[Dixielandjazz] Bria Skonberg interviewed - Washington Post, April 14, 2013

[Marek Boym]

I've seen her on You Tube and she sounds great.  But some of the stuff in
the review sounds scary:
""Come On-a My House" -- the quasi-Armenian folk song popularized by
Rosemary Clooney
in 1951 -- with what she called a "swampy groove."
Skonberg, who likes to reimagine older jazz songs through a modern prism,
once interpreted
the 1920s stomper "King of the Zulus" as a collaboration between Armstrong
and Jimi
Hendrix. To make the effect work, she attached to her trumpet bell a
wireless, clip-on
microphone connected to a guitar-effects pedal and created a distorted
sound reminiscent
of the influential 1960s guitarist."
I, for one, definitely wouldn't want to hear THAT!  Although I am a great
bel;iever in singing and stomping the hits, I don't believe in
"guitar-effects."  Or any other, for that matter.  Give me just music,
please!
Cheers


On 15 April 2013 13:39, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> A Rising Star's Traditional Ebullience
> by Adam Bernstein
> Washington Post, April 14, 2013
> Three years ago, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli was headlining an
> international
> jazz festival in Victoria, British Columbia, and was dining in a hotel
> lounge on
> his night off. A member of the quartet playing in the background invited
> him onstage.
> "I normally would sit in with the group on one number," Pizzarelli
> recalled. He quickly
> warmed to the doe-eyed bandleader, Bria Skonberg, who sang in a style that
> was playful
> and sultry. All of a sudden, she picked up her trumpet and the room filled
> with an
> ebullient, roaring style reminiscent of Louis Armstrong's.
> Pizzarelli, mesmerized, remained glued to the stage for two sets.
> "It was a total surprise," said Pizzarelli, whose father is the celebrated
> jazz guitarist
> Bucky Pizzarelli. "My dad later heard her and goes, 'You hear this girl
> play trumpet?
> She's unbelievable.'"
> Her appeal also led jazz authority Will Friedwald to rhapsodize in his
> Wall Street
> Journal music column last year, "Bria Skonberg looks like a Scandinavian
> angel (or
> Thor's girlfriend), plays trumpet like a red hot devil, and sings like a
> dream."
> He left out that Skonberg can also hula-hoop while playing her horn but,
> really,
> why brag on her? "It just takes practice," she said recently over the
> phone, "and
> maybe a little sangria."
> Skonberg, who will perform April 20 at the DC Lindy Exchange at Glen Echo
> Park's
> Spanish Ballroom, is resting on the precipice of wider recognition. At age
> 29, she
> was nominated earlier this month by the Jazz Journalists Association for
> its up-and-coming
> artist of the year award.
> Her two CDs convey an eclectic free spirit. She had an impassioned feel
> for chestnuts
> such as "I'll Never Be the Same," and her versatile repertoire also
> includes a jazzed
> up version of the Cardigans' '90s alt-rock hit "Lovefool" and a sly
> interpretation
> of Janis Joplin's satiric gospel about material desire, "Mercedes Benz."
> She remodeled
> "Come On-a My House" -- the quasi-Armenian folk song popularized by
> Rosemary Clooney
> in 1951 -- with what she called a "swampy groove."
> Skonberg, who likes to reimagine older jazz songs through a modern prism,
> once interpreted
> the 1920s stomper "King of the Zulus" as a collaboration between Armstrong
> and Jimi
> Hendrix. To make the effect work, she attached to her trumpet bell a
> wireless, clip-on
> microphone connected to a guitar-effects pedal and created a distorted
> sound reminiscent
> of the influential 1960s guitarist.
> "Some of the ideas I've had over the years, I just thought it would be
> funny," she
> said. "I played in ska bands and like all kinds of music. People hear
> traditional
> jazz and think it's stale, where there are so many ways it can be opened
> up. With
> New Orleans and old-time grooves, there's no limit in what can be done
> with that.
> I want to break the stereotype of what traditional jazz is."
> >From her home in Brooklyn, she tours like a dervish -- popping up at
> clubs, festivals
> and jazz clinics around North America -- and has accompanied on stage and
> in recordings
> widely admired performers including Pizzarelli, composer and trombonist
> Wycliffe
> Gordon and her mentor, the trumpeter Warren Vache.
> It's Vache, she said, who keeps her from plateauing musically by offering
> effective,
> if blunt criticism: "Use your ears. Does that sound good? No."
> "I overthink a lot, so it was useful," Skonberg said cheerfully.
> She's relentlessly cheery, in fact, especially for someone who as a singer
> worships
> Anita O'Day, a vocalist once dubbed the "Jezebel of Jazz" for her
> hard-living ways.
> In contrast, Skonberg's professional life has been rather charmed,
> propelled by jazz
> veterans drawn in by her talent, determination and charisma.
> Gordon, who plays frequently with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, calls her
> "the full
> package" and "a young person who knows the traditional music and can play
> with such
> great command."
> "The thing that separates Bria from other young players is she knows how
> to perform,
> how to talk to the audiences and engage with the audience," Gordon said.
> "She lights
> up on stage and automatically gets your attention."
> At Capilano University in her native British Columbia, Skonberg received a
> degree
> in jazz trumpet instrumental performance in 2006 and landed a job with Dal
> Richards,
> a nonagenarian bandleader known as Canada's King of Swing. She kept
> winning jazz
> festival awards and, in 2009, recorded her first solo album, "Fresh."
> It was produced by Paul Airey, an industry veteran who also produced one
> of Michael
> Buble's first albums. "She really caught my attention, that a lady that
> young would
> be able to play and hold her own in a trumpet section as competitive as it
> can be,"
> Airey said of Skonberg's work with Richards.
> "And they asked her to sing a solo, and she had the trumpet over her arm
> and owned
> the stage," he added. "She caught the attention of everyone in the
> audience. I was
> impressed how mature she was with her melodies and her musical statements,
> her rhythmic
> ideas, her jazz ideas."
> He said that, like Buble, Skonberg exudes a "special quality that few
> people possess,
> an exceptional talent and determination and drive to perform. Her
> potential is unlimited."
> Skonberg moved to New York in 2010, sensing that she'd outgrown the
> opportunities
> back home. She recorded an album last year, "So Is the Day", that features
> Gordon
> and Pizzarelli and rose to No. 7 on the national jazz charts.
> She said she remains vividly aware of how hard it can be to break through
> in New
> York.
> But on her first day in the city, she was busking in Washington Square
> Park. "Wynton
> Marsalis walked by," she recalled, "and I said to myself, 'Holy crap. This
> is a sign.
> The world's greatest trumpet player just walked by.' He stopped and gave
> me thumbs
> up."
> -30-
>
>
>
> -Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
> 916/ 806-9551
> I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a
> man
> standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
> -Winston Churchill
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