Bonnie Jensen

小簡介
"This is an experienced singer... and it's the combination of innocence and sexy womanliness somewhere in the timbre of her voice that lets you know it."
Shane Nichols - www.allaboutjazz.com, Oct '01
Introducing a versatile singer, songwriter and piano player and recording artist. Born in New Zealand but based in Sydney for many years, Bonnie J Jensen has performed in a variety of musical settings in Australia and continues to spend a large amount of each year working internationally.
February 2007 marked the release of her third album The Sapphire Tree, a collection of songs she says was inspired by the sounds of instrumentalists she works with, and by noticing audiences' reactions to live performances. In 2006 Bonnie started working with Miroslav Bukovsky and the core musicians of his ARIA winning jazz group Wanderlust. Naturally, they are featured on The Sapphire Tree (two of them also played on her previous album) and together they've created a certain warm sound of musical integrity with a contemporary and European flavour. This compliments Bonnie's soulful interpretations well and subtly enhances her unique approaches to this diverse selection of songs, which includes three new engaging originals.
The Australian Weekend Review review in February 2007 mentioned that she draws "…on many influences, sounding sometimes reminiscent of Renee Geyer, at others traces of Peggy Lee or Sarah Vaughan emerge…".
Bonnie handled the production and arranging of this album mostly herself though she is keen to acknowledge the contributions of the stellar array of musicians on hand. In addition Bukovsky wrote the horn and cello arrangements.
Listeners familiar with her previous work will appreciate Bonnie's signature treatments of classic songs, both jazz standards and pop classics. "I love finding a damn good song that's really well loved, blurring the genres, and giving it a reincarnation of sorts", says Jensen.
Here she has reworked U2's "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" by changing the meter and adding Bukovsky's haunting horn arrangement. Her rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", like many of the tracks on this album, displays the wide emotional range of her voice and Bonnie's own "Neon Soliloquy" is said to be reminiscent of Miles Davis' film sound track for "Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud". Some of her favourite jazz numbers are included to great effect such as "Night and Day", "Angel Eyes" and "A Night In Tunisia" and the album ends with a beautiful prayer of a song by legendary American drummer Brian Blade who worked with Joni Mitchell for many years.
Bonnie's first notable recognition in the jazz world came in 2001, shortly after the release of her debut CD Lucky So & So, which quickly rose to No. 3 in the Australian Independent Jazz Charts. This immaculately produced recording of swinging jazz standards and two originals places her warm and stylish vocals to the fore, and also features the talents of other leading Australian musicians: Michael Bartolomei, David Stratton, Nick McBride, Steve Brien, Graham Jesse and Casey Greene.
The American music critic David Nathan, who has written scores of reviews and liner notes for luminaries including Shirley Horn and Roberta Flack, wrote the following in his column on www.allaboutmusic.com in July 2001:
… Maintaining the high standards set by the La Brava label with its previous releases, Jensen delivers a scintillating, expressive 55 minutes of music. Possessing a voice with excellent range, she distributes emotions tailored to the message she wants each song to convey to the listener, whether the tune be an original or standard - the mark of a good jazz singer…
November 2003, whilst home in Sydney, Bonnie recorded and co-produced her second CD Blue Joy, a soulful mix of popular tunes, and originals, inspired by her travels.
This album contains more original material, displays her development as a writer and arranger, and was devised with a coherent theme - love's inherent dichotomy of ecstasy and anguish.
Blue Joy quickly climbed in the Australian Independent Jazz Charts' Top 10 and was also immediately repackaged and released in Japan. A feature article about Bonnie appeared in the April '04 issue of Japan's Swing Journal - the magazine for jazz devotees, and Blue Joy rose to No. 8 in their (vocal) charts for the month of June 2004, placing Bonnie along-side well-marketed, non-independent artists such as Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Michael Buble and Keiko Lee. These charts are based on sales of CD's at 9 major record stores in major cities throughout Japan.
Shane Nichols of The Australian Financial Review wrote the following in February 2004:
"…Jensen's second album is a confident, bold and coherent statement of a musician (singer, player, composer and arranger) hitting stride. Jensen is that rarest of things - a full blooded, grown up sexy woman unafraid to let her passions and eroticism inform her music in a sophisticated way, beyond the usual raunchy, bluesy stuff…".
The official launch of Blue Joy was held at Sydney's favourite music venue - The Basement. where Bonnie and her sextet - a handful of Australia's crack jazz musicians (Lloyd Swanton, Fabian Hevia, Michael Bartolomei, Craig Walters, Jon Pease and Don Rader) played to a full house on a cold, rainy Monday night.
In 2006, the following review of Blue Joy, written by Tony Magee appeared on the APRA website:
"…Here is a truly sumptuous album containing beautiful new arrangements of some seriously well-written 70's and 80's classics, plus some excellent original material.
Singer, songwriter and arranger Bonnie J Jensen is new to me, but I'm so glad I've found her. Absolutely refreshing to hear intelligent, quality singing and phrasing from one of our own…
While many artists talk about listening to their parents' records when they were young, Bonnie's introduction to jazz was somewhat unconventional. She was in her early 20's following her classical music education when she first encountered the genre that she remains passionately intrigued in. Her initial discovery in the Jazz realm was indeed the music of the Brazilian master, Antonio Carlos Jobim, ironically whilst she was living in Germany. The warmth and emotion of his songs, and the sophisticated harmonies underlying Jobim's elegant melodies captured her and still inspire her.
John McBeath lauded Bonnies songwriting in his February 2007 review of The Sapphire Tree in The Australian: "…Jensen's title ballad, an original, displays a talent for both musical composition and poetic lyrics, evident too on "Neon Soliloquy": "Like a diamond in the river, as precious as the African rain, this glimpse of bliss will sustain you - again and again…"