But it provides something jazz hasn’t often had anywhere, and less often in Canada in the last 20 years: a measure of institutional permanence.
The ONJM is built around a big band with varying personnel, constantly rotating leadership, and mandates that change with each concert. But it provides something jazz hasn’t often had anywhere, and less often in Canada in the last 20 years: a measure of institutional permanence. Whoever’s leading it this month, whoever the guest artists are, whatever the idiom — pop to avant garde to repertory; Jensen and Trudel have each recorded albums of their original music as leaders of the ONJM — Laurin makes sure there’s rehearsal space, social media accounts, a mailing address for grant money, and a thread of conceptual continuity.