Canadian trumpeter and singer Bria Skonberg has lived in New York since 2010. Her Scandinavian-sounding name comes from Swedish great-grandparents on her father’s side. She’s performed with Jon Batiste, Wycliffe Gordon, Sun Ra Arkestra, Howard Alden, Bucky Pizzarelli and Stephane Wrembel, among many others.
What It Means is Skonberg’s seventh album. In it she revisits the sounds of New Orleans jazz which first inspired her when learning the trumpet and she uses musicians in her band who currently perform in the city’s jazz scene. Not least among these are New Orleans’ master drummer and percussionist Herlin Riley, Creole banjoist and guitarist Don Vappie and the creative director and sousaphonist of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Ben Jaffe.
The 1939 jazz standard Comes Love features Aurora Nealand on soprano sax. It’s followed by Sweet Pea, the pop song penned by Amos Lee in the 60s and here given cheerful vocal treatment by Skonberg. The album’s title track is an abbreviated version of the standard, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? Sonny & Cher’s hit The Beat Goes On has intricate trumpet from Skonberg. In The House, an original composition written by her which recalls the sound of Sidney Bechet, is followed by Louis Armstrong’s Cornet Chop Suey, tackled head on with brisk delivery on trumpet.
A rearrangement of John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy in dedication to her new child has muted trumpet and Skonberg singing softly. New Orleans-based singer Gabrielle Cavassa duets with Skonberg in a version of Van Morrison’s Days Like This. It’s followed by Skonberg’s arrangement of Bechet’s Petite Fleur featuring exemplary trombone and bass clarinet solos. Elbow Bump, the second of Skonberg’s originals, was written during the pandemic and refers to the safe alternative to shaking hands adopted by many at the time. To close the album, Skonberg slows the pace right down with an expressive rendering of the Billy Joel song, Lullabye, sung soulfully with only piano and arco bass accompaniment.
Skonberg and her band successfully blend imaginative rearrangements of classic jazz standards in this album with more contemporary material and original compositions. All the musicians are on top form.
Discography
Comes Love; Sweet Pea; Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?; The Beat Goes On; In the House; Cornet Chop Suey; Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy); Days Like This; Petite Fleur; Elbow Bump; Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) / A Child is Born (55.25)
Skonberg (t, v); Don Vappie (g, bj); Chris Pattishall (p); Grayson Brockamp (b); Herlin Riley (d, pc); Aurora Nealand (sps on 1); Rex Gregory (ts, bcl on 4, 8-10); Ethan Santos (tb on 4, 8-10); Ben Jaffe (sous on 1,10); Gabrielle Cavassa (v on 8). New Orleans, 15-17 February 2023.
Cellar Music Group
