At Sea

Hang around in new music long enough and you start to get the impression that the field is made up pretty much exclusively of people who looked at their mothers as toddlers and said indignantly, “I can do it myself.” And the artists putting out albums on the ArtistShare label are making a declaration, albeit a professional one, of a similar sort. Ingrid Jensen has taken the plunge for the first time, perhaps chasing the success Maria Schneider has enjoyed releasing discs this way, but that childhood spark of independent creativity gets a nod on the opening track—the unsung lyrics for “At Sea” having been snagged from a poem she penned in the 9th grade to English-teacher praise. The woman has chops and she’s not shy, but as a bandleader her instincts are definitely group oriented, and from the warmth you can feel in the interactions of the band members, I get the sense that’s appreciated.

—MS