groups, and sometimes she had him on a few (of her own) things. I just loved his modern approach mixed with her modern approach, where electric and acoustic come together. To me this feels like more than a quintet. There are so many sound areas we can go into.”
Monder’s effects-laden electric guitar sears — and sometimes skips, or gently drifts — through Infinitude, layered in combinations of feedback, reverb and filters, courtesy of a range of pedals he brings wherever he goes.
Ingrid, who first played with Monder under American composer and big-band leader Maria Schneider, has a similar arsenal of gear to expand her instrument’s scope. She sees her and Christine sharing billing on an album with the guitarist as a milestone.
“You kind of have to have some stuff together to hang with where Ben’s music goes,” she said, joining her sister and me via speakerphone. “I have always felt extremely inadequate playing around Ben. He’s just so incredible. At the same time, he brings out things in my technique I didn’t even know were there.”
“He draws us in with his choice of harmony and melody and rhythm,” Christine observed. “There’s something you want to bind to with this guy that makes it a really in-the-moment collaboration, which is the jazz part of it to me — because we can go anywhere. He can play two notes and Ingrid and I can go in a thousand directions.”
Ben Monder, Christine Jensen and Ingrid Jensen perform at the launch of their album Infinitude at New York’s Jazz Gallery in February. PHOTO BY RANDY COLE
Fittingly, for an album that was inspired by sparks on stage, and recorded over two days during the 2015 Montreal International Jazz Festival, the songs on Infinitude have continued to evolve during the rare occasions since in which the five players have reconvened for performances. The album launch at New York’s Jazz Gallery in February remains a standout moment.
“It felt like we were building new chapters,” Christine said, “new directions in terms of where the music’s going; and it happens every time we collaborate with him.”
Infinitude isn’t the only album Christine has on the go. This month, Justin Time released Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal’s Under the Influence Suite, which she composed and conducted.
Featuring the agile contributions of Juno-winning vocalist Sienna Dahlen (who also sings on Dream Cassette, the latest album by Christine’s husband, saxophonist Joel Miller), the dynamic song cycle is divided into five movements, dedicated to five artists who have inspired Christine: Kenny Wheeler, Jan Jarczyk, John Coltrane, Lee Konitz and Wayne Shorter.
(In a serendipitous bit of programming, the Orchestre national also performs at this year’s Montreal International Jazz Festival, conducted by drummer, composer and McGill prof John Hollenbeck with guest vocalist Theo Bleckmann, both of whom Monder has collaborated with.)
Between a Canadian jazz festival tour for Infinitude later this month and a European tour in November, Christine will be hitting the road with the Orchestre national while juggling invitations from abroad to guest-conduct orchestras performing her compositions.
“That stuff’s happening all over the place, like crazy,” she said. “I can’t really keep track right now. It’s amazing. … (Composing for large ensembles) has gotten me further than I ever expected.”
Christine Jensen photographed near her home in Montreal. The Montreal Jazz Festival recently announced it is giving her this year’s Oscar Peterson Award. PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF /Montreal Gazette
Adding another feather in her cap, the Montreal International Jazz Festival recently announced it is giving Christine this year’s Oscar Peterson Award for her contributions to jazz in this country — a welcome bit of recognition from an event she has played more than any other over the years.
Prodded as to what it is about her work that is attracting so much attention, she hesitated.
“I’m the last person to know,” Christine said. “Maybe it’s that I take risks with the idea of presenting music that engages the listener from a melodic standpoint. I think that gets lost in serious music. We get so tied up in other aspects that we’re working on that we don’t think of storytelling through melody.
“That’s why the Oscar Peterson Award is so fitting. It was the first jazz I heard where I was like, ‘Why is that so gravitating?’ I wanted to play piano like Oscar Peterson, and I quickly realized how hard that would be. My mother was a pianist and she had all his records, and that’s really the basis — this happy, beautiful music.”
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