Sun Songs by Jodi Proznick

Jodi Proznick’s new album Sun Songs invites the listener into wholehearted aliveness through a musical experience of deep joy, sorrow, and reverence for the dualities of life and death that are omnipresent around us.

This project is a new venture for Jodi as a composer, bassist, producer, and songwriter, who soon after her album Foundations was nominated for a Juno Award, was faced with two sets of emotionally charged news. First, the immense joy of discovering she was pregnant and would enter the brave new world of motherhood, and second the intense sorrow of learning her mother was diagnosed with early onset dementia and would live in slow decline for the rest of her days.

The title for Sun Songs is a play on words. First, it’s a dedication to her son, and second, an idea of a life as sunrise and sunset. As if standing on the horizon watching two suns simultaneously rise and fall, yet both lighting up the sky in different ways. These are the polarities explored through each song: birth, death, the learning and unlearning of life, and the emotions that arise in its quieter moments.

Jodi had initially put her creative hat on the backburner, overtaken by the responsibilities of new motherhood and supporting her mother. But the Muse could not be shelved, and she soon found herself documenting words, images, and melodies to help process the titanic emotions transpiring through her. What came forth were songs that beheld the power of life’s most primal polarities – the amazing joy and gratitude of witnessing your child grow, paired against the consummate pain of watching your mother lose memory, capacity to engage, and the ability to care for herself. A collection of songs emerged, 8 originals and 1 cover, in a narrative documenting the process of containing these dramatic dualities and emerging more resilient and in tune with the pendulum of life.

In the land where jazz and pop meet, two genres that have always been intrinsically woven together, Sun Songs becomes the template for a new weave. Every track is an exquisite tapestry of modern harmonies and rhythms, layered with memorable melodies and potent spiritual lyrics. Featuring her prodigious quartet of Tilden Webb (piano), Jesse Cahill (drums), and Steve Kaldestad (tenor saxophone), Jodi shines an even brighter light on this album with the addition of singer Laila Biali, whose luminous vocals lift the songs to unparalleled heights. The players expand beautifully on the ideas brought forth with elegance and grace.

Sun Songs opens with “Listen” and “Beautiful Again”, a song about the miracle of birth, inspired by the line, “You have made the world beautiful again,” from First Nations poet Richard Van Camp’s poem “Welcome Song for Baby.” The impeccable “Let Go” follows, a lullaby for her mother, and “Little Bluebird”, which marks the calm before the storm. “Ancient Yearning” pulls from a poem by Vancouver poet, dancer, and scholar Celeste Snowber: “We are the language of stars, torsos swimming in light. Primal songs reside in our flesh.” These lines deliver a melody that is indeed primal and revealing, reminiscent of John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme”. And while songs “Storm” and “3 am” encapsulate moments of panic and worry amidst the struggle of modern-day life, the story weaves back to hope in “So Near, So Far” which reflects on staying connected to loved ones that have passed on. Sun Songs closes with Stephin Merritt’s “The Book of Love,” originally covered by Peter Gabriel, and brings us full circle through of a woman’s journey in love.

A stalwart on the Vancouver jazz scene as a performer and educator, Jodi Proznick is undoubtedly the perfect person to bring this work to light. Infinitely talented as a songwriter, producer, and player, she is also a mentor for the next generation of female jazz musicians. Sun Songs represents the unbridled potential of every woman’s most powerful contribution – her story. In fact, the album may become a beacon for other female artists aspiring to share their own stories with the world. Inside each song, a radiant beauty echoes, and there’s a gateway to the many different ways we can all light up the sky.

-Mary Kastle

Three time Juno-nominated bassist, composer, bandleader, and educator Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards including Bassist of the Year in 08 & 09 and the Western Canadian Music Award for Jazz Artists of the year in 2019.

jodiproznick.com
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