Category: Music

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About Jen Hodge

     Jen Hodge is a bass player, vocalist, bandleader, and arranger. She originally hails from the Comox Valley, and spent 17 wonderful years in Vancouver before moving to New York City in the Fall of 2019. Jen’s playing is characterized by hard swinging grooves, an expressive and energetic playing style, and an evident, infectious love for making music. Her steadfast bass playing and consummate professionalism have taken her to stages all over Canada, the USA, China, Spain, France, the UK, Sweden, and the Caribbean with such artists as Bria Skonberg, Casey MacGill, Jon-Erik Kellso, Jonathan Stout, and Greg Ruby. Before her move to NYC, Jen played a significant role in cultivating a traditional jazz and swing community in Vancouver, leading a popular weekly gig for 9 years where seasoned musicians jammed, young musicians learned the ropes, and lindy hoppers tore up the dance floor.

     During the pandemic, Jen has been able to release a new album – The Girl in the Groove – which is her third full-length album as a bandleader. Music from The Girl in the Groove played on hundreds of radio stations and charted in the Top 10 North American College and Community Radio jazz charts in the weeks following its release. Additional projects Jen has been grateful to be involved in during the past year and a half include writing and recording new arrangements for the Pacific Swing Dance Foundation, a solo bass commission from the Little Chamber Music Society, new recordings with Lloyd Arntzen and Arnt Arntzen, a monthly 78 rpm DJing session using her antique phonograph, and being featured on the cover of The Syncopated Times.

About the Performance

    While I have been a professional musician for many years, I rarely (if ever) performed completely solo before the pandemic hit us. While the sudden and prolonged loss of opportunities to play music with my musical colleagues was a real challenge for me to adapt to, I can now say that the way these circumstances forced me to develop arrangements and techniques to be able to play my double bass as an independent instrument has been a very fulfilling musical and learning experience. In my performance for Knox United’s Instrumental Measures series, I play 6 of these pieces for you, and relate some information and anecdotes between them the way that I would in an in-person performance. I filmed the video (with many thanks to my dear friend Ali Romanow) in my hometown of Courtenay, BC, and for the talk back portion of the evening I will be coming to you from Brooklyn, NY, where I have just recently returned after 16 months. I really hope you enjoy the show!