Mother of Pearl is Vancouver's all female jazz and blues quartet.
Each of its members is an accomplished artist in her own right,
pursuing diverse musical careers including music therapy, operatic
percussion, piano teaching and being a studio musician. Between
them they have decades of performing experience in an encyclopedic
array of ensembles and genres. In 1996 a Vancouver women's arts
festival brought them together to play what was intended to be a
one-time concert of jazz performed by women. Like many one night
stands, it was so much fun that almost a decade later they are still
at it. Today pianist Brenda Baird; bassist Wendy Solloway; drummer
Lauri Lyster and saxophonist/flutist and vocalist, Karen Graves
are an integral and active part of Vancouver's burgeoning jazz milieu.
Mother of Pearl has learned the secret of jazz survival - dont
just do one thing! They'll play a concert, a club or a wedding.
They've visited hundreds of classrooms from Haida Gwai to Castlegar,
earning them schools of fans. Jazz festivals from Halifax to Whitehorse
have welcomed them with open ears. Radio audiences from The Vinyl
Café to Hot Air to Sounds Like Canada have heard them perform
and discuss their music. Even flyers on Air Canada have heard them
on the in-flight entertainment. With two CDs to their credit, they
are slowly but inexorably building a national following for their
work.
Mother of Pearl casts a wide net for their repertoire. There are
standards from the golden age of jazz and blues, tunes and songs
they have composed and funky gems drawn from the contemporary jazz
revival. Through it all runs a commitment to playing great music
and also to playing music written and performed by women. From the
International Sweethearts of Rhythm, circa 1945, to the work of
Carla Bley, circa now, Mother of Pearl has always paid tribute to
their foremothers. In 2000, they began the research that would lead
to sheBOP! A Century of Jazz Compositions by Canadian Women.
sheBOP! is a cohesive presentation combining music, slides
and narrative to tell the story of jazz written by Canadian women
from the Ragtime of Montreal's Vera Guilaroff to the world jazz
of Vancouver's Kathy Kidd. It poses and answers the riddle, Who
wrote Frank Sinatra's first big hit? Who wrote the first Canadian
song to sell a million copies? Who wrote Canada's unofficial national
anthem, Hockey Night in Canada? Canadian jazz women, that's
who! Covering a dozen genres of jazz, sheBOP! is a revelation
and has introduced Canadian women's jazz history to audiences from
Quadra Island to Toronto.
As they approach their tenth anniversary Mother of Pearl can look
back at many accomplishments and look forward to new creative challenges.
We continue to develop the concept which originally inspired us
to form the ensemble to build the visibility of women as creators
and performers of jazz.
For more information
download the Mother of Pearl Press Kit
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