We are honoured to share a concert celebrating this year’s International Women's Day’s campaign theme #EmbraceEquity. This program includes several favourites from last year’s inaugural WWJO IWD concert, several pieces written or arranged by Winnipeg women, and several jazz standards- setting a new standard (see what we did there?) focusing a lens on celebrating the strength equity brings.
Some of the tunes on this concert were written or arranged by women with Winnipeg roots: Michelle Gregoire, Tetyana Haraschuck, Karin Carlson, and your friendly neighbourhood writer here- Alexis Silver. The program also includes works written or made famous by Joni Mitchell, Patty Darling, Maria Schneider, Ellen Rowe, Jule Styne, Barbra Streisand, Billie Holiday, and Mary Lou Williams. Here are a couple of songs you will hear.
Big Yellow Taxi was written, composed, and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970 for her album Ladies of the Canyon. This big band version, arranged by Tommy Banks, was first performed at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland in 1978. The WWJO played this arrangement at last year’s inaugural International Women’s Day Concert, and it’s become one of our favourites.
The Bison Hunt by Michelle Gregoire was recorded for the WJO’s 2022 album Voices – A Musical Heritage. Bison hunters rode horses known as “buffalo runners.” These swift, powerful horses were needed to run straight and to maintain their speed through the chaos of the hunt. Many Métis became successful ranchers and cowboys due to the useful skills they acquired from bison hunting. Even prior to the bisons’ near decimation in the 1870s, the Métis recognized that the animals were a finite resource that had to be protected.