Christine Jensen and Andrew Homzy have essentially switched places across Canada and now both have major compositions for the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra. (submitted)

By Spencer Sterritt

Kind of Blue

Nanaimo musicians make serious noise for Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra

Jun 22, 2019 | 7:06 AM

NANAIMO — The jazz album Kind of Blue is considered one of the most important records of the 20th century. Now two musicians, one raised in Nanaimo and one recently moved here, are putting their own spin on the classic.

Music created by Christine Jensen and Andrew Homzy will be played by the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra on Sunday, June 23 to celebrate the Miles Davis classic. They each created new works, taking what was on the album and bringing their own ideas to the music.

Christine Jensen was raised in Nanaimo and credits her family and amazing area teachers for her successful career as a composer and player. She’s now based in Montreal.

“If you go through anyone’s top 10 albums in jazz, they’re going to say ‘Listen to Kind of Blue.‘ _{Christine Jensen}

She said the album captures every detail, every whim of the musicians working through their ideas.

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Jensen has now taken those details and created a new work, being presented by the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra.

“There’s five pieces on the original album, so there’s little snippets from each piece I’m able to take and turn into this one piece I wrote, which is a fantasy on Kind of Blue.”

Composer Andrew Homzy, who grew up in Montreal and now lives in Nanaimo, also took what was on the landmark album to built two new compositions, though only one will be played.

“Freddie the Freeloader,” the nine-minute second track on Kind of Blue, was rewritten as if Miles Davis was working along side fellow jazz great Duke Ellington.

The second piece Homzy created tried to guess what the jazz virtuoso would be doing now after the rise of hip-hop and R&B.

“One sort of looks historically and the other looks more towards contemporary music,” he said.

Homzy said he and Jensen have known each other for roughly 10 years but have never worked together.

With only seven composers selected for the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra performance, Homzy said it was interested they were chosen since they’ve essentially switched places across the country.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit