In the Zen 
©2023 by Kerilie McDowall - All Rights Reserved.

This article was originally published October 21, 2023 at All About Jazz. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/.

Canada’s pop-jazz diva Andrea Superstein’s new release, and theatre  play, Oh Mother, enters center stage launching with video recordings of mothers reflecting candidly on motherhood. Pop rhythms pulse as jazzy acoustic bass weaves with Andrea’s vocal lush and intricate harmonies.

“I think just enjoy the moments because they are over so fast… You do not have to be perfect, you just have to be there,” reflects a mother.

Superstein sings soulfully, “This life belongs to you, my heart, this love belongs to you. My heart.”

Flooring us with sentiments is a common theme through Superstein’s theatrical performance of the work celebrating in an ode to motherhood’s love. “They grow up fast, and life is short.”

Fringe Festival favourited-award-winner, Superstein is in finest form in this midpoint of her career, her voice transcends and soars throughout her intricate vocal work. She is an absolute joy to listen to. The band perfectly complements Superstein’s songwriting, and the vocalist’s writing is so full-on creative as always.

Her vocals are powerful. Superstein’s control shows her songcrafting with a perfected flowing timbre, and its smooth sweetness carries you gently along through inspiration. From undulating energized in-command scatting to triple and multi- layered harmonies, Andrea is a musician’s composer. She is admired by her peers.

‘I Carry Your Heart,’ features Superstein’s daughter’s recorded thoughts on love and on being a baby. “I carry it in my heart,” sings Andrea.

“When I was a spirit, I chose my mom, Super. It’s really fun with her.  She is the very best. I really love her,” proclaims Andrea’s daughter. “Your heart is connected to my heart.”

And to a caregiver or a mother, pulling on your emotions, Superstein creates a meaningful experience infused with the music box theme message, “I carry your heart with me.”

I caught up with Superstein after her Fringe Festival week-long Best of Fringe Festival award-winning summer 2023 run of Oh Mother at Nanaimo’s The Port Theatre. I chatted with Andrea about her latest news for a fun and relaxed interview. Her inspirational new 11-track upcoming release and current theatre show, Oh Mother has been making an impact.

Mothers and caregivers held emotions back in the audience with all-knowing empathetic facial expressions, as they reflected, contemplated and related to Superstein’s music and one-woman solo thought-provoking theatre-show.

In The Zen: First, prior to this project what were you doing with your music and career?

Andrea Superstein: I was on the same trajectory as most other jazz vocalists: writing and touring peppered with some teaching to make ends meet. I did my first European tour this year and showcased at Jazzahead in Germany.

ITZ: How did you realize these latest creative ideas?

Andrea Superstein: It was a long process that started with some questions. It took me almost 4 years to just start asking the questions.

ITZ: Andrea like motherhood, this project and its questions was a work that took a process and time to birth. Speak about the idea of your creation and release of, Oh Mother, how did it come to you?

Andrea Superstein: This project has gone through many iterations, but it really started with some fundamental questions that I had when I first became a mother. Mainly, why do I feel so awful? When everyone is telling me this is going to be the best time in my life and I don’t feel that, is there something wrong with me?

So, I started asking candid questions to mothers to see if this was just my experience, a generational thing or a universal experience that people just don’t talk about. I wanted to know what the REAL stories of motherhood were. Not just the “oh you’ll never sleep again” but the raw, honest details about all that comes with being a mother.

So many of the songs represent either a collective sentiment or one person’s personal story. They are not all my stories although I do connect with many of them.

ITZ: The center focus is upon love and your relationship with your daughter and the varied challenges of motherhood, take us to that place of motherhood for you. 

Andrea Superstein: It’s an all-encompassing, never ending ride. It’s both excruciating and joyous and those polarities coexist. In the end, all we have is love. I think that’s pretty universal whether we are parents or not.

ITZ: What does the music box tape theme throughout your play and recording, ‘I carry your heart with me,’ mean to you?

Andrea Superstein: It’s inspired by the e.e. cummings poem of the same name. It means so many different things. For me personally, it’s about that heart connection that I felt having a human grow inside me. But it’s also about some mothers who lost young children and a reminder that they are always with us. It’s about the intangible connection some mothers yearn for when they become estranged from their children. I guess It’s the invisible umbilical cord that we can never ignore.

ITZ: What was your intention in creating, Oh Mother?

Andrea Superstein: It was all very organic but, in the end, I wanted to write music that mattered. Music that gives voice to the under told stories of parenthood.

ITZ: Talk about the band members and recording the project how did that begin?

Andrea Superstein: Chris Gestrin on keys, Carlie Howell featured on bass, Dan Gaucher on drums. They are all parents and that was important to me, to not just have friends and great musicians on the record but people who could understand firsthand some of the motifs in the compositions. Jane Bunnett arranged and plays on “Mombo.” Jane is a kind of mother, too, not in the sense that she has children, but she is a mentor to so many women in the music world. It was a gift to be able to collaborate with her.

ITZ: There were a lot of varied fabulous harmonies on the recording, and it sounded like you were having fun, yet your control is always spot on. Talk about the vocals.

Andrea Superstein: Aw thanks! There was a lot of time between composing and recording, so I really had time to think about how I wanted to deliver the lyrics. Also, because these songs are so personal, it often just flowed out of me without too much thought.

For the songs with voice samples, I had a lot of time alone at my computer during lockdown to cut and paste and play around with my Midi keyboard. So, for songs like, ‘So In Love,’ and, ‘To All the Mothers,’ I had a blast just adding and taking away layers in a whimsical way instead of plotting everything out beforehand.

ITZ: The next thing I knew after watching your fabulous play, I found out you were the favourite of the Fringe Festival in Nanaimo, I would guess the play might win many awards. What was your reaction when you heard you had won?

Andrea Superstein: I was just so happy that the show resonated with others. You never know how a new work is going to be received. I’m very grateful.

ITZ: The band did a special performance, who produced this project, it sounds wonderful.

Andrea Superstein: Thank you! Elizabeth Shepherd is in the producer’s chair. I love working with her. In life, you find people who are your kindred spirits and I feel that way about Elizabeth. She understands and embraces what I'm trying to do musically and as a producer has an effortless way of elevating the music. She is a beloved collaborator and friend.

ITZ: That sounds like a very special connection. Elizabeth Shepherd indeed does great work. What are your next plans with this recording and theatre play project going forward?

Andrea Superstein: The album will be released February 9, 2024, on Cellar Live and then we have some tour dates in Canada in the spring of 2024. After that, I think I'd like to continue working on the stage show and see where that takes me.

ITZ: Tell me about your upcoming shows.

Andrea Superstein: We have more dates to announce in a few months, but some highlights are Jazz at the Bolt in Burnaby, Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, The Jazz Room in Kitchener-Waterloo, and Evergreen Theatre in Coquitlam.

ITZ: You know despite this project being delayed many times it was worth the wait. This album could get suggested for the Polaris Music Prize, and likely will surface as JUNO-worthy. The production sounds even fresher, they did a great job. How did you do that so well as the project leader, Andrea? It is in the organized category, too, agreed?

Andrea Superstein: Thank you so much. It is often about bringing the right people to the table and I think that’s definitely what happened here.

ITZ: What are your next music moves and projects, would you consider film, or do you want to stay focused on the theatre world?

Andrea Superstein: I really don’t know. I’d like to see where this project leads. Sometimes we don’t even know what opportunities exist until they present themselves. I’m staying open.

ITZ: How can we purchase your recording of Oh Mother, is it available yet, and what is your website address?

Andrea Superstein: My website is www.andreasuperstein.com

The album will be released online and in physical form February 9, 2024, but there will be a few singles released before then, so be on the lookout.

ITZ: Thanks so much for joining me today, as always, I enjoy your fine projects and never want to miss them.

Andrea Superstein: Thank you. This project has filled me with joy and inspiration and love every step of the way. I hope listeners love it as much as I do.

In the Zen is the new blog of freelance writer and music/writing/film‘s Kerilie McDowall. Fun jazz and creative music interviews, seasonal lifestyle articles including health, garden, food interesting tidbits, and all things music. Stop by for music industry and film festing informative flashes and other insights from 12x award-winning jazz short documentary filmmaker McDowall. She has much to share with over 34 years in the music industry as a music graduate, jazz guitarist/composer, jazz writer, music events publicist, past jazz and creative concert producer, and former radio and TV host and producer.

From the Organic Garden:

_{Shown in photo left to right, Keto lunch: (left) Ukrainian basil with almond pesto (middle) roasted cherry and medium Ukrainian basil-tomatoes, Lettuce, homegrown, top, and lastly walnut-Ukrainian carrot-tops-pesto with nutritional yeast! (Shown right.)}

Note: You can make these pestos with parmesan cheese or cheese substitutes, or none at all, just add more nuts and a bit of nutritional yeast to taste. Recipes follow:

When I first started gathering Ukrainian seeds anticipating the Ukrainian-Russian war prior to it starting, I felt it was a duty I wanted to honour my violin-maker turned farmer-ancestors who immigrated over 100 years ago to Canada. I wanted to try and find some rare Ukrainian plant seeds.

I had already been gardening for an entire year, yet though rather badly. It took me a few years to “get it.”

After wild mountain wildlife and animals had eaten all of my crops my first year, in a panic I called master gardener Connie Kuramoto of Qualicum’s Gardens on the Go. I could not risk losing the seeds or having any crop failures, as my plan was to gather and share these rare Ukrainian seeds. (And I did share them and am still doing so.) It was too late to plant once I found them from a farmer in the Ukraine, so we waited. Meanwhile Connie helped me contend with all the Canadian seeds I had started at the time helping me figure out how to keep them going.

Connie is a very clever and warm-hearted, and kind soul, I ended up adoring her as a mentor, and we became bonded in the garden. Connie showed me everything from how to stake tomatoes, to digging them in, cutting back the leaves, how to water by counting, how to properly fertilize and compost. It just became even more exciting when I started teaching myself container gardening with rare exotic plants like ashwaghanda and holy basil this year with Connie’s help and guidance so I could extend the garden around my home and on to decks, including stackable vertical planters.

The plants from the Ukraine? Well, they actually grew! I was so excited! 

Connie advised with the changing weather to plant drought resistant plants like lavender, sage and others so that my plants could tolerate the continued regular summer drought. Weather patterns have been changing.

I was so excited my second year growing, to finally have success with a garden in a more productive way was really satisfying.

What came up in the garden this year? Not all the seeds were a success, but many and most stopped by! So many small and large and medium sized varieties of red, yellow and black rare Ukrainian tomatoes, (13), with only 3-4 varieties from Canada. Rare purple and green, black, and red Ukrainian peppers.

Sent from the Ukraine: Various styles of lettuce. Lobelia, blue and purple, fenugreek, dill, mint, lemon balm, chamomile, African daisies, blue pumpkins, dahlia, green onion, broccoli, cabbage, coriander.

Others from other North American sources included garlic, calendula, nicotinia, holy basil, ashwaghanda, chives, and other goodies like lavender which are growing either seeds or seedlings. My guitar student’s Mom gave me hot peppers, but a gardening Facebook friend’s rainbow jalapeno peppers grew like crazy, as did the Holy Basil. I am so excited to share with you some of the recipes you can create from your garden, while adding in some organic store ingredients for the more complicated recipes. Due to having little sun in my yard I am limited to certain crops in certain areas. I am understanding better how to use the land while respecting the earth while gardening as I learn from Connie Kuramoto. Including fertilizer only when necessary.

Connie gave me permission to share the recipes she created with me most recently, teaching me how to use my garden. Enjoy these fine healthy treats! I am also dropping my Baba’s most incredible “#1 in the world,” borscht on you. My Baba, she was so proud of this recipe and was still making it in her 90s when she was still here with us before passing away almost 10 years ago. Enjoy these recipes, with love from my family to yours and also with grateful thanks to Qualicum’s Gardens on the Go’s Connie Kuramoto.

Note: You can make these pestos with parmesan cheese or cheese substitutes, or none at all, just add more nuts and a bit of nutritional yeast to taste. Recipes follow, and scroll below for the latest November 2023 film/TV producer, production agency and agent research list. xox Kerilie

Basil-Almond Pesto
 by Connie Kuramoto of Gardens on the Go

2 cups of fresh organic homegrown basil

¼ cup parmesan

¼-½ cup organic almonds

Organic olive oil added to desired consistency, either thick, or dip-texture

Salt and pepper to taste

3 small cloves of fresh organic cured garlic

Roasted Basil-Tomatoes
by Connie Kuramoto of Gardens on the Go

Organic tomatoes, cherry halved, small tomatoes quartered, and medium pieces.

1 Place parchment paper on 2 baking sheets, stainless steel

In a bowl mix chopped pieces of freshly chopped ¼ inch pieces of organic basil. Drain the extra tomatoes’ juice into a glass cup, then drink it, its delicious!

Add in conservative salt amounts and generous olive oil to cover well

Spread on to parchment paper. Bake at 275-300 for 3 hours, check at 1.5 and 2.25 hours to check progress and readiness. Serve and take out of the oven when the tomatoes are slightly blacked on edges. Sooooo good!

Carrot-Tops Walnut Pesto with multi-B Vitamins
by Connie Kuramoto of Gardens on the Go

2 cups organic carrot greens tops

1/4-1/2 cup organic walnuts

1/4 – 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (hard to get B vitamins)

¼ cup parmesan cheese or cheese substitute

Organic olive oil and salt and pepper to taste and desired consistency, thick or dip-like.

3 Small cloves of fresh organic cured garlic. Double ingredient ratio to serve 4, triple it for leftovers.

Garlic Scape Recipe,
Traditional, as grown-taught to me
by Connie Kuramoto of Gardens on the Go

8-12 fresh or freezer organic garlic scapes

½ cup parmesan or cheese substitute and/or nutritional yeast

Add ¼ cup of either pine nuts, walnuts, almonds or cashews or a combination of a few.

Salt and pepper and olive oil to taste to either a dip consistency, or a thicker dip. Blend all ingredients and serve on GF-free pasta or with keto flax chips.

Baba’s Traditional Ukrainian Borscht
Family recipe, Kerilie McDowall

 Vegetarian:

Chop into slivers:
8 -10 organic beets and tops --boil and reserve water
1 organic onion
Organic large tin lima beans one tin or cannelloni or white beans for big batches use two tins
Fresh dill bunches, as much as you can purchase
About 3 -4 cups chopped dill for large batch, use stems in broth and remove the long stems later
1 large tin organic chopped tomatoes and add a few garden tomatoes or buy organic only and not necessary to add that meaning the fresh tomatoes use the can
1 tin organic green beans or frozen or fresh
3/4 cup chopped cabbage organic
Chopped into slivers small baby potatoes organic, enough to fill the bottom of the pot

Fill large soup stainless pot with the boiled beet vegetable water make sure to leave a 1/4 cup beet water in the pot to stop any beet grit from entering the soup

Fill remainder of pot 2 inches below its top with water. Add extras if you have them like extra beets or tops and if you like slivered carrots.

After it boils ...Add ketchup slowly and gradually with salt and pepper be sure to taste as you add only --yes my Baba really used that!:) Ketchup. Heinz. But there are organic types everywhere. If you want to try them.

Non-vegetarian version:

Brown meat in olive oil first use all other ingredients too.

Add two packages of oxtails, or one package of short ribs, or one package of ox tail with two strip sirloin steaks, grass fed, chopped into bite sized pieces. Or add stewing beef. Add to the soup mixture.

Both versions: Boil just 1/4 of the dill added to pot boil then simmer for 4-5 even 6-7 hours add more water if needed.

After its ready either versions, add 1/4 cup of liquid whipped cream or more from the carton and the rest of the dill then boil and simmer until the dill is cooked. Remove dill stems and serve soup with crusty french bread with unsalted grass fed butter. Or garlic bread, hot.

(Or the gluten free option is with keto flax chia crackers.) See my posted flax and chia seed recipes that l shared online at Canadian Online Guitar Lessons. Dairy free is not to use butter or whipped cream. From my family to yours. Enjoy!

Note to you, please enter into business relationships, contracts and any other agreements with caution. Kerilie McDowall, In the Zen, and Canadian Online Guitar Lessons does not endorse or have direct knowledge of the business practices or ethical stances from any of these film links, so therefore you need to do your own very extensive research and proceed cautiously when working with a new unknown person, business, or agency. There are some interesting links, fun to take a peek.

And as requested by you the film director readers, here is a research production list from google to start your research off with for you! Kerilie provides a music/film grant list to new clients.

FILMIE BONUS RESEARCH LIST:

List of Canadian producers - Wikipedia

The Best Freelance Film Producers For Hire | Freelancer

Famous Canadian T V & Movie Producers (thefamouspeople.com)

Film Production companies links:

Film Production Companies in Canada (productionhub.com)

Category:Film production companies of Canada - Wikipedia

Production company directory | Telefilm Canada

Television Production Companies in Canada (productionhub.com)

Film Production Jobs in Canada | Hiring Now | Talent.com

Find Recommended Video Production Experts (bark.com)

List of film production companies - Wikipedia

Category:Canadian film producers - Wikipedia

Film Production Company/Agents in Canada:

Film Production Companies in Vancouver, British Columbia (productionhub.com)

Television Production Companies in Vancouver, British Columbia (productionhub.com)

Top Film Production Companies in Vancouver, BC | Glassdoor

TOP 10 BEST Film Production Companies in Vancouver, BC - November 2023 - Yelp

Film Producers in Vancouver, British Columbia (productionhub.com)

Agents Directory - ACTRA Toronto

Agents | Writers Guild of Canada

Literary Agents (canadianauthors.org)

FILMCOMM TALENT

Ambition Talent

Agencies | Vancouver Actor's Guide (vancouveractorsguide.com)

15 Top Literary Agencies for Screenwriters - Writing Tips Oasis

In Production List (creativebc.com)

In the Zen is the new blog of freelance writer and music professional, Kerilie McDowall. Fun jazz and creative interviews, seasonal lifestyle articles including health, garden, interesting tidbits, and all things music. Stop by for music industry and film festing informative flashes and other insights from 12x award-winning jazz short documentary filmmaker McDowall. She has much to share with over 34 years in the music industry as a music graduate, jazz guitarist/composer, jazz writer, past jazz and creative concert producer/publicist, and as a former TV Director, radio and TV host and producer.

Book 15 min: https://calendly.com/kerilie/guitar-lessons-workshops-writing-publicity-media-contact

T: 1-250-668-3589 E-transfer/email address/donate: [email protected] Subscribe | In the Zen (beehiiv.com)

https://www.facebook.com/kerilie

Images of Kerilie McDowall by Dirk Heydemann of HA Photography.  Trophies: Vegas Movie Awards

WANT TO SEE MORE IN THE ZEN?

Kerilie works very hard to bring you jazz news and to assist musicians. Permit Kerilie to have the time to bring it to you. Donate to In the Zen! With e-transfers, just copy and paste my email address into your one-time donation or Subscribe: weekly or monthly by e-transfer. Drop me a line or two! E-transfers: [email protected]

1-(250)-668-3589

Subscribe | In the Zen (beehiiv.com) Suscribe for $25, $50, $100, $500 monthly or a one time donation.

CONTACT Book your private Open House session HERE.

Thank you for your support!

.