About
Brenda Earle Stokes is a rare jazz artist with a true command of both the voice and the piano. Hailed as “a breezy delight” by Time Out New York, Brenda’s music is rooted in the jazz tradition with influences ranging from Brazilian music to rock radio.
As a bandleader, she has toured clubs and festivals across the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia and has released 6 albums on her own label. As a follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2014 studio album Right About Now, Stokes sought to challenge herself to dig deep and share the full scope of her talents in the most intimate setting possible.
Her latest album Motherhood is her first full length album of original songs.
This record is a collection of 10 songs about the “real life” experience of mothering in the 21st century. The songs tackle body image, fear, joy, frustration, invisible labor and feature a stellar band including fellow jazz moms Melissa Stylianou (vocals) and Ingrid Jensen. It’s a really unique project and one that celebrates the jazz language while simultaneously sharing a strong message of female empowerment.
Brenda Earle Stokes has performed as a side person with John Riley, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, Roxy Coss, Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. She has held residences at the Kennedy Center and Banff Center for Fine Arts was a finalist in the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition, and was a winner of the IAJE Sisters in Jazz competition, identifying her as one of the top emerging jazz artists of her generation.
Brenda Earle Stokes’ musical curiosity has led her to professional work as a choral conductor, classical vocalist, church organist, off-Broadway music director, early childhood music teacher, and cruise ship piano bar entertainer. These seemingly unrelated musical experiences have helped develop her versatility and fluency as both pianist and vocalist. “While jazz is my first love, I feel passionate about making music in many different realms.” Scratching this musical itch has deepened Stokes’ abilities and helped her to be a more fluent artist.
Brenda Earle Stokes’ musical life started at age 4 when her parents enrolled her in classical piano lessons. Hearing Oscar Peterson for the first time at age fifteen prompted an immediate shift to jazz. After focusing on jazz piano at York University in Toronto, Brenda ventured to the Banff Center for the Arts for a month-long jazz residency in the mountains. It was there that she first performed as a vocalist, a huge step for her as an artist. “I really wanted to be taken seriously as a jazz pianist and I didn’t want anything to take away from that. When I stood up and sang for the first time at Banff, it felt so liberating to me that I knew there was no going back.”
After a few years of gigging around Toronto, Brenda sought adventure working in a singalong piano bar on cruise ships in the Caribbean. “Taking requests 6 nights a week for several years was a deep education for me. Not only did I have to learn hundreds of songs, but I also had to learn how to hold an audience’s attention and really engage people.” She took the proceeds from that gig and headed for New York City, where she planned to study and immerse herself in the jazz scene. She ended up at Manhattan School of Music, working on her Master’s degree in jazz piano and voice.
“One of the first people I met in New York City was saxophonist Joel Frahm, who was a great friend, inspiration and supporter of my work.” Brenda went into the studio with Joel and his band and recorded her next album Happening, which documents her early experiences living in New York and her fresh new perspective as a composer.
Her 2009 release Songs For A New Day was a compilation of original material and garnered international critical acclaim for her work as a pianist and vocalist.
In 2014 Brenda collaborated with producer Matt Pierson to release Right About Now, a studio album that prominently featured her original compositions. “Right About Now was such a huge project for me and really got me on the international stage. It is a project I am hugely proud of.”
In her 2019 Solo Sessions Volume 1, Brenda explores the rarely-recorded format of solo piano/voice, showcasing her mesmerizing fluidity as both singer and pianist. Recorded in a single four-hour session in her hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Brenda explores a wide spectrum of material, including jazz standards, original compositions, and seldom-her compositions by Dave Brubeck and Steve Swallow. She rounds out the recording with lush jazz arrangements of songs recorded by k.d. lang, Michael McDonald, and Huey Lewis, showing the full range of her musical curiosities.
In addition to her life as performer and composer, Brenda is a well-known music educator and entrepreneur. She runs a busy private studio in New York City serving local students in person and virtually all around the globe. An early adopter of online courses, Brenda has served hundreds of people around the world with her bestselling courses. Her online membership The Versatile Musician contains 27 unique courses totaling over 1000 video tutorials and nearly 2000 pages of original print material content. Her YouTube channel Piano and Voice with Brenda boasts over 26,000 subscribers and 55,000 hours of viewers per month.
She has taught for the Midori and Friends Foundation, developed curricula for the New York Pops Orchestra, arranged music, and taught for the Grammy-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus. She is a frequent guest clinician, speaker, and adjudicator for music festivals and organizations.
Brenda Earle Stokes is active in outreach, having developed educational programming for the The New York Pops Kids in the Balcony program and holding a ten-year residency at the Ronald McDonald House in NYC. Brenda is passionate about activism and is a member of the Women in Jazz Organization (WIJO), helping to represent and empower women in the wider jazz community.
Press Highlights
“Stokes revs up on eclecticism, centering her jazz improvisation and pop-jazz adventures…shimmers with energetic scatting and cheery piano”
Downbeat Magazine
“This music speaks to artistic sophistication while addressing the quiet comforts of the medium.”
Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
“Absolutely stunning.”
One World Music (UK)
“The result is nothing short of outstanding with Brenda taking full control of her direction and creating a piece of contemporary jazz that is refined and seductive.”
The Jazz Music Blog
“When a recording is as fine as this, nothing is more welcome than seeing Volume 1 in the title.”
C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
“Here to play, not play around.”
Chris Spector, Midwest Record
“A stone joy from the opening notes to the close.”
Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
“Stokes is very much her own woman and stamps her individuality on both her singing and her piano playing.”
Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here
…a breezy delight.”
Time Out New York
“…the first to stand out was pianist-singer Brenda Earle, whose talent gracefully bridges jazz and pop.”
The Washington Post
“With a mix of originals and covers from Sinatra and Suzanne Vega to our own Finn brothers, Earle demonstrated her mastery of the urban ballad.”
The Press (New Zealand)
“Her keyboard work throughout embodies lyrical melody, deft harmonies and smart pacing…”
The Toronto Star
“She has her own way of writing music that meshes fine with modern jazz esthetics.”
JazzTimes
“…expressive voices and lively piano stylings.”
The Spill Magazine
“Brenda Earle has a well-trained, sweet-sounding, pure voice and piano and songwriting skills that are displayed ably…”
All About Jazz
“Earle is an incredibly gifted artist, whose creative instincts continue to bluer the lines between jazz, rock and pop music.
Riviting Riffs Magazine