Motherhood in song: jazz musician & educator Brenda Earle Stokes

I was excited to speak with Brenda Earle Stokes, an award-winning jazz musician and innovative music educator based in NYC, and originally from Sarnia, Ontario. I too was raised in small town Ontario and taught piano for years, and I love learning from how other musicians, especially other women and mothers, have approached their career growth and creative pathways.

I appreciated Brenda’s perspectives on creating a thriving career through hard work and problem solving. Our conversation dove right into her her musical journey, from recording a spontaneous solo album Solo Sessions at the Sarnia Public Library (2019), to the inspiration and creative process behind her latest album Motherhood (2023).

Brenda shared how she wrote the first song “The Endless Wait” years ago: “I was singing literally about the experience of pregnancy and that sort of feeling that you have where you're connected to your ancestors, but you're also like wondering who this person is.”

It was during an artistic residency in 2019 that she had the space and focus to write eight of the ten songs for Motherhood. “In November of 2019, I was invited to do a residency at Banff. And it was really during that… in 8 or 9 days, I wrote eight of the songs.”

Brenda discussed the challenges of being a mother in the male-dominated jazz industry, and how this new album captures the multidimensional realities of motherhood beyond the typical “look at my beautiful baby” songs.

“Rather than sort of this one dimensional like, ‘oh, I'm so happy I my life is so full now’… it's more for those of us who are in it. It's more of a complex experience than that, where there's like body image issues or just like, who am I now?"

Brenda is not only an award-winning performing and touring musician and songwriter, she’s also an in-demand music educator with a growing YouTube following challenging the way things have been done traditionally in music education: “I've taken a radically different approach than the one that I was taught. I was taught the long way. And I don't recommend it.”

Her experiences have led her to focus on efficiency for students learning to play piano and sing, creating a program that priorities helping aspiring musicians do what they want to do faster: play music.

Brenda reflected on the immense effort required for an independent artist, from technical skills to marketing, which led her to learn how to shoot and edit video herself: “I have an incredible amount of technical knowledge that…. wasn't even on my radar at all. So that's why I think… you have to be willing to go in and really do the work for yourself and not think that someone can give you a blueprint for it because there is no blueprint for it.”

 

- - -

Brenda Earle Stokes is an award-winning pianist, vocalist, composer and educator. Her performance career as a leader and side musician has taken her across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. She has performed and recorded as a bandleader and side musician with Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines and the Diva Jazz Orchestra. Her seven albums showcase her original compositions and an eclectic mix of standards, contemporary pop and obscure jazz compositions. A passionate educator, she has worked as a clinician, adjudicator and panelist all over the world and runs a bustling private studio in New York City. Brenda’s popular online membership The Versatile Musician contains hundreds of online courses, video tutorials and printables and has empowered hundreds of musicians worldwide to feel more confident in their musical lives.

Artist

• https://brendaearle.com

• Instagram: .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}