A Woman of Brass Pursues the Lyricism of a Human Voice

It may be the 21st century, but many jazz fans still have a distinctly outdated reaction when they see a woman playing a trumpet in a jazz group.

This weekend, they will have the opportunity to test those reactions at the Newport Beach Jazz Party, when New York-based trumpeter/flugelhornist Ingrid Jensen will appear. .

True, the jazz world isn’t nearly as sexist as it was, say, in the swing years, when the emphasis in all-woman groups such as the Ina Rae Hutton Band focused more on gowns and hairstyles than musical originality. (Hutton, you may recall, was billed as “The Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm.”) But vestiges of the brass ceiling still remain, and female artists who, like Jensen, insist upon being judged solely as musicians have to prove themselves at every level of their careers.

“When I was coming up,” said Jensen, 34, “there was a lot of pioneering that needed to be done, insofar as people’s openness. It wasn’t as hard as it used to be in the days when, if a female went to a jam session, she’d have to wait until four in the morning before they’d let her sit in and play a tune. But there’s still a lot more that needs to be done before we get to the point where people look at you when you stand up to play and just say, ‘OK, let’s see what you’ve got’.”

Given Jensen’s imaginative qualities, it’s hard to imagine anyone reacting in anything other than a positive fashion to her playing. At a time when technical virtuosity rules and it can be difficult to distinguish one young trumpeter from another, she possesses an authentically original sound.

Legendary trumpeter Art Farmer referred to her “feeling, swing, drive, taste, grace and lyricism.” And Clark Terry said he is “proud to describe her as a protege of mine.”

Jensen, in turn, calls Terry “the reason I’m playing jazz today.” But her fundamental talent springs from a rich musical heritage. Her mother, Karen, is a pianist who continues to work as a professional musician, and her younger sister, Christine, is a saxophonist.

“My Mom,” Jensen said, “really set us up with Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and the Basie Band--all that stuff--while we were growing up in Vancouver. I didn’t want to play trumpet at first, because I kind of preferred the sound of Jack Teagarden to Louis. But eventually I figured out that they’re all great.”

Jensen left Vancouver to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, eventually winding up in Europe, where she became the youngest faculty member at Austria’s Bruckner Conservatory. New York City beckoned, however, as it eventually does for many jazz artists, and she has been living in the Big Apple since the mid-’90s.

Like many female instrumentalists, she started out feeling she had to play as fast, as hard and as high as male trumpeters.

“I had that quality for a while,” she said, “but that was because I wanted to play and I wanted to get work. And I just felt that the only way I could do that was by being forceful in my playing.”

But she feels that her tenure in Europe helped trigger the realization that she could “just be an artist, just back off, and just play music.”

Those attending the Jazz Party, which started Friday, may detect another quality in Jensen’s style--the kind of soaring lyricism one associates with jazz singers.

“I was really influenced by singers--female singers, especially, of all styles,” she said. “Like Joni Mitchell. That was something that made me realize that the trumpet is just another vehicle for your voice rather than a piece of brass and valves. And it helped me to hear things from my own vocal perspective, because, for me, that’s what playing a brass instrument really is.

“It’s very vocal, almost parallel to being a singer. And I hope that’s what comes through to my listeners.”

Jensen appears with small groups throughout the weekend, including tonight’s Nightcap Session in the Newport Room. She will also be featured with Ann Patterson’s Maiden Voyage Big Band this afternoon on the Main Pool Stage and in a duo female trumpeter session with Stacey Rowles on Sunday evening in the Pacific Ballroom.

Jensen and Rowles will not be the only female instrumentalists at the party. Also scheduled to perform are the usually all-female Maiden Voyage, fronted by Patterson, a versatile woodwind and saxophone artist; flutist Holly Hofmann; and pianist-singer Ann Hampton Callaway. “The important thing to me,” Jensen said, “is to be in a setting, in a community that is really all about the music--not how many males or how many females are on stage. The bottom line here is that this is going to be fun. And that’s what a jazz party is all about, to get together with a bunch of different players, in a bunch of different settings and make something spontaneous happen.”

*

Newport Beach Jazz Party continues today and Sunday at the Newport Beach Marriott, 900 Newport Center Drive. 10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. today and 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Sunday. $40 for daytime performances, $60 and $65 for evening performances. (949) 759-5003.