Jenny Ing: On tour with Engelbert
To my regular listeners – and I am happily surprised to know there are a handful of you already – apologies for the month-long absence from your feeds. What can I say? It’s my first global pandemic, after all.
As a quick update, things are going well for me, I’m still happy and healthy here in Edmonton. I’m very fortunate to still have work, to have some nice weather to enjoy riding my bike, and to have plenty of people to connect with on the Interwebs (is anybody else tired of the virtual meeting sound quality though?). I think I’m heading into my ninth week of isolation, and it’s been a bit strange the last week or so because suddenly we’re talking about re-opening things and trying to get the world spinning again. It’s been surprisingly…difficult, almost, to consider returning to old ways of life and I know nothing will happen quickly but I’ve gotten strangely used to this sheltered, insular, distant life. It seems any change, even one we’ve hoped for for a while and that we hope is a good change, brings about some adjustments and can make your head spin. I know that timelines and circumstances may be different where you’re listening, but I hope you can navigate this new disruption easily, that it brings you joy and continued safety, but also that you know it’s ok to go slow, or get help where you need it!
On this episode, I’m going back to a recording I did in the first couple weeks of isolation. I called up my friend Jenny Ing to talk with her about life as a touring musician. Jenny is an old band mate and friend from my high school days. We only had one year together in the same school but we did spend a few years together in Victoria’s famous SummerBand program and got to play music around town a few times at least. SummerBand was a personal favourite, a program led by some of the area’s greatest school music teachers that allowed kids to try new instruments and challenged young musicians to learn charts and perform them in just two weeks. The program wrapped up about a decade ago, and sadly we’ve lost some of those teachers over the years since, but I’d say their legacy lives on in alumni like Jenny.
I wanted to give Jenny a call to see what life is like working with one of the legends of the music industry, Engelbert Humperdinck.
The 84-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck has not only sold over 140 million albums worldwide, he also continued a regular globe-spanning touring schedule, up until European dates this spring were postponed due to COVID-19. Image via Engelbert.com.
As I said to Jenny, I’ve never really listened to Engelbert before, so I decided to look into the singer’s background. If you’re questioning just how popular or important he has been on the pop music industry, consider this: his 1967 version of “Release Me” was a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic and reached #1 in the Britain, keeping a peculiar double A-side single from reaching the top of the charts in the UK. You may have heard of the single combo, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” by a little known band called The Beatles. Read the Wikipedia page, it is 60 years of amazing.
In 50 years my musical claim to fame will be having played a friend’s wedding with Jenny and my friend Stu. Stu and I had matching purple ties, and spent our time fumbling around some jazz standards while Jenny did her best to make us sound good.
Me (centre) and my long-time friend and band mate Stu McColl (left) look a bit confused as we play alongside Jenny at the wedding of my friends Mike and Allison in the summer of 2007. Photo likely taken by my mom.
In this episode you’ll also hear the third installment of the Curious Quarantine Club! My friend Michelle (also a friend from high school) shares news that she’s welcomed her second baby right at the beginning of isolation. What an interesting time for that little baby to be born. I’m wishing all the best to Michelle, and to those other friends who have had babies in the last 8 weeks or who are giving birth soon. I don’t know if having babies really counts as a new hobby during the time of Coronavirus, or if anyone is still picking up new hobbies or not. Either way, I want to hear what you’re doing to get through isolation. What curious things are keeping you interested in learning, being active, or experimenting? If you want to join the Curious Quarantine Club, send a short audio message about something cool to wellthatscoolpod@gmail.com.
My thanks to Jenny Ing for sharing some time with me and telling me about her musical adventures. If you want to see Jenny’s recording of The Carpenters’ “Rainy Days & The Mondays” using the Acapella app, visit my website at benfast.ca/cool. If you’re an Engelbert fan, I hope you get to see him taking the stage around the world someday soon!
Jenny Ing performs a clip of her arrangement of "Rainy Days & Mondays" by The Carpenters. This short video was created using the Acapella app, which allows users to create one-minute clips with up to six video/audio tracks. Jenny was on tour with Engelbert Humperdinck before having to isolate in Los Angeles when COVID-19 swept through Europe. This video was provided by Jenny Ing.
Thanks also to Ron Yamauchi for the theme tune and to Anna Schroeder of Annather Design for the cool podcast logo, check out her work at annatherdesign.com. Other music heard during this episode and all the other podcast stuff is done by me, Ben Fast.
If you want to join my Curious Quarantine Club, send a short audio message about what you’re doing or what you’re curious about in isolation to wellthatscoolpod@gmail.com. While you’re there, suggest something for me to look into for the podcast! You can find the show on Twitter or Facebook. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts!
And one final thing before I go, I want to give a special hello to Martha Harssema who reached out after hearing my last episode where I interviewed my grandma about life in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Martha sent me an email saying she was born in the house my grandma talked about and the one I visited in 2011. Her father was my grandma’s cousin, which makes Martha my first cousin once removed! Thanks for listening and getting in touch, Martha! Who says you can’t meet new people in quarantine!
Until next time, thanks for listening and have fun being curious, staying safe, and washing your hands!
