Jodi Proznick, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty Street), Thursday, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. Album launch for Sun Songs.
The band director’s daughter didn’t want to play the oboe.
“They decided because I had a lot of music background and could read music that they were going to give me a challenge, so they put me on oboe for a year,” says Jodi Proznick – a jazz musician, double bass player, composer and educator – when describing her brief foray into playing the wood instrument when she was in Grade 7.
Her father, who was the band director at Proznick’s school in Surrey, needed an oboe player for the concert band and his daughter was prized with the task.
“They found an old oboe in the back of the closet and a terrible fibre-cane reed and handed it to me,” she says. “I had a terrible year. It was a bad instrument and it just wasn’t right for me.”
But Proznick had a plan in place in order to avoid continuing to play the awful oboe the following school year. She did what plenty of kids do when confronted with a potential obstacle: she wrote a letter.
“‘Dear Dad,’” she recites. “‘I’m terribly sorry but oboe’s just not the right instrument for me. But I’m happy to play any other instruments that you think you need next year!’”
And that’s how she came to discover the bass.
That momentary plea against instrument injustice has served Proznick well, too. The now-42-year-old musician is in the midst of releasing her third album, Sun Songs.
The nine-track album, composed by Proznick, features contributions from her usual quartet – including pianist Tilden Webb, drummer Jesse Cahill and tenor saxophonist Steve Kaldestad – as well as vocals by acclaimed singer and former North Vancouverite Laila Biali.
The album, described as “in the land where jazz and pop meet,” examines the “pluralities of life, earth and death,” Proznick explains.
“The themes – you’ll hear them throughout the songs – although I would say it does lean towards the energy of hope.”
Things weren’t always so hopeful, however, leading up to the album’s inception.
It’s been 10 years since Proznick and her quartet have released an album of new material, that being Foundations in 2007.
“Right after we released that record I had my son and then my mom got diagnosed with a really serious illness,” she explains. “There wasn’t really a plan. In fact, in the middle of it all I would say, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever do another record because I can’t imagine having the time.’”
While the birth of her son provided a ray of light – and certainly kept her busy – her mother’s worsening state was a source of concern and heartache.
Over the ensuing years, Proznick continued to perform and record as a session musician for others. She also currently teaches jazz bass and music at both Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music, and taught at Capilano University for 10 years.
But it took a while for her to find the will to record her own music again.
“Over the course of years I kept writing,” she explains. “Slowly bit by bit, year by year, moment by moment, a collection of songs emerged out of this time in my life.”
And with the new music in Sun Songs also emerged a new mode of musical expression for Proznick: words.
During the past years, she has taken to journaling her thoughts, feelings and expressions, and many of these musings have led to the lyrics dutifully sung by Laila Biali on the new album.
“I think the lyrics are broad enough that they could be anyone’s voice, anyone’s story,” she says.
She describes the album’s third track, “Let Go,” as the anchor holding the album together. The song, she says, was birthed after watching her mom and dad interact with each other during her mother’s illness, the way that her father would provide unwavering emotional support and stability for her mother as she dealt with Alzheimer’s disease.
“When I went home and wrote this song, it’s kind of the anchor for this whole project – that even amongst the challenges of life there is these moments of grace that appear.”
Jodi Proznick and her quartet alongside vocalist Laila Biali are hosting an album release event and performing at Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. Sun Songs is available Dec. 1.
Proznick adds that these days she holds no ill will towards the oboe.
