Bria Skonberg

New Orleans-style jazz, ‘with a twist’

Courtesy of Opening Nights

Bria Skonberg recognizes that the songs she plays, sings and writes could not exist without older songs produced by pioneering musicians who long preceded her.

She was fortunate, she says, as a girl growing up in Chilliwack, British Columbia, to have been introduced by teachers to the music of early jazz artists — Louis Armstrong and others, who popularized “hot jazz” in the 1920s. As a middle school jazz band member, she practiced her trumpet by playing along with Armstrong recordings at home.

Today, Skonberg, a rising star trumpeter, vocalist and songwriter, makes it a point to give Armstrong and his like-and-kind the “attention they deserve” at the Hot Jazz Camp and Hot Jazz Festival she has founded in her home of the last seven years, New York City. (She is making it there, which is to say, of course, that she could make it anywhere.)

“You read a book, you start at the beginning, follow the story, get to know the characters,” Skonberg said, “but with music education, it isn’t always that way.” For her part, however, she likes — to borrow a bit of jazz parlance — to “build the band from the bottom up,” and move on from there.

While rooted in bluesy melody and rhythm driven New Orleans-style jazz, Skonberg’s music is equally influenced by contemporary artists such as Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones and Harry Connick, Jr. Skonberg likes to travel and tends to collect sounds wherever she goes; she’s currently fusing in more Latin American percussion elements. Always, she strives to activate listeners with music that “makes people think, feel and want to get up and dance.”

“We like to feed off the audience,” Skonberg says of herself and her five-piece band. “The people we play for are as big a part of the party as we are.”

Skonberg has recorded two albums on the OKeh label, “With a Twist,” introduced in May, and 2016’s “Bria,” which earned her a Juno Award for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.” (Think of it as it as a Canadian Grammy.)

“Awards just let me know that I may be moving in the right direction,” Skonberg said. “You’ve got to keep practicing. Work hard and be humble. You can’t rest on your laurels in the music business. No, no, no.”

Music, as has been said, “not busy being born is busy dying,” but Skonberg, at the top of her powers, is far from that.

“I love the idea of spreading joy, relating the human experience and putting good into the world to counteract the negative,” she said.

Want to catch Bria Skonberg on tour?

Bria Skonberg performs in Panama City on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the St. Joe Community Foundation Lecture Hall in the Holley Academic Center on the FSU Panama City campus. Hers is one of two shows performed in Panama City by Opening Nights. For more performances visit openingnights.fsu.edu/events.

Tickets to Bria Skonberg are priced at $45. To get yours, visit openingnights.fsu.edu or call (850) 644-6500.