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Note by Note, Beat by Beat: The Ingrid Jensen Interview

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JD: . being that it's called At Sea and you come from a predominately fishing town, Nanaimo . Could you tell us about your new CD?

IJ: Yes, that is the first project I did for the Artistshare. I want to say label, but it's not a label, it's a web based distributor and they've set up a really great concept for musicians like myself who feel like having control over their art, rather than having a record label own and then shelve the project in five or ten years. They've really set us up to make money and market our CDs around the world. So this project, which I paid for myself, and the musicians are good friends of It's such a wild animal, being in the scene that I'm in, in New York mine, whom I've been playing with for quite a while, Geoffrey Keezer is the piano player. We went to Berklee together, back in the day. Matt Clohesy is the bass player from Australia , the guitarist (Lage Lund) is from Norway , and my husband (Jon Wikan) on drums. He's from Alaska . The music was really inspired by a trip that I took, my honeymoon actually, with Jon to southeast Alaska . I got to see parts of the west coast that I never knew existed. I always knew it was beautiful, around where we grew up (near Nanaimo , BC ) and my father use to take us sailing. He had a beautiful sailboat when I was a kid. He would take us up the inside of Vancouver Island , to do all this fishing and having a really exciting summer lifestyle. So, there was kind of a full circle feeling when I went up to Alaska with Jon on that trip. When I came back I just had a very nice new outlook on life. I feel it gave me some room to make a record that's really a little less of a straight ahead jazz record and lets me explore some other areas of the music.

JD: Yes, you have. The first three cuts, obviously fit so well together and your liner notes set it up so well. I like the fact that you do that. People that don't put liner notes with there CDs-well I could shoot them . (laughs)

IJ: (laughs)

JD: I just love your liner notes .

IJ: Well thanks, they're just simple and descriptive .

JD: But that's what I want. I want to know what you were going through, what you were thinking and why these songs came out, and if people are more interested, they can pick up the CD and get the liner notes.

IJ: That's right.

JD: So, how do you get in touch with Artistshare?

IJ: Well actually you just go to my name. Type ingridjensen.com and then click on "buy". You are talking about people wanting to know more, and
Ingrid with the entire 'at sea' band in central park.
Photo by Angela Jimenezthe really wonderful thing about this site, the way that Brian, the guy who started this site, brilliantly designed it, is that you get an amazing amount of insights. The last year I've been putting in journals and pictures from the road and different bootlegs from gigs that we've done so you can hear four or five different versions of At Sea and different tunes from the record, so you can see where it goes when we play in New York, or P.E.I. or Sackville, New Brunswick, where we just took the band a couple of months ago. So, it's a really exciting adventure for me as well to document my life and keep track of what happened in the last year with this project. I want to start a new project in the fall that will focus around the next phase (laughs).

JD: That's good to hear. Ingrid, you seem to have a wonderful relationship with

your sister Christine. She has appeared a number of your CDs and has written for some of them. I had a chance to see her with the Effendi Jazz Lab a couple of years ago in Vancouver and what a wonderful show that was.

IJ: Good!

JD: She plays soprano, alto sax and flute. I was reading the liner notes and it is obvious that you have a great rapport with her. Tell us a bit about Christine?

IJ: Christine is a very gifted, natural player. She played a lot of piano as we were growing up, as my mom was a piano teacher. She had some really cool, inspiring ways of coming up with music, right off the bat. Her first tune was a tune I ended up recording on my first CD Vernal Fields. She's just a really great composer and a really deep little soul from who knows where. When we play together it's one thing and when I play her music it's also another great experience and because we know each other really well there is a deep sense of communication that is going on when we play. The next CD that is coming out on my site is called Nordic Connect, is a project that Christine and I did with a Swedish piano player called Maggie Olin. We just finished mixing, so pretty good. We're ready to get it out so people can hear it.

JD: I'm dying to hear it, too.

IJ: We'll get you a copy for sure.

JD: Now, I'm going to ask you some of the simple stuff. If I were to hit the little button on your CD player, what would I find?

IJ: You'd find Joni Mitchell. I'm transcribing "Little Green", which is on the Blue album and there's an Elvis Costello tune that I'm trying to transcribe as well. I have it on a cassette and I don't have a cassette player anymore (laughs). What happened to my cassette player? The Bose has replaced it. I have a stack of CDs sitting on my piano, from classical to the hundreds of CDs I get from people who want me to listen to their music and give them comments. A lot of trumpet players sent me stuff. Musicians from around the world give me their CDs and I have not listened to many of them, because I'm so busy. You understand that being a dj.

JD: Unsolicited items are just that. If there is time fine, if not . life goes on.

Well then Ingrid, what was your first musical memory.

IJ: Hmmm, my mother playing piano. Absolutely! I don't think we had a record player or stereo in the cabin. When my parents divorced my mom was pretty well left with-not a lot. We lived in a cabin that had outdoor plumbing, but we had a cabin that had a piano in it and that's what we had for music for the first couple of years of her divorce. So that's my first music memory-her playing old standards with the verses and the original choruses.

JD: That is neat. Another musician from Vancouver Island named Marc Atkinson told me much the same thing. He says that the first thing musically he remembers is sitting on the piano bench while his mother played and he didn't really know what it was, but it made him feel giddy and happy. It's kind of neat that someone else would experience much the same thing.

IJ: It's kind of poetic and almost folky about the sounds of the great songs from the day. I think because they translated so well and were so much about that time and that era. It was captured so well by the songwriters back then. That's way the standards are standards and we are still learning them. The kids are still learning them. I played a gig, the day before yesterday, and the tenor player was around 75 years old. He knew all these old tunes and was teaching them to me and it was great, really great!

JD: Yes I agree. On my show tomorrow night, there are going to be three Cole Porter tunes. I hadn't planned that, but it just worked out that way and two of them are by young musicians who are discovering them.

IJ: In the same token it's fun to do something different the way that Miles' ( Davis ) band did. For example on my record-"The Things I Love" is a Cole Porter tune-but most people don't recognize it because it's done so differently (laughs).

JD: I also like what you said about "There is No Greater Love", "Mom said that they play it too fast."

IJ: You're right.

JD: I listened to your version, and it is neat when it's slowed down like that.

IJ: I got the idea from Clohesy (Matt, her bass player), he played it in a different key. I played it in a darker key. I just feel like a lot of time people just take any key and put a tune in it. I like to think of myself like a vocalist. I want it to lay on the trumpet the same way if it were my vocal range. That's something for people to think about, especially young players when they're playing a tune, really think about where they hear it at.

JD: Thanks for taking time to speak with me. So the CD is called At Sea and it is available online at ingridjensen.com.

IJ: Yes, and if you want to check out other artists you can hit the Artistshare button and see lots of other things. Have a good time in Vancouver Jim. I'm jealous.

JD: I will and thanks again.

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