Jenna Cave announces profound new album ‘Grief, Hope, Love’ out this November!

Jenna Cave composer/musical director Kristin Berardi vocals Yutaro Okuda guitar Tom Avgenicos trumpet/flugelhorn Loretta Palmeiro saxophones, clarinet Hannah James double bass Chloe Kim drums

Available 8 November 2024 via ABC Music
ABC Jazz Composer Commission

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In April 2022, at the age of 38, composer Jenna Cave’s life was completely turned on its head. She became a solo parent to her three-year-old daughter and was thrown into the depths of grief and trauma when her husband died from suicide.

Commissioned by ABC Jazz, Grief, Hope, Love is a suite of six songs composed by Cave in the twelve months after his death. With themes of hope and resilience in the face of loss and despair, these songs became an outlet for her to articulate, process and express her raw emotional states during the early stages of grief, including her sheer gratitude for the love and joy that still existed alongside her pain.

‘I hope this music may allow listeners suffering from grief and loss, particularly in the context of suicide, to feel heard and held,’ says Cave, ‘and that it will increase grief literacy in the community.’

To record these uniquely poignant songs, Cave brought together six of Australia’s finest jazz artists: vocalist Kristin Berardi, Yutaro Okuda on electric guitar, Tom Avgenicos on trumpet, Loretta Palmeiro on clarinet and sax, Hannah James on double bass, and drummer Chloe Kim. Profoundly moved by this experience, the performers were inspired to create their own musical responses, included on the album in the form of two improvisations.

Honest and uncompromising, compassionate and tender, embracing both past and future, this is an album that speaks from heart to heart.