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For the next eight months Mother of Pearl and their friends scoured used record stores, libraries, the CBC archives and the minds and homes of friends, looking for songs and tunes written by Canadian w o m e n . Some sources were easy. Who didn't know Joni Mitchell's work? Vancouver composer and pianist, Kathy Kidd, had been a friend of band members. Someone read an article about Ruth Lowe, the Toronto songwriter who composed /'// Never Smile Again in accompaniment came together documenting jazz and the women who produced it. Then Mother of Pearl discovered a piece of living history- singer Eleanor Collins. In the early 1950's Eleanor had walked into the embryonic CBC television studio to audition. Already in her thirties, she got the job and for the next forty plus years was a well known and well loved artist on regional television and in live performance. Eleanor is well into her eighties and had given up singing "except in released with a concert in the Cap Jazz Series at Capilano College's Performing Arts Theatre. Once again Mother of Pearl will be joined by Eleanor Collins and, for the CD release, another special guest- Jane Fair. The recent International Association of Jazz Educators convention, held in Toronto in January of this year, honoured Jane for her contribution to women in jazz. With the SheBOP! CD recorded, Mother What started as a good little idea become a major accomplishment of has in Pearl plans to take the show out on the road. Canadian jazz and is well on its way to reaching the ears of thousands of listeners. memory of her dead husband; the song that turned into Frank Sinatra's first big hit and launched the "bobby sox" revolution. Someone else found a long out-of-print album by Toronto flautist Kathryn Moses and a great tune called Lucky Duck. Someone else tracked down an original tune Montreal piano dynamo Vera Canada's first documented w o m a n composer. Hockey Night In Canada by jazz was Guilaroff, church". Something about Mother of Pearl appealed to her and after to join the band for What: M o t h e r of Pearl's When: March 28 @ 8 pm Where: Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver She-Bop and SheBOP! many protests about her singing days being over, she agreed SheBOPI's debut performance on September 28, 2001. The show was a hit, receiving a standing ovation from a sold out house. On March 28, exactly 18 months after How: Call 604.990.7810 for tickets SheBOP! first graced a stage, the CD will be written by a woman? Let's jazz it up, was Mother of Pearl's reply! Song by song, tune by tune, the ensemble slowly assembled a collection of great music covering almost the entire twentieth century. Some tunes were obscure little gems, long forgotten - a couple of songs by Hootin' Lil Marcus from the late forties, were unearthed in a bulletin of People's Songs, for example. Others were the subject of much debate. Who from the large numbers of women jazz composers active in the 1990's should be featured? DANCE ACADEMY Summer Dance Camps 2003 Pre-teen . Teen . Intermediate . Advanced As the deadline for the concert approached a body of work took shape. It covered the main styles of jazz from early ragtime, through swing, Latin, bebop, fusion, blues and more. It combined love songs, a tongue in cheek Québécois ditty by La Bolduc, ballads, and rollicking instrumentais. Twelve songs by twelve Canadian women composers made the final cut. Then, as if creating the first national survey of Canadian jazz made by women was not enough - why not put together a slide show? Back to the libraries, the friends' houses, and the used bookstores, looking for images. Pictures of the artists, pictures of early jazz clubs, women's marches; a visual R.A.D. Ballet Tap & Musical Theater Jazz & Hip Hop Phone 604-983-2623 1152 Welch Street, North Vancouver www.vanleena.com L