Chuck Copenace was in high school the first time he was compared to Miles Davis.
The Ojibway trumpet student loved how he felt when he was working with sound, and admits to listening to his parents’ records over and over. It meant that not only were there technical aspects to master on the instrument, but he also knew where he wanted those sounds to go.
On some of the few times Copenace has tried to step back from music, it has always found its way to return.. Even though Copenace says he “self-sabotaged’ his last years in high school, a prof sought him out when he noticed that he hadn’t applied at Brandon university’s school of music to make sure that he got into his classes. Jazz stuck to Copenace, and unusual in first years university music studies, Copenace already had a command for the feel of the music.
Years later, after returning to Winnipeg from BC, (and playing a lot of experimental electronica) when he threw himself into a job with Main Street Project, he was enjoying the front-line work and let his music slide. But after attending a sweat ceremony, he says, “I guess something happened.” Out of the blue, “I phoned a venue and booked a gig.”
The only thing missing was a band.
Copenace decided not to fight the calling, got Winnipeg musicians together and began to incorporate sweat ceremony melodies into his original compositions.
He also got recruited to the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band in the US, and continues to tour with it throughout the year, its only Canadian member.
The big band has taken Copenace to Olympia Washington, the Kennedy Center in New York City, Alaska and Colorado. This month Copenace will join the band to play in Sacramento California. The experience has opened his eyes in more than one way.
When Julia introduced an Indigenous band member from the Boston area, the name twigged a memory for Copenace. Musician Marc Cary had played on an album with the late Roy Hargave, an album that Copenace had played over and over growing up. “I memorized all the solos and I could sing al the parts. I remember it, just loving the piano playing. He was creating these soundscapes that I loved,” says Copenace.
He has since become familiar with many Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous communities who have contributed to the development of jazz, and their stories and struggles. “There were a lot of jazz greats that had Indigenous blood,” Copenace shares, something that he had never heard of growing up.
Copenace released his second album Oshki Manitou (digital) in the fall of 2023 to honour the birth of his children, and has been sticking closer to home over the last few years. The album brought a lot of excitement for his expansive and atmospheric sound.
Copenace’s music has been called groovy, haunting, ethereal, and fully capable of getting people into the “zone.”
Copenace takes the music away, but also lets it take him. In the works, possibly over the next month, he is getting ready to release a new song.
To watch for its release: Instagram at ChuckCMusic.
