Skip to content

Bria Skonberg returns to CapU for special night

Jazz Studies alumna will perform with 'A' Band and NiteCap ensembles
Bria skonberg
Jazz trumpeter Bria Skonberg, named one of Downbeat Magazine’s 25 for the Future, studied music at Capilano College in North Vancouver before moving to New York City.

Jazz trumpeter and Juno Award winner Bria Skonberg performs with “A” Band and NiteCap, Oct. 26, 8 p.m., at The BlueShore at CapU. More info: tickets.capilanou.ca.

Trumpeter Bria Skonberg screams old soul, as present-day state of affairs swirl around her.

“I play jazz because it’s the closest I can get to flying … spreading joy, relating the human experience, and putting good into the world to counteract the negative,” proclaims Skonberg.

She grew up in wholesome Chilliwack, following her older brother around to his fiddling competitions.

Naturally, Skonberg tried the fiddle too, but it wasn’t her forte.

“It sounded very terrible,” she says with a laugh.

Fortunately, there was a trumpet laying around the Skonberg homestead – and wide open spaces.

“I’m really grateful that I grew up on two acres on a hobby farm in between dairy farms and corn fields,” says Skonberg, “because that gave me the space to make a lot of noise. I could play my trumpet and see cows.”

She’s moved on from serenading cows and now plays her trumpet in a concrete jungle, Manhattan, a paradox made perfectly clear to Skonberg. The jazz triple threat – singer, trumpeter and songwriter – who has been called one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation, arrived in the Big Apple by way of North Vancouver.

Chilliwack may have seemed far afield from Capilano College, as it was called in the early 2000s, but word about it having “the best jazz program on the West Coast” reached Skonberg via her high school guidance counsellor.

Still, Skonberg struggled to find her groove at first. The old-style jazz sound the 20-something had brought to the school was “not cool at all,” she says. Skonberg’s sultry vocals evoked those of a 1930s’ lounge singer.

“When I went to Cap, I think I stuck out like a sore thumb because I sounded like I was playing jazz for a lot longer,” recalls Skonberg. “I didn’t get it, because that was what was normal in Chilliwack. We had a Dixieland jazz festival – that was what our town did.”

Skonberg’s training at Cap College set her up for a jazz career. In fact, there had been no private trumpet instruction for Skonberg before that point.

“Immediately, (the Capilano jazz program) gave me access to mentors (and) to people who would challenge me musically,” extols Skonberg.

Skonberg drove around North Vancouver, where she lived while attending Cap, listening to great American trumpeters Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Lee Morgan and Dizzy Gillespie blow their horns with soulful abandon from her CD player.

While she was still in school, Skonberg sunk into the band manager role. She got on the horn and “learned very quickly how to hustle gigs.”

It was Mother’s Day when Skonberg landed her big break. She had been discovered by Vancouver’s King of Swing, Dal Richards, who invited Skonberg to sit in with the band for a couple of numbers.

Skonberg performed the popular jazz standard, “All of Me.” She credits Richards for helping her hone her showmanship.

“It was also a chance to wear sparkly things and sing in front of a big band, which is one of the greatest feelings ever,” says Skonberg.

That memory has Skonberg excited about a special homecoming at CapU on Oct. 26, when she will perform with “A” Band and NiteCap.

“I’m really excited,” enthuses Skonberg. “One of the teachers wrote a vocal arrangement of one of my songs – I can’t wait to hear it.”

The evening will offer the unexpected, as Skonberg breathes her own energetic take on jazz music.

Recognized as one of 25 for the Future by DownBeat Magazine, Skonberg is shaking up the scene with her bold horn melodies and adventurous concoctions of classic and fresh jazz sounds. She enjoys infusing an interesting mix of variables into her music, thereby “creating something unique but in a way that is accessible to most audiences.”

Skonberg feels some pressure to reinvent the genre.

“As long as I’ve been playing people would say that jazz is dying, and it’s so ridiculous to me,” she explains. “As long as you don’t suffocate it, if you don’t try to keep it the same, then it will continue to breathe, grow and live.”

Skonberg knew early on that she would need to take chances to be heard.

After “so many years of strict jazz college, the first song Skonberg wrote when she emerged was “a Jamiroquai funky dance tune.”

Her adventurous musicality has brought Skonberg places in life. She has played festivals and stages the world over, her trusty trumpet in tow.

Skonberg signed to Sony Music Masterworks’ OKeh Records in 2016 and released her debut LP, Bria, which earned her a Juno Award, with the album making the Top 5 on Billboard jazz charts.

Her second Sony album, With A Twist, saw Skonberg collaborate with multi-Grammy winner Gil Goldstein. Skonberg’s spin on Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End of Love” has garnered more than three-million streams.

She just finished recording a new album, which Skonberg describes as Duke Ellington meets Al Green.

Skonberg aims to make her albums topical, and says the tone for this latest one reflects what the world has been going through recently. For example, she covered “I Want to Break Free” by Queen.

Skonberg moved to New York eight years ago, and she’s better for it.

While it seems like a dream to her, Skonberg is a fixture at Louis Armstrong’s home-turned-museum in Queens. She’s played concert series in the backyard, and is instrumental in developing music programs for inner-city students.

Now more than ever it’s important for Skonberg to be a visible female role model and show that it’s possible for anyone to play the trumpet – revealing humbleness as her constant in life.

Skonberg has gone from busking on the streets to sitting at Sony Music headquarters with label executives – and everything in between.

“This city is challenging and I need that,” she says. “I need that to feel satisfied, because if I’m uncomfortable then I know that I’m growing.”