ATHABASCA — If you don’t consider yourself a Blues or a jazz fan, think again — the smooth, sultry, and beautifully eerie sounds of the duo dubbed Blue Moon Marquee are a strong departure from the at-times clunky notes and unsolicited scatting that comes with stereotypical jazz tunes.
The duo is comprised of upright bassist and drummer Jasmine Colette, whose sounds pair perfectly with the gritty, forceful vocals of A.W. Cardinal.
Fans — and non-fans — of blues and jazz can hear their unique stylings on the stage of the Nancy Appleby Theatre Oct. 30 for the third show of the Heartwood Folk Club’s fall season.
“A lot of people say, ‘I never thought I liked this style of music,’ whatever they think jazz is or whatever their idea is Blues is,” said Colette. “But then they say, ‘you know, we really like you guys.’ It’s interesting how much we hear that.”
By their own description, Colette and Cardinal are a couple — “a couple of dirtbags.” When they’re not on the road, travelling across North America and Europe for performances, they share a house on Vancouver Island, but both boast backgrounds rooted in Wild Rose Country.
Colette and Cardinal began making music together in 2012 after reuniting for the recording of Cardinal’s album Stainless Steel Heart. A mutual friend brought them back together, and a strong connection was born from their shared love of vintage sounds.
“We had known each other when we were teenagers in Alberta because we both played in punk and metal and rock ‘n’ roll bands, and that’s a pretty small and tight scene, especially in the early 2000s.
Before their reunion, Colette spent time hitchhiking across North America as a vaudeville performer with a headlining act that involved hula-hooping while skateboarding and playing trombone simultaneously, while Cardinal was a motorcycle mechanic in New York by day and singing at open mics in clubs by night.
“We hadn’t seen each other for many, many years, and then walked into the studio that one fateful day, and it was pretty apparent from the first few moments that we had a deep connection and mutual love of early, rare, obscure, vintage jazz and Blues.”
Since their reunion, Colette and Cardinal have been busy; their inaugural demo album as a pair, Lonesome Ghost, hit its 10-year anniversary this year, followed closely by the release of Last Dollar.
Three more albums were released in the interim between 2014 and their newest drop, New Orleans Sessions, which hit the literal and digital shelves this September.
Over the years, the duo has been nominated for a wide range of awards in the national and international music scene. Scream, Holler, & Howl, released in 2022, made a splash at the 2023 Maple Blues Awards, taking Album, Entertainer, Songwriter, and Acoustic Act of the Year.
The album also proved a hit at the Juno’s, securing the title of Blues Album of the Year for 2024, and a nomination for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year.
Both Cardinal and Colette have Indigenous roots, cultures they embrace through their art. Cardinal is Métis and hails from the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, while Colette’s stepfather comes from Cree and Haida backgrounds.
“It’s been a huge influence,” said Colette. “We’re also songwriters and storytellers, and Indigenous stories are just so enchanting and rich with character and cadence, and I feel like that’s also something that has got lost in the genre of Blues.”
Although the pair aim to return emphasis to the genre’s stories and lyrics largely drowned out by rock ‘n’ roll guitar riffs in the ’70s and ’80s, they also want to pay homage to their musical forebearers.
Colette cited the 2017 Canadian-made documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World as a testament to Indigenous involvement in the evolution of popular music.
“This documentary is so well done and so fascinating because it highlights that connection with Indigenous culture and black culture,” said Colette. “Back when some of the earlier slaves were being freed or escaping, they would go hang out with the Native folk.
“They made music together, they made babies together, they created stories together,” she added. “We’re just trying to further that conversation.”
Indigenous themes and motifs can be spotted in Blue Moon Marquee’s visuals for their songs, as well as gleaned from the entrancing drumbeats and rich lyricism. But also evident in their on-stage ambience is their connection to one another.
“We often get comments like, ‘Wow, I could never do that with my partner,’ it’s an old tale of it’s not supposed to work. You’re supposed to go down in a blaze of bullets and tears and eventually it implodes,” said Colette.
“There is a very special, unique, symbiotic relationship that comes with that, because you are so entwined with each other’s rhythms and expressions,” she added. “I’m very grateful for it.”
Athabascans interested in seeing Blue Moon Marquee’s in-sync energies and hearing their unmissable, genre-bending original songs can purchase tickets ahead of the Oct. 30 show at Value Drug Mart, Athabasca Health Foods, or Whispering Hills Fuel, and online tickets can be purchased at Event Brite. Advance tickets are $30, and tickets bought at the door are $35. Youth 16 and under can watch the show for free.
