What I do is always hard for me to explain, but it’s like a mixture of New Orleans jazz and world music, with a little bit of Spanish flavour. I just take all that and mix it with Chilliwack, and something comes out! Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I’m an old soul. The blues, especially older blues, is the human element that kind of gives the music soul, and I think that maybe not enough people connect to the blues. It’s a very powerful place to be; and if you can express that to an audience, I think that you can express a lot through that. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I like hearing the sort of harmonies people get into in different parts of the world. I love music that has a sense of allure to it, and exotic tunes. That’s what I’m drawn to. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I fell in love with playing the trumpet because of what we call ‘hot jazz’ of the 1920s and 1930s, music that has a higher energy to it. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
With my trumpet voice, I love gritty, plunger, growly sounds. But vocally, I love Anita O’Day – a raspier but definitely softer sound. Part of the fun has been finding vehicles or writing for both of those sounds. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
There’s nothing worse than bad scatting, except maybe bad mouth trumpet. Mouth trumpet may sound like a trumpet, but it’s really more like playing a kazoo. The instant you do your solo, the audience has a bit of a chuckle. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I’m really a product of an excellent school system and supportive parents. My high school band director gave me recordings of Louis Armstrong, Kenny Ball, and contemporaries like Nicholas Payton. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
Jazz was the pop music of its day, and all American popular music has stemmed from it one way or another. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I really enjoy listening to players on the cusp of swing into bebop like Charlie Shavers, Clifford Brown and Clark Terry. They balance immense facility on their instrument with rhythm, melody, and more complex harmonies of the time. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
I like mash-ups, taking contemporary songs and making them old… old songs, making them new. Bria Skonberg Read Quote
