[Dixielandjazz] Jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen

[Steve barbone]

CAVEAT - NOT OKOM BUT:

Of interest perhaps to Bria and the Mighty Aphrodites. Yes indeed, one can
succeed in the music world as a female jazz musician. Live your dream,
ladies.

BTW, if you visit NYC again, check to see if Ms. Jensen is performing
anywhere there. Likewise for those on the list who have more adventurous
ears or are simply curious, because she is superb. Failing that, you might
want to buy her album. "At Sea." The musicians on it are also superb.

Cheers,
Steve


Celebrating Her Album, With Trumpet Blazing

NY TIMES By NATE CHINEN - January 21, 2006

"Feels like home," the trumpeter Ingrid Jensen observed at one point on
Thursday night at the 55 Bar. She was referring not only to the setting, a
frequent haunt since her arrival in New York more than 15 years ago, but
also to the occasion: she was celebrating the release of "At Sea"
(ArtistShare), an album inspired in part by her recent honeymoon in Alaska.
Her husband, Jon Wikan, produced the album, and he was close at hand; he
also happens to be her drummer.

Intimacy isn't always a hallmark of Ms. Jensen's music. As a soloist, she
favors rhythmic assertiveness and chromatic tension, a combination
suggestive of post-bop trumpet heroes like Woody Shaw. "At Sea" gestures
toward a gentler sensibility at times, beginning with the yearning and
ethereal title track.

Thursday's first set was sequenced like the album, and so it opened hazily,
with a wash of cymbals and indeterminate chords. Ms. Jensen played the
melody with a muted horn, deploying electronic echoes for good measure. Her
solid band - Mr. Wikan with Geoffrey Keezer on Fender Rhodes keyboard, Matt
Clohesy on bass and Lage Lund on guitar - briefly savored the abstraction
before shifting into gear.

They hit full stride on the next tune, Mr. Keezer's bright Latin-bop entry
"Capt'n Jon." (There's a theme at work here.) Ms. Jensen and Mr. Lund
doubled the soaring melody over a bubbling bass ostinato; they both soloed,
too, though Mr. Keezer's choruses were the more engagingly high-spirited.

Ms. Jensen spent roughly half the set courting melancholy with her
fluegelhorn, on which she has a warm and shadowy tone. But she sounded
better when she was blazing. Her closing piece, "Swotterings," provided the
perfect opportunity, progressing from a second-line groove to a breakneck
modal swing. Ms. Jensen's solo came across as impetuous yet soundly
structured, as she interspersed staccato eighth-note bursts with clarifying
pauses. 

Those high-flying exertions felt every bit as personal as the set's more
introspective moments, perhaps because they captured Ms. Jensen's voice.
Digging in with her supportive group, she seemed not at sea, but at home.