Christine Jensen

Bringing this piece to life during the pandemic provided me with the time to reflect and process my feelings as the world seemed to tilt and shift beneath my feet. As life ground to a halt, I found that it created space to deal with the pain of distancing from family, friends, and music making.

The newly-slowed down pace of everyday life inspired me to begin with a calm, simple energy evoking our collective sense of loss from the absence of human touch and connection. The composition then picks up the pace, mirroring the constrained freedom that we relished as the world gradually reopened and we learned to embrace a new reality. The coda explores our exuberance for having survived this tumultuous period in our history, and poses the question: is this now-tilted world indeed our new normal? 

Montreal-based saxophonist, composer and conductor Christine Jensen is regarded as one of Canada’s most compelling bandleaders. As a Downbeat Critic’s Poll winner for Rising Star Big Band, Arranger, and Soprano Saxophonist, she is constantly in motion leading her own jazz orchestra as well other diverse large and small ensemble projects around the world.

Jensen has won two Juno Awards for her recordings with her jazz orchestra, including Habitat (2014) and Treelines (2011), along with being a two-time recipient of the SOCAN Hagood Hardy Jazz Composer Award. Habitat received the coveted 5 stars in Downbeat, and was included at the top of several international critic’s polls, including Jazz Album of the Year in 2014.

Teachers and mentors include Kenny Werner, Jim McNeely, Dick Oatts, Remi Bolduc and John Hollenbeck. She is currently on faculty at McGill University where she teaches jazz composition and leads Jazz Orchestra 1 as Artistic Director.

“Jensen writes in three dimensions, with a quiet kind of authority that makes the many elements cohere. Wayne Shorter, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler come to mind.” –Downbeat