press

Anyone still stuck in the Diana Krallspace may find aural escape with Megan Jerome. Vocals and piano, jazzy style, can be stiff, but delivered with spunk its salvation itself. Jerome doesn't get all caught up in snooty jazz, nor fall back on tired standards, but concocts a cabaret of originals as folky as it is jazzy. Think Victoria Williams without the croak. The trio has a subtle, clear and bouncy delivery, giving the spotlight to a voice that richly deserves it. Who knew crooning could be this much fun?
—John Sekerka, X-press

Megan Jerome's 1962 Wurlizter organ rides the whimsical carnival gaiety of her lovely voice and her soulful, clever songs.  And her husband Mike Essoudry is a fine percussionist who is closely tuned into the subtle groove of these gems of songwriting.   So many bands add layers to the point where such an unique partnership and sense of play may be left unfelt.
—Vincent de Tourdonnet

The Megan Jerome trio deserves a wide audience. Composed of three of the most accomplished musicians in Ottawa, Megan Jerome, piano and vocals, Mike Essoudry, drums, and Petr Cancura, saxophone and mandolin, the trio plays jazz-tinged music that is outside the box, yet accessible. The group emphasizes original compositions by Jerome and Cancura and the songs by Jerome are in the art song tradition, melodic, yet with edge and humor.
—Charles Gordon, The Ottawa Citizen

While most of Ottawa's jazz singers are content to cover The Girl from Ipanema, But Not for Me and the like, Megan Jerome writes nearly all of her minimalist, folk-flavoured songs. And if she does decide to tackle someone else's material, she's more likely to pick Simon and Garfunkel or Bjork. For music lovers whose tastes run then to the simple, quirky and modern...Jerome's trio...will be a good bet. Joining Jerome, who also plays piano, are two of Ottawa's most creative jazz musicians, drummer and percussionist Mike Essoudry...and saxophonist Petr Cancura, doubling on mandolin.
—Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen

POUR COMMENCER DU BON PIED...
Megan Jerome Trio lançait récemment son album This Uneven Pace, qui amalgame brillamment le folk et le jazz contemporain avec ses chansons éclatantes et bien ficelées. La jolie voix de Megan Jerome tintera au Petit Chicago le 6 janvier pour un spectacle intimiste alors qu'elle sera accompagnée de ses talentueux musiciens, Petr Cancura et Mike Essoudry. À découvrir: l'excellent titre Up She Walks, qui mêle gaiement français et anglais avec sensibilité et humour.
—Mélissa Proulx, 4 janvier 2007, Voir

Tonight at the Avant Garde Bar, a trio of Ottawa’s jazzier musicians offer some avant-folk. Singer/pianist Megan Jerome offers her beguiling homemade songs, assisted by drummer Mike Essoudry and Petr Cancura on saxophone, accordion, clarinet and mandolin. These three close friends make intimate, quirky and fearlessly beautiful miniatures.
—Peter Hum, Critics’ Picks, Jazz, The Ottawa Citizen

Well, we’ll call it jazz, but the sophomore release by this often-quirky Ottawa trio has enough folk and cabaret and country bubbling through it that labels are even more pointless than usual. What’s relevant is that, as with their debut album Unlonely, lead singer and pianist Jerome, percussionist Mike Essoudry, and all-around instrumentalist Petr Cancura know how to have fun while creating evocative moods and vignettes peopled by mining engineers, campfire fans and blissful lovers. There’s room for everyone and everything in these songs, a happy fact underscored by Jerome’s beguiling, open-hearted vocals. With winter creeping in, the crystalline, melodica-accompanied track Skating deserves a special listen: sweet and whimsical and crisp, it’s everything that’s best about the trio.
—Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen

When Queens University booted Megan Jerome out of its mining engineering program a few years back, it did the music world a favour. Seems Jerome was spending too much time at the piano for Queens' liking, so she transferred to Carleton's music performance program and, with fellow-Ottawa musicians Petr Cancura and Mike Essoudry, formed a dandy little trio. Call Unlonely, the group's debut album, jazz if you like, but Jerome blends in enough folk and even country that the album eschews easy classification. What can be said without hesitation is that it bubbles over with interesting melodies and accents, humour to leaven the reflective pieces, and Jerome's intriguing, occasionally saucy, voice. The one disappointment is that there are only eight tracks to enjoy.
—Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen

Always lots happening in the jazz scene in Ontario, but I picked a local Ottawa artist to represent what I think is a kind of nice new direction, I guess I would say, for jazz. A local artist here in Ottawa by the name of Megan Jerome. Young woman, I believe she was a music student at Carleton University, and together with a couple really seasoned, but still young, members of the local jazz scene, Mike Essoudry and Petr Cancura. Petr Cancura is a sax player who's always been good, has always been a great player. But in the last year or two has just lit himself on fire. I don't know what's happened to him--he's playing has just gone up a notch. And he plays with a lot of different people and this lovely trio with Megan Jerome and Mike Essoudry, and he's also in the Mighty Popo's band...A really good record to check out, the Megan Jerome Trio, and the CD's called Unlonely, which is a nice title.
—Bill Stunt, Ontario Regional Music Producer, CBC radio

 

 

Radio reviews and showcases

Roots Underground (CBC Radio One and Two)
Bandwidth (CBC Radio One, Ontario)
Ottawa Morning (CBC Radio One, Ottawa)
Something Else (CKCU, Ottawa)
All in a Day (CBC Radio One, Ottawa)
Jammin' Downtown! (CBC Radio One, Ottawa)