Jazzfest preview: Christine Jensen leads the festival’s signature, gender-balanced big band Tuesday

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
Ticketsottawajazzfestival.com