New album part of the healing for Niagara jazz artist
Some albums are born through pain.
Others are painful to make. For Niagara jazz artist Sarah Jerrom, her latest was plenty of both.
“Magpie,” her 85-minute, doublealbum suite being released next month, is a personal exploration of grief set in a fairy tale world. In the works for seven years, it dwells on the stigma and depression surrounding pregnancy loss and her own way of overcoming it.
A hard enough narrative to tackle. Then throw in the pandemic and an ill-fated walk Jerrom took on a winter night two years ago.
While out with her dog, Jerrom tripped on a sidewalk and injured her head. It wasn’t until days later she was told at the ER she had a grade 2 concussion. It meant no work for a week, nor TV or computer screens. Which wasn’t ideal for her job teaching music online.
Jerrom was told recovery could take four to six weeks.
Instead, it was an agonizing 18 months.
“I read Sarah Polley’s ‘Run Towards the Danger,’ and she talks about her concussion,” says Jerrom. “Her doctor said she would not direct another movie until she had directed another movie. She said, ‘Doctor, will I ever be able to do this ever again?’ and he said, ‘Of course, you will, but you have to do it in order to do it. You have to go through it.’
“This was my run towards danger.”
The capper on her recovery was performing the “Magpie” suite for the first time in Toronto last year.
“Stepping through from my concussion onto the stage was part of my rehab,” she recalls. “It was a very empowering moment. It was nerve-racking and terrifying, but it was one of the most transformative experiences I’ve ever had.”
The album’s story, which Jerrom describes as a “fairy tale for grownups,” was inspired years ago when she observed some magpies and crows performing a sort of dance during a winter storm. Digging further, she discovered magpies are carrion birds able to self-identify and even grieve. The subsequent story touches on feminism, infertility, hope, loss and love.
“Like many types of grief, pregnancy loss is part of the disenfranchised grief,” she says. “If you lose your house in a fire, well at least you’re alive … that kind of thing. It’s not talked about and that’s the choice of the person going through that.
“I chose to talk about it and sometimes people didn’t want to hear it. Or you’d get certain responses. I’m not trying to disrespect health professionals, but there was really messed-up stuff that happened.”
Jerrom has endured pregnancy loss multiple times, the last one in 2015. She has no children.
The album, she says, was her way of “coming to terms with it.”
The album features 21 singers and musicians, including Jerrom’s husband, Rob McBride, on bass.
It’s available April 12 on TPR Records and through her streaming site https://sarahjerrom.bandcamp.com.