Marie Goudy’s Paloma Sky: produced by Elizabeth Shepherd

Paloma Sky is the name of Toronto trumpeter and composer Marie Goudy’s band. Hold On to Me is their first album as a five-piece, with vocalist Jocelyn Barth as a sort of co-frontperson. Elizabeth Shepherd produced it.

We're exploring more of Shepherd's work today, both on her own 2023 album Three Things and with Vancouver artist Andrea Superstein.

But first, let's check out Paloma Sky. Goudy and Barth have been playing as this quintet (with a couple different members early on) at The Rex in Toronto since pre-covid 2020 and under the band name since at least fall 2022. Barth sang on Goudy's first album, The Bitter Suite (rec. 2018): a large ensemble-project that captures our city's own saxophonist John Nicholson during his Toronto period.

When I hear people call a piece of culture earnest, what I hear is me, unrelenting me, all the things about me that I love but other people say are cringe. Paloma Sky are an earnest band, and in my opinion, that's good. (In this way – vibes only, not necessarily music – they reminded me a bit of local indie-pop group Orchid Orchestra and a folky, similarly-named band from the Fraser Valley called The Crescent Sky.) It shows up in the band's social media, too, where Goudy and co. earnestly make short work of every post you're supposed to make en route to an album release: a daunting proposition for most artists, but it looks like they're having fun, like gym-rats getting in a workout with pep when no one else is awake yet. If anything, it speaks to the band's potential to stay together for some time.

Track one, "Cardinal in the Snow", is the most earnest of them all: group harmonies, 70s-style pop, rolling good times that celebrate a special person to you. The title track, likewise, wants to keep a loved one near as the mood shifts to soul with a hint of trad jazz.

"Her Glory", the voice and bass duo and the piano's delicate comping brings the feeling back to straight-ahead jazz; but then it flips into a rock tempo back-and-forth like a verse and a chorus.

"Made for Me" is a gratitude song and another indie-pop number, though the trumpet solos continue to hold it down with bop language and a tone roughly from the Kenny Dorham tree. The lyrics bring a secular fatalism to feeling lucky for a partner: "So let's just thank all of our lucky stars / The universe wants you to be with me," Barth sings.

"At the Shore" is a walking ballad with some more trad elements; while the lead vocal is more vocal-jazz than any other track here, and the muted trumpet solo is smoky indeed, the harmonizing vocal brings the overall sound back to the poppier side.

"Dance of the Stars", described by Goudy on the band's posts as "emo-jazz", is more funky than that description would give credit for. The bass grooves along and the piano chimes and arpeggiates in that 70s or 80s fashion. This trumpet solo is the one where you can most hear the mariachi coming through, before the key change and tambourine buoys the song to the finish.

"I Missed You" comes out down-home and retro as well with the bass staying active and playing an energetic solo. The drum production marks the album as still a jazz record, but interestingly this video uploaded in 2022 of an in-studio performance of the song ends up with a pleasantly lo-fi sound.

"Close to Me" hits deep into a groove off the top and has an advanced vocal arrangement. "The Huntress" is an ethereal ballad (modern jazz indeed) while on "Mexico" the horn arrangement is the star of the show. Saxophonist Alison Young joins for "Mexico"; Goudy describes Young one of her "biggest mentors" in a 2022 post; "I met Alison when I was 19 and we toured across the country with one of my favourite bands I've ever played with, Kelly and the Kellygirls. She kind of took me under her wing and she's taught me so much about music and the industry," Goudy says. To be clearly experienced from the polished sound of the band but also young, among your peers, paying respects to the people you came up with, to merely be a band in this music: it's an admirable position for Paloma Sky.

The sounds I described above are a meeting of Goudy's style and the producer Elizabeth Shepherd's deep bag. Last fall, I heard three of my best friends in the Vancouver jazz scene all play together in a trio at Frankie's After Dark; before them, Shepherd played the 8:00 PM show. I was foolish to not make it a double-header and instead only heard the sold-out lingering notes of her last number as my friends prepared to load in. (Shepherd also made time on her tour stop in the lower mainland to hit the Ladies' Night jazz jam series at Brentwood Presbyterian Church, facilitated by Casey Thomas Burns' Leading Ladies Little Big Band.)

Three Things is a spiritual album. In the lyric sheet within the album notes I have, the title track is called "Three Things Remain", making explicit the connection to 1 Corinthians 13:13. The exact lyric, which the processed vocals deliver at the beginning of the track, doesn't precisely match any particular Bible translation that I know: "These three remain: faith, hope and love. But of the three, the greatest is love."

"Thank You" is a dancing exposition of the mindset behind the album, starting with percussive vocals and bringing in Jasper Høiby's upright bass; the Danish bassist has come to my attention for his work as a leader on the Edition Records label, and his collaboration with Shepherd undergirded Three Things' creative process. Høiby has a co-writing credit on "Thank You"; Sam Joly has a co-production credit on this track and others where he plays percussion and synths. Shepherd seeks joy, an emergence, after following her north star through a tough time. "Cause this is how I thank you, for the gift of one day more / this life I know is love’s greatest reward," she sings to her muse, companion, creator.

I love the banjo on "Guests". The album has some tasty guitar, too, especially on "Vernon Morning Star", the name of a news outlet in the small Okanagan city – it's a tour story. The banjo and guitar come courtesy of Michael Occhipinti, who previously formed the ES:MO project with Shepherd – named after their initials – and got a nomination at the 2022 Junos. Electric bassist RJ LeBlanc also plays on some tracks through the middle of the album.

Chris Gestrin played with Shepherd at Frankie's and has one credit on the final track for "additional synthesizers" – typical behaviour! That's on the last track, "All You Need", which features Shepherd with him, LeBlanc, and her drummer Colin Kingsmore in a remote home-studio collaboration. Despite the physical space between her and her people at the moments of recording, Shepherd finds something like their presence after the rhythmically-bent hook and the big synth solo: "All you need is here."

Singer-songwriter Andrea Superstein – known as "Super" to colleagues – brought Shepherd into her project Oh Mother as producer. (The album came out this year on Cellar, who are my client at Chernoff Music) The all-star cast of musicians on the album includes Gestrin and drummer Dan Gaucher, who both played with Superstein at Jazz at the Bolt around the album release; and many more, from Jane Bunnett to Rachel Therrien to Meredith Bates and beyond. Being recorded in late 2021, it stands as one of the few jazz projects recorded by the late engineer Olivia Quan at Monarch Studios.

A promotional video shows Shepherd at Monarch and quotes her at length; here's something she says about the passion and purpose at the project's root:

"I'm really drawn to this project in particular because, just the nature of what she's dealing with: that it's about motherhood, as a mom myself and musician who's been juggling this all, motherhood and career, and that sort of chaos. I thought it was really beautiful that she would delve into this in such a rich, detailed, focused way and give voice to that experience, because I think that's something that isn't done a lot. And I think for me, it really resonated. I think it's something that a lot of women can relate to, a lot of parents can relate to, and it's sort of time to share that experience."

"I know Super was very particular in who she chose for this project," Shepherd also said. "They're a number of women, which is really nice, and it's such a different energy." She continues:

"And then there are two guys who are both dads [referring to Gestrin and Gaucher in the core rhythm section], and so it's a different feel. Everyone is in a similar phase of life: we're a bit older, there's less to prove, there's that awareness and appreciation of the complexities and the richness of parenthood and sort of this phase of life and all that's at play."

Shepherd has two arrangement credits in the album notes of Oh Mother.

"Everywhere", the late-80s Fleetwood Mac song, has the 80s stripped of it, goes downtempo, and settles into a positively Shepherdian groove with ringing keyboards.

"The Heart Inside" is written by Superstein and dances gently over the barlines before it takes off into trumpet solo time plus shakers and a children's choir.

Oh Mother has since evolved into a production for the stage. Shepherd also produced Superstein's prior album, Worlds Apart.