Heather Ferguson: Found

Heather Ferguson is a Victoria vocalist who has stepped out as a bandleader in a self-described second act of creative life. Her debut album Lush Life, released in 2022, featured standards in a band of her contemporaries on the island scene: organist Tony Genge, trumpeter Miguelito Valdes, saxophonist Barrie Sorensen, guitarist-bassist Joey Smith, and drummers Kelby MacNayr and Damian Graham. Found is her second album; all of them return, but the material shifts to original songs by Ferguson and a new but close collaborator in pianist Attila Fias.

Ferguson will play Frankie's on Thursday, May 1 with islanders Lachlan Craven, Graham Villette, and Genge joined by Cory Weeds and Conrad Good in her band.

Found's ten tracks have assorted combinations of the musicians. All the organ is Genge, like on the easygoing head arrangements of the two standards, "What a Wonderful World" and "Solitude" . All the other keys – including on the vocal-piano duet "Awakening" – are Fias, who also has arrangement or co-writing credits scattered throughout. Oliver and Valdes take solid horn solos, with the tenor man standing out particularly well on the organ tracks, the trumpeter featured on the mellow waltz "Illusions", and the two of them hooking up for a quasi-big-band feel on the last track, "Kickin' It". (Is Oliver also the flute player on the power ballad "Summer After All"?)

Found is a declaration to have no regrets and to turn up any past ones in hopes of not recreating them. "Kickin' It" brings a vulnerability despite its campy cabaret sound, noting the loneliness when imagination heightens but it doesn't quite come to pass. Maybe it's a similar feeling to a choice line from "Awakening": "The winds are serene, but I long for a storm", Ferguson sings.

I hear a very slight honky-tonk or R&B streak in some of the tracks: "Ghost City", a shuffling tale with a catchy refrain, and "Fly To Me" with its cha-cha-cha and pop harmony. "Something Beautiful" is a funky tune. Its outro vamp is the juiciest part of the record, especially for the first handful of bars where everything gets nice and loose.

"Deftly You Leave" isn't jazz much – we're well onto the next thing versus Lush Life – but has some real surprises in the middle of the arrangement, both in terms of instrumentation and harmony. Ferguson's vocal gets a dry, live-gig treatment that showcases her ability to take a single phrase through both soft and loud dynamics.

With right-down-the-middle jazzclub music, a bit of funk, sensitive turns of phrase, and lyrically powerful moments buoyed by certain wisdoms, the set has all the twists that we can expect from a strong collection of Vancouver Island jazz talent. I'd suggest this project to local fans of Wild Blue Herons, Jane Mortifee et al. No doubt it'll translate live just as it comes across on the record.

released April 25, 2025 | Buy CD | Available on streaming