PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Two Aroostook County jazz artists, who found each other quite by chance, immediately knew they wanted to do something to bring the music style into northern Maine when they met.
Cori Lovejoy and Shelby Pelletier are breaking new ground with their women-led jazz band, the Pelletier Lovejoy Jazz Ensemble, in a part of northern Maine not regularly fêted for the genre.
“One might assume that people in the County aren’t interested in jazz, when in fact there aren’t too many people playing jazz,” said Lovejoy, who co-leads the band with Pelletier. “What we’re discovering is that there are a lot of jazz players in this County who want to play jazz; there just were no bands.”
Not only are live jazz shows less common in the County, women-led jazz bands have been underrepresented and underrecognised throughout history in what has been a traditionally male-dominated field. As Lovejoy said, there are a lot of great women in jazz, but not many bandleaders.
And even today, although improving, a misogynistic undercurrent remains as women jazz artists attempt to break through the so-called brass ceiling, according to researchers and the curators of a current exhibition, Rhythm Is My Business: Women Who Shaped Jazz, in the Corridor Gallery at the New York Public Library.
Since starting out as a duo in February 2023, The Pelletier Lovejoy Jazz Ensemble has grown to include a percussionist-drummer, a bass player and three horns. Iit is their dream to add more horns this year, Lovejoy said.
“Shelby and I are very committed about doing jazz together,” she said. “Together we make plans for the band, we choose personnel we want to add in and do creative brainstorming.”
Lovejoy and Pelletier decided to call their band an ensemble so they could change the number of people to suit a venue. Sometimes they get calls for duos or a quartet, sometimes the full band.
Planning and rehearsal is important to them, and they are not a freeflowing, improvisational jazz band. Lovejoy, who has been performing in clubs and other venues since she was three years old, is the arranger and she easily talks about the intros, the outros, the kicks.
She and Pelletier, who sings lead vocals, spend hours planning and rehearsing for shows.
For their Christmas show at the Northeastland Hotel Lounge in Presque Isle, they selected 40 Christmas jazz pieces, she said, adding that for a recent Valentine’s gig at the hotel, all their selections were love-oriented. And during a recent Speakeasy Night at the hotel lounge, they featured selections tied to that era.
Additionally, they have some Brazilian songs they sing in Portuguese, and others that Pelletier sings in French.
Generally speaking, Pelletier gives Lovejoy some songs she’d like to sing and then together they look for various arrangements they like, perhaps modifying horns or other parts of the piece.
The whole thing started a few years ago when Pelletier was looking for a jazz pianist to play for openings at her Presque Isle art venue, Common Gallery. On the suggestion of another musician, Pelletier, who lives in Mapleton, contacted Lovejoy, who moved to Fort Fairfield from Connecticut a few years ago.
When the two women met, they got to talking about the music they love.
“You sing jazz?” Lovejoy asked.
“You play jazz piano?” Pelletier asked.
And that’s when they knew they wanted to put a set together, Pelletier said.
“We didn’t know how this was going to work, but thought, ‘we’ll see,’” she said. “ And we wondered, ‘Will jazz make it in The County?’”
It seems it has. Multiple venues are packed, and they are hearing that other County musicians are putting together jazz groups.
“We are excited,” Lovejoy said. “We want to go out and hear them.”
Pelletier’s personal favorite is bebop jazz, and they play a lot from the 1940s and 1950s like Ella Fitzgerald.
They’ve performed around the state at clubs and private events. In the fall they were featured at the Maine Municipal Association Convention in Augusta, as well as at garden events and historic venues.
A highlight, said Pelletier, was the opportunity to perform at the historic church, Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel, in Lille.
“It was packed and so much fun,” said Pelletier, admitting they did not expect the large audience.
And as they continue to evolve, they are garnering a jazz following, Pelletier said, adding that their audiences really seem to like it.
