24th July 2020: #WhirlwindInFocus: Ingrid Jensen is zooming about as she prepares for Vortex Jazz Club performance
Ahead of her appearance as part of Vortex Jazz Club‘s live lockdown session on 25th July, we spoke to trumpeter Ingrid Jensen about her memories of that great institution, her Kenny Wheeler tribute Invisible Sounds and structuring her days during lockdown.
Interview by Hugh Morris (hugh@whirlwindrecordings.com)
WWR: Hi Ingrid, thanks for catching up with #WhirlwindInFocus. How’s lockdown been going? In particular, how does music fit into this new schedule, and what does a day-in-your-life look like at the moment?
IJ: Lockdown is cool actually. I’m a lucky gal with a house, a yard, a husband who plays the crap out of the drums and can fix ANYTHING that goes wrong with the house between making amazing food and taking good care of our daughter when I’m in my office doing emails and more.
Music has been flowing out of me on some days and completely hitting a dead end on others. It’s a lovely pendulum of writing, recording, re-recording, rehearsing with my Quarantine Quartet and getting inspired by the many student interactions online, from lessons to listening and watch sessions.
The days are varied. Since I’m in my new position at MSM (Manhattan School of Music) they are becoming more structured now, but the first few months were an incredible flurry. We all stayed up way too late, slept in too late and just puttered around the house catching up on things that had been on my lists for years, like: hanging lights so our backyard was more inviting, hiking in our lovely parks that I rarely had time for before, watching very mediocre TV shows with our 9 year old daughter and shopping and wiping down the shopping!
Note – we’re still wiping down the shopping and wearing masks when in public…
WWR: You’ve released two albums on Whirlwind, the most recent being Invisible Sounds (an album that celebrates the late British trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler). Could you introduce this project? How did you go about narrowing down the tracks from Kenny’s vast catalogue?
IJ: Yes, that was a challenge with this project, as Kenny wrote SO much great music. Fortunately, I had already been working on arrangements of his tunes for a while, as had my partner on the album, Steve Treseler. We basically brought our favourites to the table and took it from there.
The idea of doing ‘Old Time’ was my most recent transcription of one of his tunes and I found it to be the perfect fit as far as jam tunes that I could let loose on my electronics on.
WWR: You’ve recently been appointed Interim Artistic Director of the Jazz program at Manhattan School of Music – congrats! How is MSM coping with the current situation – I’m guessing there are a lot of Zoom classes?!
IJ: Zoom combo, Zoom ear training, Zoom burgers and more! Thank you, it’s an honour for sure. We are, at this writing, in a hybrid format, some classes in person in small groups and most things online until the Covid storm is behind us.
WWR: You’re appearing on the bill for Vortex Jazz Club as part of a series of fund-raising gigs for the venue. What’s your relationship like with the Vortex? And any special memories of this iconic venue?
I have only played there a few times I believe. Feel free to correct me here Hugh, I had some blurry years along the way! The last time we played there was with my sister and Ben Monder and our Infinitude Project. I remember it being a very special night, filled with great listeners and good friends. The sound of the room has that live edge to it that really supports acoustic and electric sounds yum. My old pal Kim Macari is involved with the club and she helped to bring me over to do a series with some incredible British musicians and we had a blast.
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Ingrid appears with her Quartet (Kris Davis – Rhodes, Nate Radley – Guitar & Jon Wikan – percussion) as part of Vortex Jazz Club‘s programme of events on 25th July – click the link to the Facebook livestream: here
Described as ‘a fine celebration’ by Jazzwise, Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler is available to order on 2x 12″ Gatefold LP 180g Vinyl / CD / DL: here.
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