Christine Jensen gives her sister Ingrid free rein

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      Christine Jensen likes a good theme, as anyone who attended last month’s Hard Rubber Orchestra concert in Vancouver knows.

      There, the Sechelt-born saxophonist and composer led John Korsrud’s big band through a program of music mostly based on her seaside childhood. She’s not all about rainforest greenery and oceanic rhythms, though, as we’ll hear when she brings her own big band to the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

      The plan, Jensen says from her Montreal home, is to join 18 of the Quebec city’s best musicians in performing pieces from her 2013 release, Habitat, on which the vistas are more urban than rural—with one telling exception.

      That would be “Nishiyuu”, inspired by the six Cree youth who walked 1,500 kilometres from northern Quebec to Ottawa during the winter of 2013, hoping to raise awareness of the plight of remote First Nations communities. Moving from a stark depiction of the subarctic landscape to some resolute speechifying from saxophonist Chet Doxas before concluding on a meditative note, it’s as much an interior journey as a travelogue.

      “I could write 10 ‘Nishiyuu’s on different topics,” Jensen says with a sigh, and although we don’t go deeply into her political leanings, it’s clear that, like most Canadian artists, she’s ready for a change of regime in our nation’s capital. One thing she doesn’t want to tinker with, however, is her relationship with her trumpet-playing sister Ingrid, who joined her as soloist with Hard Rubber and will reprise that role with Jensen’s own band.

      “Ingrid’s great,” says Jensen. “Obviously, I’ve known her my whole life, and because of that we can communicate on a very deep level—especially with this particular orchestra, because she’s come up and worked with us a lot. I always think of her as the final colouring over everything I’m working on. It’s like the music is a room I’ve decorated, and now we’re going to sit in it and hang out and enjoy this space, with our improvisations on top—although, in a way, Ingrid is more like a composer-in-the-moment than an improviser. She is so very clear with her ideas when she’s given the space to do her thing. Actually, I sometimes enjoy it the most when I give her the least amount of information, and then she can be the one who paints on top of the colour I’ve given her.”

      Ingrid solos on half of Habitat’s six tunes, so she’ll be put to good use during her sister’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival concert. But Christine stresses that all the players she’s working with are similarly accomplished.

      “With jazz, it’s all about an urban environment, where you’re able to work with as many musicians as you can to explore the possibilities,” she notes. “That’s really at the heart of my music, and Montreal’s a really great place for that. We have a real cross-section of everything in the band, from traditional, straight-ahead jazz musicians to very free players who are at the top of their game. So I like using them in the painting of my landscapes as well.”

      The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra plays Performance Works on June 20.

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