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Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
With his first full-length album, Oshki Manitou, Chuck Copenace is exploring an entirely new realm with his sound.
For Chuck Copenace, Oshki Manitou is a decidedly personal musical expression, a way to share his story of recovery, his spiritual awakening, and how ceremonial melodies have changed his musical outlook while honouring those traditions with a record that unites his creativity and spirituality.
Meaning ‘New Spirit,’ Oshki Manitou is also a gift to his family and community. And nowhere is that clearer than on the album’s title track, a song Copenace describes as “my first gift to my son.” Written prior to his birth in 2018, it’s an interpretation of “how things might sound from inside the womb,” Copenace adds, with a plaintive trumpet performance, “that’s calling my child… and showing him how beautiful it is to live on this earth.”
Oshki Manitou finds the Winnipeg-based, Ojibway musician expanding dramatically on his previous work as a trumpet player, arranger, and composer; fusing contemporary interpretations of sweat-lodge melodies with jazz and elements of dance, and electronica. Written and recorded during a pivotal time in Copenace’s life journey – after his first sweat lodge in 2014 – it’s a project the 45-year-old artist envisioned for some time. “As far back as I remember, I felt I had a distinct musical voice and wasn’t meant to take a typical path as a player, studio musician, or sideman.”
Presenting that voice became an all-or-nothing proposition, a product of Copenace’s decision in his mid-30s to either make music entirely on his terms or leave it behind to concentrate on his career in social work. But that only came into focus after his first sweat lodge, an experience that he found surprisingly painful, physically and emotionally. “I’d been sober for a long time and didn’t feel like I was in crisis or needed help, but something was happening there I needed to finish. It was like refinishing a hardwood floor. Your goal is to get it looking beautiful, but after you rip the carpet off, there’s paint you’ve got to get through.”
The process was transformational, personally and musically. “I’d played along with ceremonial music before but could never hear the form. Whatever happened in the lodge – the focus, darkness, pain, the heat – I was able to start singing that music on my own. From then on, all my compositions seemed to come from those melodies and that place.”
On Oshki Manitou, Copenace draws inspiration from his personal experiences prior to and during this time; something reflected in ‘The Opening’ (a song based on a Mide melody he first heard in the sweat lodge, and ‘The Hug Room’ – a track recalling the late-night parties and raves he once attended, at a time when he would rarely hug someone, having been raised with friends, he says: “Who never touched unless it was to fight.”
Born in Treaty 3 Territory and hailing from the Ojibway Animikee Wazhing #37 community, Copenace attended junior high in Kenora, Ontario, at a school with a well-respected music program. Being a tough kid and “class disrupter,” he didn’t think music was a fit. “But everyone had to do it in Grade 7,” he adds. Consequently, he chose the trumpet, the smallest, most inconspicuous brass instrument available, and ended up blowing through his first instructional book in one night.
His aptitude for music generally and trumpet specifically was a game-changer. “I had a single mom with three kids. My dad was out of the picture. There was a lot of conflict I’d gone through; violence, abuse – stuff my mom couldn’t protect me from. I wasn’t on a good path.” Over time, he honed his skills and horizons musically, excelling in music at his school, dipping into his stepfather’s record collection, discovering artists like Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard, and competing in regional competitions.
Still, he struggled. “The friends I grew up with; when they were graduating from university, I was heading to drug and alcohol treatment. Music was the thing I latched onto; it was like a life preserver.”
Copenace eventually enrolled in post-secondary musical studies, relocated to Vancouver, and worked with various bands, including Moses Mayes, after which he took almost five years away from music. “In that period of time, up until my first sweat lodge, in reflection, I realized I had a lot going on that wasn’t allowing me to express myself musically on an individual level.”
In 2015, he determined it was time to move forward and founded The Chuck Copenace Group. He performed across Canada, the USA, and internationally at Jazz, folk, and Indigenous music festivals, including the Ohshkii Awards, Aboriginal Music Week, the 2015 Grey Cup Festival, and the 2018 Guatemala International Jazz Fest in Guatemala City. He also played with a wide range of Winnipeg artists, made numerous television appearances, garnered play on CBC Radio on shows like Unreserved, and released his 2017 debut, EP 1; becoming known for his unique blend of Indigenous ceremonial music, R&B, funk, and classical. More recently, Copenace collaborated with Tom Wilson and iskwē on ‘Blue Moon Drive’ (2020) ‘and Starless Nights’ (2021) and performed with the pair live at the 2020 Indspire Awards.
Oshki Manitou is Copenace’s most ambitious project to date; a compelling synthesis of styles that highlights his deep chops as a composer, trumpet player, and – for the first time – a vocalist. An effort that’s particularly striking on ‘Creator,’ which features a singularly beautiful entwining of Copenace’s vocals and trumpet on a melody used in a wide variety of traditional contexts to ask the Creator or Great Spirit for a blessing. He also pays tribute to other early influences, notably on ‘Little Sunflower’ (a re-imagination of Freddie Hubbard track) and ‘Current’ – a composition based around a sample culled from the music of New York hip-hop pioneers Mobb Deep.
Copenace’s distinctive voice and approach allows him to unify a wide range of styles beautifully, in a way that’s honest and innovative in equal measure. “I shy away from traditionalists,” he explains. “When someone says, ‘this isn’t how music should be done’ or ‘if you’re playing this genre of music, this shouldn’t be there.’ That’s always bothered me.”
The result is a collection of eminently groovy, haunting, and, at times, ethereal songs that display Chuck Copenace’s signature voice and substantial skills as an interpreter, composer, and performer as never before, but that’s only part of the equation, he says, citing a larger purpose behind his efforts, for which Oshki Manitou is just a starting point.
“I’m committed to sharing my history of addiction and recovery to help heal and offer support. I want to introduce young people to jazz, but I also want to bring indigenous musicians together – maybe by starting a school or creating a residency. But right now, we’re at the discovery stage, where all indigenous artists, organizations, and supporters have to be out there looking for talent to amplify and support. And I think my music can be a platform to further that mission.”