Christine Jensen was commissioned by l’Orchestre national de jazz to
compose a suite for jazz orchestra in 2015. In Under the Influence
Suite, she combines the silken voice of Sienna Dahlen with the ONJ’s
vast range of sound to pay tribute to composers whose works and musical
character have helped forge her personality as a musician, composer and
conductor. The suite unfolds with a dyad (two pitches), building upon
space and continuing with a form that continually expands
intervallically into the first tribute. Starbright is an homage to
Toronto-born, London-based trumpeter Kenny Wheeler. The second movement,
To Jan, is a chorale Jensen expanded upon, dedicated to the passing of
Polish-Canadian composer and pianist Jan Jarczyk, who taught her as well
as many of the orchestra members at McGill University. The 3rd movement
is dedicated to John Coltrane, working off the sound that he created
with his composition Giant Steps. Building off of the theme, it is a
call to freedom that evokes the composer’s harmonic and rhythmic
audacity. The 4th movement, Sweet Lee, is a composition based on the
harmonic structure of a standard close to Jensen’s heart entitled Out of
Nowhere, which she had studied extensively after spending time with Lee
Konitz. The 5th and final movement is dedicated to Wayne Shorter.
Jensen appropriates the playing styles of the two tenors in the band to
improvise with concepts including space, communication, and freeplay, in
order to evoke freedom. This is how she sums up this bright overview of
her influences: “These masters’ unique sonic concepts continue to
contribute to my development as a composer and improviser, and I hope
every movement in my suite contains a fragment of their character.” Justin Time
