A port in the storm

In our second post in association with JAZZ.FM91, we speak to host Heather Bambrick. The journey from political science and law (yes, you read that correctly) to jazz - performance, education, communication - is pretty straight forward. It’s what she wanted to do. The passion and commitment are clear. Read on.

Who are you?

I’m Heather Bambrick, host of the Heather Bambrick Show and Jazzology on JAZZFM.91.

What got you into that seat?

I moved to Toronto from the East Coast, to study music and become a jazz singer. I was originally going to study law and had a degree in Political Science and English.  Then I decided “nah, I'm going to be a jazz singer instead”. I called Mom and Dad when they were on vacation in Florida and said, “Guess what? I’m going to apply to some music schools to study jazz and become a singer.” 

I moved to Toronto, became a jazz singer and graduated from school and all that. I’d done a concert at a club and someone from the audience worked at JAZZFM. (At the time it was CJRT.)  He said,  “Hey, do you have anything I could bring down to the studio? I work at a radio station, we focus on Jazz and…”  I had a little E.P., they started playing it, I started helping with fundraising and then I got called in to do more fundraising.

Eventually I was asked to pitch a show. I started doing shows and one show led to another show and then full time and then back to part time - you know, independent contracting. I’ve kinda done everything …. everything short of maintenance. Technical maintenance they won’t let me do but cleaning out the fridge?  That kind of maintenance I can do. 

How much of your life is performing?

These days, none. Before all of this hit, I guess a third was the radio station, a third was singing and a third was voice acting, commercials, animation projects, things like that. Among the three of them, I had a career and I could pay bills. Right now, everything is the radio station. There’s no performing. I’ve done a couple of online things but not really a lot. It’s been mainly the radio station and some voice work, but mainly radio right now.

I do a little bit of teaching as well. Over the years I’ve taught at University of Toronto and Humber College. Now I’m doing things like online adjudications, which is really fun. Eight hours, sitting in this chair, staring at this computer screen, listening to young, pop singers, from St John’s, Newfoundland. I would listen to them do their thing and then do adjudications. Two hours later, I was with a group from Vancouver, listening to jazz stuff and analyzing it, doing what they call ‘guided listening’;  anything and everything.

This situation makes it interesting to do this kind of thing, in this way. I think more and more people are doing things virtually now. For example, this festival in Newfoundland wouldn’t have had as many people [if it wasn’t virtual]. They had someone from Toronto, Vancouver … from Nashville, from Florida. They get people from all over and they wouldn’t be able to do that if they had to fly everyone to St John’s, put them all up in hotels, etc.

This situation has made people think outside the box and do different kinds of things, especially when it comes to workshops, teaching and things like that.  

Would you continue like this? Or a hybrid version – online and face-to-face?

I think it depends on what it is. Workshops and the like are fun and it’s interesting to be able to connect with a whole group of people. I do like having that closer connection with people. There is something really nice, though, about sitting in your chair and then, when you’re done, going into your living room or your kitchen and grabbing another cup of coffee or something. It’s nice to not be away or have to worry about parking or driving or flying or travelling. I think it depends on what it is.  Teaching is kind of fun to do this way but I do like being more hands on.

I hate performing online, to be honest. (I hope people don’t say, “well, Heather hates it, so we won’t ask her anymore!”) I connect so much more with an audience, so the virtual thing doesn’t have the same appeal. I’m instant gratification girl! I like laughter - the back and forth.

How did the change from Political Science/English to jazz happen?

I had been singing in a bunch of choirs and one of them was an all-female jazz choir (you know - twenty girls from Newfoundland, who didn’t have a lot of experience with jazz and had these really broad, almost Irish accents…) We were at this music festival in Halifax and I think, on some level, I must have been thinking that I enjoy singing like this, I enjoy doing this thing.

The opportunity came up to do a little audition. First, a mini lesson with a conductor/arranger who was adjudicating at the festival and was from California. My choir director had me go to a little lesson with her and I made a little deal with myself. I’d had a bit of an epiphany the night before. I could do this. I could study music if this was the music I studied. I didn’t feel that I had what it took to do classical music but I felt that I could do this. I made a deal with myself that if this conductor/arranger felt that I could do it, then I would do it. At the end of the lesson I asked her what she thought - she said yes and to go for it.

That was the night I called Mom and Dad and said, “Heyyy! Remember that retirement you thought you’d have? Sorry! I’m going to be a jazz singer. And wait for a year from now when my sister’s going to tell you she wants to be a chef!”  We’ve both managed. I’ve pivoted a little bit and gone on from music to voice acting to broadcasting to teaching and kind of did all of that.

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?

I was going to do law or I was going to do journalism. I was toying with the idea of entertainment journalism … that might lead to focusing in some direction or something. You know, I might be “Canada’s Oprah” or something - not in making a lot of money, but in talking to people. (Hopefully, the money would follow!) I probably would have gone down the broadcasting road, or… well, there’s something about law that was intriguing to me. I love being right about things. It doesn’t happen a lot (probably why I didn’t go into law), but I love researching things and proving my point and going, “Ah HA!”.

What do you think the role of radio has been during the pandemic?  What has your role been in that time?

I think there are a couple of roles that we’re playing. You know when you go to award shows and you go to get your award and there’s a seat holder, like a placeholder? I feel like we’re a placeholder in a way. I feel that we’re going down and sitting in that seat and making sure it’s warm and everything’s okay so that when the artists come back, we can let them have the stage again.

I feel our job is to draw attention to the plight of musicians and artists, to encourage people to keep supporting them, to think outside the box, to maybe not go to a streaming service but try purchasing music directly from artists. They’re not on the road, they can’t sell CDs from the stage anymore.

I think our job, more so now than ever, is to point out how we, as individuals, can help artists, while they cannot help themselves. I think we’re providing some sense of normality or  normalcy, at a time that’s absolutely, unequivocally abnormal. Just being that voice:  the voice was there before.  We’ve always been there, to soothe, to play music, to make people feel better, to add something to people’s lives. Now we’ve got to do all that plus comfort and provide that extra little bit of – “it’ll be okay”.

Even if it's levity, not mentioning the pandemic, or if it is mentioning the pandemic, reminding everybody that we’re all going through this together. I don’t like to say we’re all in the same boat because I don’t think we are. We’re all in the same storm but there are definitely people who are in bigger boats than others. Some people are trying to get through with a little rubber dinghy and others have a hundred and fifty foot yachts.

We all have to try and get through it with the machinery we have. And sometimes that’s the message that we have to get across. We’re all trying to deal with this so let’s try to do the best that we can, in the kindest way we can. 

The history of jazz combined with George Floyd’s murder – was there a sense of more importance?

I think so. As someone who studied the music, for me it became about adding my voice. Sometimes you’re so focused on that, you forget about who got you here. This style of music was created within the African-American community, by African-American artists. It’s one of the only American art forms and it started there. We have to acknowledge that. To say anything different would be to stick heads in sand, quite frankly, being ignorant of the history.

I think we had to acknowledge that we are standing on the shoulders of the people that fought for it:  the hardships they had to face, everything they had to endure and yet they still got on stage and did a show, so to speak. I think you can’t perform, present, program, or produce this music without acknowledging that.

Sneaker companies, fast food companies - they can all get in and say ‘we support it’. In the jazz world, we have no choice but to support it because it supported us, to this point. There would be no jazz were it not for the African-American community and what it went through. I say this as a middle-class, white woman from Eastern Canada. I’ve never walked in the shoes of my brothers and sisters of colour who have had to endure this but, my God, I want to listen and I want to learn.

Just like we listen and learn in the art, we have to listen and learn in society, too. I think that was probably the eye-opening moment. So many people, especially in this music community, had to stand back and go, “wait a minute, we wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be doing this.” We need to pay respect and tribute and honour and stand as protectors, in a certain way. 

How do we go forward?

That is a great question. It’s so easy to pick up where we left off. To go back is pointless. We’re never going to be able to go back to where we were. As much as we want to, we can’t. We have to go forward to what we will be. I feel like there have been some eyes opened, as if there’s been a shift in some attitudes. But, just like anything, specifically in this world we live in, things move so quickly. Everyone focuses on something and that’s the cause of the day or the month. Next month, there’s another cause and now we’re fighting for that. We have to remind each other not to forget that other one. That’s still happening.

I think as a society, we need to take our blinders off, rely a little more on our peripheral vision, and find out what’s going on over there. Not in a ‘I want to know because I’m nosy’, but in a ‘maybe I can help’ kind of way.

But, as time has gone on and this situation that we find ourselves in has gone on, it’s less about ‘I’m going to check on my neighbours” or “I’m going to pick up groceries for my elderly aunt” - and blah blah blah and more about, “I have to watch out myself, now, because this has gone on too long’. That, I think, is going to be the challenge. It’s hard to know how this is really going to go.  Sometimes people surprise me and sometimes, sadly, they don’t. I think we’re going to learn more about ourselves and each other, as we continue to manoeuvre through this.

It’s like shovelling snow when it’s really light and fluffy and the wind is blowing - you’re clearing out as much snow as you can. Every time you go to throw it, the wind catches some of those flakes and throws them back into your driveway. I feel like we’re shovelling away, as much as we can but the wind is always going to throw some stuff back. Sometimes the wind blows so hard (Donald Trump!), that everything you’ve shovelled gets thrown right back in your driveway again. I think a big, blowhard, horrible wind like that throws it back and you kind of sigh and think “here we go again”.

It’s easy to be cynical and I don’t think we’ll ever get everything out of the way but I look at the baby steps (I use that term ‘baby’ very deliberately and liberally because I do think we’re making baby steps).

I look at Black Lives Matter, I look at violence against the Asian community, I look at the LGBTQ community, I look at what’s happening with the NCAA right now, the women’s facilities versus the men’s… my God, it’s 2021! I don’t know if reminding ourselves of the date makes much of a difference. I think we are making steps, I just think the wind keeps blowing the snow back.

What has the magic of the pandemic brought for you?

Learning not to put so much pressure on myself, maybe. I’ve always been go-go-go-go-go. One of the things that I’ve had to accept is that it’s okay not to go-go-go-go-go. Mental and emotional wellbeing - that’s been a tough one for me right now. A good friend of mine (another performer) shared that, as an artist, when the time is tough, your art becomes your therapy. Your social constructs, your band, your audience, the people that are in your world, particularly your bandmates, who become your family, the getting up on the stage and giving of yourself, with an audience - that’s very therapeutic. Normally that would be the thing to get you through the tough times. Now, when you can’t do that, it makes it even harder. Not putting too much pressure on myself has been important, but also acknowledging that it’s been a really hard year.

For me personally, it’s been a hard year. This pandemic has made me realize I need to reach out when I need help. I need to look at my mental and emotional well-being and make sure I take care of that. I need to be honest and upfront about how I’m feeling and not worry about it;  not look at everyone else and say, ‘well, they’re working on new music and they’ve got a record coming out, they’ve done this and …’  It’s fine. I’m managing. I’m getting by and if that’s all I can do.  “That’s all I can do.”  

Allowing myself to feel that way has been really one of the biggest things for me - not putting pressure on myself. I’ll try to bring those things with me when we get to a new normal. I’ll really, really try. If that means accepting certain things about what my world is going to look like, going forward … that’s probably going to be what I’ll allow myself. If I feel horrible, I’ll still check in with my therapist, etc., - letting people know that I’m struggling.

Who are you?

I’m an entertainer. As an entertainer, you entertain everything! You entertain thoughts and ideas, you entertain souls and troubled minds. Distraction is a big thing. I think I’m an entertainer of distraction, even if it’s just, “ HEY, LOOK OVER HERE!  THAT’S NOT A PANDEMIC, LOOK AT THIS! RADIO JAZZ! AHHH!”  Sometimes people need that and there’s nothing wrong with it. Going forward, I’ll continue to be an entertainer, someone who distracts and continues to say, “Hey, you’ve had a bad day? Let’s sing some music together or let’s laugh together.”