Ingrid and Christine Jensen back in Vancouver for special jazz concert
Jazz is in Ingrid and Christine Jensen's blood.
In fact, when asked when she started playing music, Ingrid will tell you that it was in her mother's womb.
After all, jazz music was an integral part of the sisters' upbringing, said Jensen. Their mother was a huge jazz fan, and both parents loved swing dancing.
Growing up in Nanaimo, both Ingrid and Christine, as well as another sister, played instruments. The record player in the living room was also always playing music by the likes of Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
"The music was always in every cell of my body, whether I wanted it to be there or not, especially having a piano as our main source of expression in the house," Ingrid told Hot Air's Margaret Gallagher.
Now based in New York, Ingrid is an internationally acclaimed jazz musician. Christine, who is based in Montreal and plays the saxophone, leads the award-winning Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra.
Despite living in different cities, the two sisters often come together to make music. On Saturday, they will perform in Vancouver as special guests with John Korsrud's Hard Rubber Orchestra, where Christine will premiere brand new work.
The sisters are so used to each other that when Christine composes a song that includes Ingrid, such as Sweet Adelphi from the Juno Award-winning album Habitat, she doesn't actually write with Ingrid in mind.
"Whether it'd be opera or classical music or jazz or from world or anything, I think I know the range of [Ingrid's] voice and it's instilled in my work and from a young age because she was my influential older sister growing up," Christine said.
Despite collaborating with other musicians, the close connection that the sisters share means that it's sometimes "awkward and uncomfortable" to play with other people, said Ingrid.
"I forget, sometimes — especially after I've been playing with Christine — oh wait, I'm not playing with my sister. I have to use words here to communicate with this person," Ingrid said.
Ingrid and Christine Jensen's performance begins at 8 p.m. PT on Saturday at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at 149 West Hastings Street in Vancouver.
MAP: Goldcorp Center for the Arts, 149 West. Hastings Street
