BRENDA EARLE STOKES' "MOTHERHOOD"

Pianist, vocalist, composer, and educator BRENDA EARLE STOKES presents MOTHERHOOD, a collection of ten original compositions that share the journey of motherhood with songs that explore identity, fear, expectations, body image, friendship, and growth. This is Stokes’ sixth album as a leader and follows Solo Sessions (2019), Right About Now (2014), Songs for a New Day (2009), and Happening (2006). Bebop Spoken Here has said, “Stokes is very much her own woman and stamps her individuality on both her singing and her piano playing.” Downbeat Magazine said, “Stokes revs up on eclecticism, centering her jazz improvisation and pop-jazz adventures that shimmer with energetic scatting and her cheery piano.”

Stokes lives and works in New York City and brought to this project some of the A-List players the city has to offer, including bassist EVAN GREGOR (Gary Burton, Dave Liebman, Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, John Fedchock), drummer ROSS PEDERSON (Snarky Puppy, Patti Austin, The Manhattan Transfer), and special guest, renowned trumpeter INGRID JENSEN. Celebrated vocalists MELISSA STYLIANOU and Grammy-winning NICOLE ZURAITIS provide backing vocals.

A native of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Stokes started studying classical piano at the age of four. She became interested in jazz while in high school after hearing Oscar Peterson for the first time. She went on to receive the Oscar Peterson scholarship to study jazz piano at York University in Toronto and benefitted from the mentorship of her idol. After graduating, she spent a few years gigging around Toronto. She started to seriously develop her performance skills when she worked at a piano bar on cruise ships in the Caribbean. She says of the experience, “Taking requests six nights a week for several years was a deep education for me. Not only did I have to learn hundreds of songs, but I also had to learn how to hold an audience’s attention and engage with people.” After earning enough money, she decided to head to New York City, where she planned to study and immerse herself in the jazz scene. She ended up at Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a master’s degree in jazz piano and voice.

Since then, she has become a bandleader and busy accompanist, working with the likes of John Riley, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, Roxy Coss, Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines, and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. She has held residencies at the Kennedy Center and Banff Center for Fine Arts and was a finalist of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. She also won the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Sister’s in Jazz competition and was recognized as one of the top emerging jazz artists of her generation.

Stokes is also a well-known music educator and entrepreneur. She runs a busy private studio in New York City serving local students in person and, as an early adopter of online training, she has taught students all around the globe with her website, The Virtual Musician. Stokes’ YouTube channel, Piano and Voice with Brenda, boasts nearly 20,000 subscribers and over 55,000 hours of viewers per month.

Although the music on MOTHERHOOD is rooted in jazz, Stokes drew additional inspiration from singer-songwriters, musical theater, spoken word and 1960s protest songs. Stokes shares the rich tapestry of a mother’s experience, both celebrating the experience of mothering while also being truthful about the challenges that modern mothers face. She describes what it’s like to live in a world of intense stress and fear, combined with the dangers and toxicity of social media, financial insecurity, gun culture, and the pressure to navigate all of these issues while also appearing thin and youthful.

Stokes sings about these ideas in her song “Kathleen” and explores them in greater detail in the eight-minute spoken word performance “Sharp Edges,” with bluesy accompaniment featuring Jensen on trumpet.

In “The Endless Wait,” Stokes ponders the identity of the child she carries, and ruminates on how they are connected to ancestors both known and unknown. On “Who Am I Now?,” Stokes examines how one’s identity changes when a child comes into your life and ponders whether she is equipped for the challenge of motherhood.

On “Where Are the Mothers?,” she realizes that she and her close mom-friend have hundreds of photos of their children but almost none of themselves. She thinks about the fact that the shame surrounding a mother’s changing body can cause her to hide, and in time, she literally disappears from the picture. Stokes discovered that her son couldn’t remember most of his early childhood, and in “This is Your Childhood,” sings about her epiphany that maybe his childhood really belongs to both of them. In “Loose Tooth Blues,” she shares the unique and often humorous perspective that a mother has as she views the world through her child’s eyes.

“Saying Goodbye” is about the bittersweet feeling of watching your child grow up before your eyes all too quickly and knowing that one day, they will inevitably grow up and leave. Rounding out the project are “The Strength of a Woman,” a gospel-influenced anthem that honors the courage and perseverance of everyday women, and “Happy Mother’s Day,” a “calling in” song that celebrates the struggle, the revelry, and the adventures that are part of the lives of mothers everywhere.

Stokes’ expressive and flexible voice is the perfect vehicle for these songs that tell tales that are poignant and hopeful, yet bittersweet and sometimes disheartening, but so very familiar to many women. Grounded in jazz but imbued with elements of pop and musical theater, MOTHERHOOD is a deeply felt, unique take on the ups and downs of raising a child from a woman’s point of view.

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MOTHERHOOD was released on May 10, 2024 and is available at Bandcamp and on all streaming platforms.

Online:

brendaearle.com

brendaearlestokes.bandcamp.com/album/motherhood

facebook.com/BrendaEarleStokes

youtube.com/brendaearlestokes

IG: @brendaearlestokes