BRIA SKONBERG

JAZZ FORUM / MAY 9-10

Hailing from Chilliwack, Canada, Bria Skonberg is a trumpet and flugelhorn player, as well as a vocalist and leader of Bria’s Hot Five – a group that takes inspiration from Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. In 2017 she won the Juno Award for Best Jazz Album of the Year, for Bria, an album that she produced through crowd sourcing. Bria is also an educator and co-founder of New York’s Hot Jazz Festival. She’s won numerous awards for her singing, playing and compositions, and with six leader albums under her belt and hundreds of international festival appearances, she is now one of the keepers of the flames for the classic jazz music that she plays. The Wall Street Journal called her “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation.” She brings sophistication and sharp improvisational skills to bear in her playing, and like Satchmo, she is a double threat, on the horn and with her impressive vocal talents. JZ