Indigo Bria Skonberg

• 1 Watch What Happens 04:42
• 2 I'm Glad There Is You 06:37
• 3 Mood Indigo 06:32
• 4 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 03:24
• 5 If You Go Away 05:24
• 6 Fragile 04:46
• 7 So It Goes 04:44
• 8 Tell Him I Said Hello 05:04
• 9 We'll Be Together Again 04:22
• Total Runtime 45:35

Info zu Indigo

Juno Award-winning artist Bria Skonberg shares the breadth of her vocal expression with the release of Indigo on July 3, 2026 via Cellar Music Group. The anticipated partner to Brass, her 2026 trumpet-centered meditation, Indigo is a celebration of song, singing, and orchestrating for all the colors of her vocal artistry. Co-produced by Skonberg and her longtime collaborator Matt Pierson, these albums excavate both wholes of her creative identity. “After decades of figuring out where the trumpet and the voice come together,” she says, “I thought it would be interesting and challenging to explore them both, and that was it.” Asked frequently whether she’s a singer who plays trumpet or a trumpet player who sings, in recording Indigo and Brass, Skonberg realized she’s partly neither, and both entirely — a revelation to the artist whom The New York Times calls “the shining hope of hot jazz.”

“I had to work on them both, individually,” says Skonberg. “It’s always good to come back and sharpen the saw.” Indigo features the foundation of her Brass quartet, Eric Wheeler on bass and Darrian Douglas on drums, plus orchestration from her 2017 With a Twist collaborator, multi-Grammy Award winner Gil Goldstein, who also serves as the album’s pianist, complementing Skonberg’s intimate vocal — and its emotional resonances — with subtleties of tone and color. “What I love about Gil is he has such a huge imagination,” she says. “There was never any doubt he would be the person to arrange the album.”

The artists assemble a small but mighty orchestra, including Antoine Silverman and Entcho Todorov on violin, Yuko Naito-Gotay on viola, and Emily Brausa on cello, adding a distinct textural warmth from Kathleen Nester on alto flute and Charles Pillow on bass clarinet. “Gil and I settled on some really amazing sound combinations,” says Skonberg, “but once you pull together cello, alto flute, bass clarinet and where my voice sits, it’s just gorgeous.”

Where Brass captures Skonberg’s range as a technician and a style master, Indigo presents a level of vulnerability Skonberg is able to access vocally because she’s lived through the complexities and absurdities of life. “Indigo is an exploration in nuances: conversations, chemistry, fragility, and sense of self,” she says. “Many of these songs require a certain amount of life experience to be able to understand and interpret them, and at this point I feel like I’ve lived them all.”

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Christopher Allen, Indigo opens on Michel Legrand’s “Watch What Happens.” Adding a pedal to a partido alto feel, Skonberg bonds sophisticated with steadfast while Douglas’ brushwork creates a buoyancy around the hushed intensity of her vocal. “This song is my current love letter to humanity,” says Skonberg. “I’m hoping that we will see into each other’s hearts and make authentic connections.”

In back-to-back homage, “I’m Glad There is You” and “Mood Indigo” pay tribute to Sarah Vaughan & Clifford Brown and Miles Davis, respectively. The former transmits a plush, symphonic verse before Skonberg brings the tune into time, spotlighting a mastery over her vocal range: “It’s a beast, vocally, but it’s just a song about gratitude and being grateful for the people we love whether or not they’re with us.” The latter enters the iconic groove from “All Blues,” maintaining that reverence across the tune, including through Skonberg’s muted trumpet. “I like to put little Easter eggs in my albums,” says Skonberg, “for myself and the other jazz listeners.”

One of two songs appearing on both Brass and Indigo, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” serves as something of a metaphor for the dual-album project. “It’s the feeling I have when I’m asked if I’m a singer who plays trumpet or a trumpet player who sings,” says Skonberg. “It sums it up: you’re stuck between two equally difficult decisions [laughs]. Also, the trumpet is the fiery part and the vocal is more the deep blue sea.” Alongside her nimble vocal, she delivers a swinging trumpet solo before joining Goldstein for a drum interlude that spotlights Douglas’ relaxed spontaneity.

Featuring Goldstein’s accordion and a beautiful solo gesture from Brausa, “If You Go Away” signals an emotional shift on Indigo. Through a lyrical whisper at once conversational and resonant, Skonberg sings directly into the listener’s ear. “It’s a little bit of a manouche French vibe,” she says. Originally recorded in French by the legendary singer Jacques Brel, the song has “just two parts, but it’s such a moment. There’s hope and despair — the fragility, the vulnerability — but there’s also strength in that, too.”

Indigo continues with a gripping arrangement of Sting’s “Fragile,” showcasing Skonberg’s muted trumpet. “Welcome to my party,” she says. “There’s always something old, there’s always something new, and then there’s always something in the middle that’s been kind of manipulated.” Her original song “So It Goes” emerged as an instrumental, which appears on Brass. Written in the style of a standard from the American Songbook, which Skonberg admits is “deceptively hard” to do, she soon realized the tune wasn’t finished. “I thought, ‘There’s a lyric here.” So she called her friend, the cabaret legend Ann Hampton Callaway to help her articulate the story. “It’s a love story that fell apart and then got put back together and then fell apart again [laughs].”

One of the record’s more complicated stories, “Tell Him I Said Hello” presents music & lyrics primed for Goldstein’s sensitive orchestration and Skonberg’s interpretive subtleties. “It’s a conversation with a friend who may or may not take what you’re saying to the person that you were in love with,” she says. “It’s so specific. And I’m realizing that great songwriting is taking a specific moment and making it universal. Gil wrote a beautiful arrangement that embodies the melancholy of lingering hope turning into reluctant acceptance.”

Indigo ends on a note of undying optimism, a hallmark of Skonberg’s expression as an artist and as a person navigating a troubled world. “We’ll Be Together Again” features cat-paw clarinet lines and blossoming orchestration. Skonberg approaches the song’s interval leaps with both technical poise and wonderment. But the meaning behind the tune informs her treatment of its components. “The sentiment of togetherness is important to me,” she says. “The way the album’s book-ended, ‘Watch What Happens’ is like, ’Let someone speak to your heart, stay open,’ and then the end thought is, ‘Remain in this space together.’”

Across Brass and Indigo, Skonberg’s message is clear: “I try to bring people together as much as possible. If I can get people having a shared experience, in live concerts, whatever their opinions or views are, to me that’s meaningful.”

Bria Skonberg, trumpet, vocals
Gil Goldstein, piano, accordion, arranger
Eric Wheeler, bass
Darrian Douglas, drums, percussion
Antoine Silverman, violin
Entcho Todorov, violin
Yuko Naito-Gotay, viola
Emily Brausa, violincello
Kathleen Nester, alto flute
Charles Pillow, bass clarinet

Bria Skonberg
Canadian singer, trumpeter, and songwriter Bria Skonberg is described by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation.” Recognized as one of “25 for the Future” by DownBeat magazine (Summer 2016), Skonberg is newly signed to Sony Music Masterworks’ OKeh Records, and will release her debut LP, simply titled BRIA, on September 23, 2016.

Wielding a unique blend of modern-day pop sensibility and sizzling musicianship, Skonberg aims for a sense of allure on the new collection. She credits producer Matt Pierson with helping her create music that is both curious and exotic, playing with tension and storytelling. Elite jazz chops, artfully mixed with worldly rhythms and contemporary songwriting, result in a sophisticated pop sound closely resembling that of Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, and Harry Connick Jr. Bria’s original tunes include the tango “Curious Game,” the bluesy instrumental “Down in the Deep,” and the Brazilian-flavored “How Can It Be” - a reflection of the sampling era.

Noted as a Millennial “Shaking Up the Jazz World,” according to Vanity Fair, Skonberg is a self-described “small town girl” from Chilliwack, British Columbia. She left for Vancouver straight out of high school and earned a degree in Jazz Trumpet Performance from Capilano University. But even as she absorbed the deep knowledge and disciplined work habits needed for a jazz career, she was also hustling hard to book her two bands. While in university she juggled working every weekend, traveling to festivals and shows, plus cramming in schoolwork - all while on the road.

When not traveling for her own gigs, she was building up her stage-show chops with Dal Richards, Vancouver’s King of Swing. Playing at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver capped off this exciting period, with Bria featured at the Paralympics opening ceremony.

In 2012 Bria released So Is The Day (Random Act Records); her first album on a US-based label. That collection showcased a developing flair for original songs with just the right amount of standards mixed in, and also featured a duet with the legendary John Pizzarelli, So Is The Day received rave reviews from critics, drawing comparisons to Norah Jones in The New York Daily News. In 2015, a year after her second album, Into Your Own, was released, Skonberg received the Jazz At Lincoln Center Swing! Award.

To date, Bria has performed at some 100 festivals worldwide. She is the co-founder of the New York Hot Jazz Camp and New York Hot Jazz Festival. Further accolades include Best Vocal and Best Trumpet awards from Hot House Jazz Magazine (2014-15), Outstanding Jazz Artist at the New York Bistro Awards (2014), a DownBeat Rising Star (2013-15), and a nominee for Jazz Journalists' Association Up and Coming Artist (2013).

“I love the idea of being a global ambassador…spreading joy, relating the human experience, and putting good into the world to counteract the negative. I want to make music that makes people feel, and think.” (Bria Skonberg)

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