There’s a new label in town, and it’s not mine

One new record label in the Vancouver jazz scene is trying to have a go of it this spring. No, I'm not talking about the one I quietly showed you last week. I'm talking about the Jodi Proznick vehicle now called Rhea Records. Welcome to my picks for February 2024!

Rhea Records is formerly Music Arts Collective, which Jodi made in partnership with Amanda Tosoff and Francesca Fung – subjects of the first-ever free weekly email at Rhythm Changes. (Jodi’s partner in Rhea, though, is Felicia Lee, mother of Jodi’s bass student Allison Lee.) The artists are the Ostara Project, Raagaverse, and the seasonal project O Come All Ye Soulful.

Zero-sum is a dirty word for me; I hate to think, "There's too many labels in our one little niche in our one little city," or anything else that implies someone else's gain is my loss. Counterintuitive around Canada Council grant results season, I know – but I'm dyed in the wool about this issue: having a rising tide of Vancouver jazz labels lifts all boats. It'll help the prospects of each of them (us) whether they've (we've) put out 3 or 300 records...