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Angela Wrigley plays with jazz greats but finds her own voice on debut single, Cinnamon

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There is a long tradition in the jazz world of musicians swapping backup bands, sitting in for impromptu sessions and generously sharing their musical wealth.

But even by these friendly standards, Calgary pianist-vocalist Angela Wrigley scored a major coup late last year when she tapped into some formidable support at the National Music Centre thanks to a Joshua Redman concert set for Arts Commons down the road.

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It’s hardly surprising that Redman, a second-generation Grammy-nominated saxophonist, travels in esteemed company. Earlier that year, he had reformed his famous quartet — which includes pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gregory Hutchinson — to record and tour behind his acclaimed studio record Come What May.

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Calgary-based jazz booster and Juno-winning producer Scott Morin had worked with Goldberg, Rogers and Hutchinson years earlier and approached Wrigley to ask if she had written any songs that might benefit from having these towering talents contribute. So, on Nov. 19, she found herself in the studios of the National Music Centre with the three musicians, who recorded her song Cinnamon during the day and made it back to Arts Commons in time for their soundcheck.

“It was just so incredible having their input on the song,” says Wrigley. “The song was still kind of new and in its infancy stages, so I was really grateful for their feedback and their talents on it. They gave me so much good information and put a lot of themselves into making sure the recording was as good as it could be.”

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Enlisting musicians who have shared stages and recording studios with jazz royalty over the years — not just Redman, but also Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove and Joe Henderson, among others — is an impressive accomplishment for any musician. But it’s even more notable given that Cinnamon is Wrigley’s debut.

It will be released on Oct. 16 as a standalone single on Vancouver’s Cellar Music Group, just two days after Wrigley is set to lead her own jazz trio as part of a two-night presentation of up-and-coming female vocalists at the Ironwood Stage and Grill. SIS: Sisters in Soul will take over the venue on Oct. 14, when the Angela Wrigley Trio will be joined by the Kate Stevens Trio; and Oct. 15, when the Joanna Borromeo Trio will open the show.

On first blush, Cinnamon, which also features local percussionist Bob Fenske, seems a breezy and sweet jazz-pop confection. But repeated spins reveal some darker edges to the song, a melancholy study in obsession, yearning and heartbreak that has Wrigley singing “You’re like heroin. I’m addicted and I don’t want to stop. Like a fever heat, you burn me slow” atop Goldberg delicate, flowing piano fills.

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“It’s one of the first songs that I had written on my own in the last little while,” she says. “I had done some writing with some other people but this was one that was very personal to me and one that I had put everything I had into. It meant a lot to me and I really liked the vibe and feel to it. Knowing the guys and the type of music that they played, it just really felt that this would fit so perfectly with their styles.”

The Anglea Wrigley Trio, which includes drummer Dave Lake and bassist Derek Stoll, is scheduled to release its debut full-length album, called You Don’t Know What Love Is,  in the spring of 2021. The title track, a 1941 Great American Songbook classic by Don Raye and Gene de Paul made popular through interpretations by Miles Davis and Billie Holiday, is Wrigley’s favourite jazz standard. But the album will be a mix of standards, originals and jazzy covers of non-jazz tunes, including a drastically reworked run through the late Chris Cornell’s dramatic Bond tune You Know My Name.

Wrigley has been playing with Lake and Stoll for three years, calling it her “dream project.” A graduate of Mount Royal University’s vocal-jazz program, Wrigley was introduced to jazz by her father, Ron Wrigley. A fellow jazz pianist who plays with his daughter in the swing band Moments Notice, Ron Wrigley had a wall full of jazz CDs and was an early inspiration for Angela.

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“I was looking into what to do for university and he was the one who suggested that I take the vocal-jazz diploma program,” she says. “He always had Diana Krall records that he was playing around the house. He’s a piano player and singer as well. I often call myself a bit of a carbon copy of him.”

Still, as a composer, Wrigley has spent the past five years finding her own voice, one that has only been strengthened by her formal study of standards and the general language of jazz.

“Music theory has always been important to me, understanding the why and the how of music works,” she says. “You have to know the rules before you break them. The more I can internalize those rules and those sounds, the more I develop a little bit of freedom to get away from them.”

Sis: Sisters in Soul will take place Wednesday, Oct. 14 and Thursday, Oct. 15 at the Ironwood Stage and Grill. On Wednesday, the Kate Stevens Trio performs at 7:30 p.m. and the Angela Wrigley Trio performs at 9 p.m. On Thursday, the Joanna Borromeo Trio starts at 7:30 p.m. and the Angela Wrigley Trio plays at 9 p.m. Cinnamon will be released on Oct. 16 on all streaming services.

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