“Joy Will Find Us” is Rebecca Hennessy’s follow-up album to her acclaimed 2020 release, “All The Little Things You Do”“an album that can’t be recommended too highly” – Ron Schepper. . Rebecca’s inviting, warm and clear voice delivers a continuation of her story from the last album. Exploring themes of hope, healing and new life,
“Joy Will Find Us” was recorded a month before her daughter was born, and finished while learning how to be a new mom. This album was recorded and co-produced at her home studio with her husband, Michael Herring. The sounds of world-acclaimed and celebrated musical voices: guitarist, Kevin Breit (Sister’s Euclid, Johnny Goldtooth, Norah Jones); Drummers, Dave Clark (Rheostatics, Gord Downie) and Tim Shia (Worst Pop Band Ever) are also featured on this album.
This is Rebecca’s second album collaborating with award-winning producer and engineer, David Travers-Smith (Jane Siberry, Veda Hille, Jayme Stone) Similar to Rebecca’s previous album, David masterfully produced the sounds of “Joy Will Find Us” to a level of lush expression and cohesiveness.
In 2020, Rebecca was awarded a Toronto Arts Council grant to write new music featuring the poetry of acclaimed indigenous author, Thomas King. The seven new songs from this project will be recorded and released as Rebecca’s third vocal project in 2023/24. This project is a continuation of a previous working relationship with King that started 2017 when she was commissioned to write music using his poetry. The music that Rebecca wrote for King’s Poem, “Dig Up The Stories”, was featured as an instrumental big band arrangement for Christine Jensen’s = Orchestra at The NAC in 2019.
Rebecca has released 9 other albums to date as co-leader or bandleader and has toured Mexico, Panama, Sri Lanka, Europe, USA and extensively in Canada. She joined the Yamaha Artist roster in 2021 and has also performed and recorded with internationally recognized artists including Adele, Ron Sexsmith, Andy Kim, Owen Pallett, Broken Social Scene and Feist. She was the bandleader and trumpeter for Massey Hall’s Women’s Blues Revue (2013-2022) and in 2018, won the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award and was nominated for Montreal Jazz Festival Grand Prix de Jazz in 2016.
Words from other people about Rebecca’s 2020 album, “All The Little Things You Do”
…have found it increasingly endearing after many listens. It is extremely enjoyable in a package that might be considered “light” if one didn’t pay attention. ★★★★ out of five
Keith Black – Winnipeg Free Press
It is a sonically-inspiring recording that is warm, clear, balanced and engaging… Hennessy’s trumpet playing is warm and expressive and Breit burns through some spirited and soulful guitar lines.
David Reed – Kingston Whig Standard (PostMedia)
Now and then, an album arrives that not only surpasses expectations but demands a wholesale reappraisal of the artist. A case in point is All The Little Things You Do, which recasts Rebecca Hennessy from jazz trumpeter to a singer-songwriter of the first rank. Having already distinguished herself with her FOG Brass Band project, the Toronto-based artist does so as arrestingly with this latest endeavour… The album makes one excited to contemplate what the future holds for this singular talent. For now, Hennessy can draw immense satisfaction from the wondrous accomplishment that is All The Little Things You Do. Clearly a major step in her development, it’s an album that can’t be recommended too highly.
Ron Schepper – Textura.org