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LJ MOUNTENEY

LJ Mounteney.jpeg

LJ moved to Vancouver in the early 90’s  where she fell in love with jazz music.  Inspired by the genre she spent two years at VCC’s highly regarded commercial music and jazz program studying jazz voice with the likes of Jennifer Scott.  After school, she went on to work in a variety of swing, jazz and blues bands as well as pop and R&B groups while holding down various day gigs.

For the past few years LJ has had the distinct pleasure of working alongside some of Vancouver’s finest musicians including as a featured guest artist with award winning smooth jazz trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, veteran guitarist Ron Thompson, bassist Brent Gubbels and guitarist Daryl Jahnke.

 

In 2014 she took on the role of lead singer and co-host with Vancouver’s highly acclaimed Gypsy Jazz band Van Django (Cameron Wilson, Brent Gubbels, Budget Schachte and Finn Manniche) for their Christmas Cool Yule tour along with the late great vocalist and harmonica player Keith Bennett.  She also appeared on the 2015 Christmas CD Cool Yule and continues to tour with them every Christmas.  In 2018 LJ was invited to participate in The White Album Revisited where she shared the stage with guitarist/composer Ed Henderson, jazz singer Kate Hammett-Vaughn, and singer/songwriter Marin Patenaude among many other talented Vancouver musicians, singers and composers.   

In 2017, LJ produced her own album Here in the Dark, with help from veteran guitarist, bassist, and songwriter Jon Roper (Buckman Coe, Alita Dupray, Al Matheson). The album featured a mix of 8 stunning covers from Bossa Nova to Blues and one original and featured a top flight list of Vancouver session players.  Although not officially promoted, Here in the Dark was well received and helped LJ gain a wider audience resulting in her selling out local venues including Vancouver’s own local jazz club Frankie’s in 2019. That same year she was a featured guest at Vancouver’s historic Commodore Ballroom for the Motown Meltdown - a who’s who of Vancouver R&B and Soul artists - and was slated to return in 2020.

After a casual suggestion by a friend to make an album with Blues Legend Jack Lavin (Powder Blues), LJ hit Electric City Studios in Victoria on October 2 to begin recording her album of Blues and Roots featuring Jack as producer and on bass. LJ’s new album features an incredible host of award winning Vancouver and Victoria Blues artists and songwriters! Stay tuned for more info - coming soon!

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