I Am YEG Arts: Audrey Ochoa

Audrey Ochoa is a prolific trombonist and composer who brings her signature musicality, and sense of fun and humour to everything she does. Known for her versatility, the classically trained trombonist plays jazz, rock, Latin, ska, punk and more. In this week’s I Am YEG Arts, Audrey shares why she let her inner-control freak loose on her latest album, what she likes best about being a musician in Edmonton, what touring with Hadestown was like and what’s next for her. 

How did you get your start as a musician? When did you realize you wanted to make a career of it? 

My dad’s a trumpet player and my mom’s an accordion player. We were put into piano lessons early and I started playing trombone in Grade 7, and I just never put it down. 

My parents actually discouraged me from music as a career. It was from a loving place, of course, but their take was, ​“If you want to play, play, but you don’t have to dig your heels in and say this is now your career.” As in, do everything and there’s nothing stopping you from doing more than one thing. Which is I think different messaging than I would have gotten from other places. There are other people in my life that are like, ​“No, you gotta pick one and give it your all.” I always had my parents in the back being like, ​“You don’t have to pick. You can do everything.” I never thought of music as a career, but once I started getting paid for it when I was 18, I was like, ​“Well, this is a pretty great way to make money!” I saw it as a part time job and then it just started to take over and it is still taking over my life. 

On my dad’s side, music was a big part of the family identity. He was a horn player, and his uncles were also musicians in the Philippines. Our family was associated with being musicians and there’s a huge identity part of it for me. 

You’ve had the opportunity to work with some great musicians. Can you share some highlights and memorable moments with us? 

I have some top big names that people would recognize. One of the first gigs I did at university was when the Temptations were touring. Once I got called to go play with Dan Ackroyd in Grand Prairie. Bob Newhart, who recently passed away, did a show at a casino, and they needed a band. I did a Joan Rivers show where she had us play two songs. More recently, I played with the Dave Matthews Band in Vancouver, which was pretty wild. I’m sure there’s probably more, but those are the ones that I can think of. 

When I say I play the trombone and people ask, ​“What does that mean?” I can drop one of those names and well, I met them because of music, so that’s cool, right? 

You were in the Hadestown band when the musical premiered at The Citadel and later joined them on tour in 2021. Can you tell us about that experience? 

It was awesome. I had worked at the Citadel multiple times before and this came in as another trombone position for this season. I didn’t understand that it was a Broadway group coming through to workshop something that was going to be really big. 

The run in Edmonton was for three weeks and I was able to stay in contact with the whole creative team. When they opened on Broadway, I thought that it was really good for them, and I was happy to have been a part of that. Then in 2020 I got the message, ​“We’re going to put together a national tour, would you be interested?” Then everything shut down and I was like, ​“Well, that dream’s dead.” Then, they got back to me a year later that the tour was relaunching. 

I toured for a year and by then I was homesick. I have roots in Edmonton: I have a house; a partner and I was able to take a year’s leave from teaching. I did love it, but I didn’t love it more than the life I created in Edmonton. There was something about doing the same thing, the same show every day (and it’s supposed to be that way); whereas as a musician in Edmonton by design you do many different things. I love the variety of things you get to do here. I really missed the variety and my family. 

But touring led to crazy opportunities like playing on the James Corden show. I played at the Kennedy Centre for three weeks and we toured Los Angeles for five weeks. I got to see the world of touring theatre, which is a huge industry. It was really cool to be a part of a different machine. And it was a really nice way to tour, with your own hotel room, you’re always flying, there are union regulations making sure you’re comfortable. And I now know some wonderful musicians from all over.

Tell us about your most recent album, Head of a Mouse (2023).

The title is from my dad’s saying, ​“It’s better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion.” The context of this is when I was at university, I had come home and was like, ​“Papa, I got into the big band. I’m sitting on third trombone.” And he told me, ​“Third trombone is fine but why are you excited to be in the middle? Why aren’t you a leader? Go lead your own projects.” At like 20, I kind of was sad when he told me that. But I understand what he meant, it’s fine to be a part of something but you also have a voice and your own artistic identity, and you should explore that. He died in 2016, and that phrase has always stuck with me, and it was the goal behind this album. I was a control freak about this one. I arranged everything very specifically. I had very specific people in mind. I took kind of harsh artistic control of this one. 

It’s cool because it’s my fourth album and I have learned some things from the previous three. I have stronger relationships with the musicians that I’ve been hiring because I’ve known them for longer. I’m very proud of this one. I’m proud of all of my albums but it’s like when you’re making a cake and trying to perfect the recipe. I really feel good about this cake. 

What role does collaboration play on your albums? How about on Head of a Mouse?

My most recent album [Head of a Mouse] has the least amount of collaboration that I’ve ever done. I was very prescribed in everything that I wanted everybody to do. But the nature of jazz is that it always requires collaboration. For example, I didn’t write out every note that Mike Lent played on the bass because I’m not a bass player. 

Whenever you’re playing jazz or pop or any music that requires another musician, it’s real time collaboration. Even if it’s classical music and you’re playing a quintet piece that has all the parts written out, you still collaborate in real time and follow people’s breathing and match their intonation. That’s maybe the best part about music — in my opinion — because for me I talk really fast and I’m an overthinker but in music you have to have open communication. Playing together is a great way to relate to people. You learn things about people’s personalities when they’re playing that you could never glean just from casual conversation. You learn how daring somebody is, how funny they are, or the risks that they like to take or that they don’t like risks. Especially in jazz because it’s so reactive, I really love getting to know people’s personalities as a player. 

What can people expect when they come to one of your shows? 

Possibly a lot of — maybe even too much — background storytelling on my songs. People come up to me after shows and tell me they love the stories because I explain what a song is about and why I wrote it. As you can tell, I like to give a lot of details — maybe too many personal details. But I want to give context to things and sometimes it’s funny; there is often laughter at my shows. 

Also, you can expect a wide variety of genres. Being a musician in Edmonton, at least for me, means playing in as many different types of groups and different settings as possible. 

Tell us about how you’ve added singing to your repertoire. 

I was working with this one band and a boyfriend and girlfriend were the leaders. She sang and he was the musical director. And then one day before a gig, they broke up. I didn’t know and I show up to the gig, and it was like, ​“OK, well, she’s gone so you have to sing this.” And it wasn’t the end of the world. And I was like, ​“Oh, this is fun. I’m going to start doing it more now because why not?” I guess I didn’t realize because I never listened to lyrics, but that is something that audiences like — or maybe it’s just more variety — but people have responded positively. So, with that feedback, I keep doing it because I enjoy it and it’s fun. 

I did start taking guitar lessons recently and I love it. It’s fun to think about music in a different way because the physicalness of different instruments makes you think about melodies differently. It’s cool to be a beginner again and to change the way you think about things. 

What words of wisdom do you have for artists starting out? 

Advice that I was given was to say yes to everything and figure it out later. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and there’s always a lesson there. So just do it. The exact advice I got was to fake it till you make it and I was like, ​“I can do that.” Just try everything. 

The big one is that at the beginning of your career, you don’t always know what it’s supposed to turn into. For example, I went to the U of A which is a classical school and for a little moment, I was like, ​“I’m going to become an orchestral trombonist. I’m going to learn all my excerpts and I’m going to audition for the next symphony that opens up.” And if that had happened, I wouldn’t have the career I have now. I kind of got thrown into nightclub bands and bar bands and then jazz trios. I went wherever the wind blew and years later sort of looked back and decided what kind of career I wanted retrospectively. But at the beginning of your career, I don’t think you are necessarily the best judge of what your strengths and weaknesses are and that you should be open to whatever. 

What are you currently working on and what’s next for you? 

I’m going to record another album very soon. Over the last couple of years, I have been writing. I’ve compiled enough songs that a couple of months ago I was like, ​“Oh, I think I have time, I have money to do this, so that’s what I’m going to do.” I think I’ll release it probably around January. 

And I’m trying different stuff out, working with different people for fun. It’s a good enough reason. That’s what I’ve decided. 

About Audrey Ochoa 

Audrey Ochoa is one of Edmonton’s most prolific trombone players, playing Jazz, Rock, Pop, Latin, Punk, Ska and whatever other genre will have her. She studied classical trombone at the University of Alberta and has performed professionally across Canada and abroad as a member of multiple ensembles. Audrey has found a home in jazz and contemporary music composing her own tunes, which are often Latin-influenced and definitely convey her sense of humour. Audrey has worked with such jazz legends as Chris Potter, Marcus Miller, Hilario Duran, PJ Perry, Tommy Banks, Lew Tebackin, and Dan Aykroyd and the Temptations.