The Jardines are Cherelle and Ajaye Jardine, a mother daughter act from Richmond BC. The idea of having a new mother daughter group in the current country roots music scene is really exciting. There hasn’t been a mother daughter success story since The Judds and The Jardines plan on making a similar impact.

The Cherelle and Ajaye combination is a delicious mixture of street smarts and innocence. Their life experiences are meshed together, giving the listener an ageless body of work to fall in love with.

Their new self-titled album, co-produced with Kirk Douglas was recorded at the Sound Lounge in Vancouver. The song writing has been compared to writers such as Lucinda Williams and Kathleen Edwards, as well as early Sheryl Crow. The Jardines also included a cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown”. To add to the fun, they put the Jardine stamp on it with an up tempo key change. Lightfoot loves their version.

The cd is dripping with sexy pedal and lap steel, dobro, fiddle, guitars, keys, harmonica and the sweet vocals of Cherelle and Ajaye. It’s a very intimate album, straight from the heart.

The Jardines band is Cherelle and Ajaye, Kirk Douglas-drums, Marc Gladstone-keys, Douglas Liddle-electric guitar, Mike Flunkert-pedal, lap, dobro, Brian Sanheim-bass and Ricky Francisco-fiddle, harmonica.

Cherelle

Cherelle has released 4 cds from 1998 to 2006. Her last release Head Traffic garnered great reviews.....

“Jardine’s voice embraces each melody like angel kisses unfolding a revelation” -  Bryan Baker

“Cherelle has found herself a niche in the ranks of Canada’s pop music scene” -  RPM

“Confident is an iffy world, Cherelle sings like some people pray”  - The Nexus

Head Traffic, her last release, was produced by Ray Roper and recorded in part at the Woodshed, Blue Rodeo’s studio, in Toronto with BR's band members. Head Traffic has a hint of country, which would lead the way for the next project to dip its toes a little further into that genre.

Cherelle grew up with a hunger for music and the arts. Growing up, she performed in school plays and played in the school bands but was much more fascinated by recordings from David Bowie, Heart and Queen than to playing traditional pieces with clarinets and trumpets. At 16, she picked up the guitar and started writing songs. Her family moved out west and when Cherelle was finished school, she headed further west, to beautiful Vancouver, searching out a music scene. It didn't take long for her to start playing around town and making a name for herself.

Jardine was in a few band situations, but found that she preferred to be a solo artist, it was her vision for her songs.

She started recording in the mid 90's, working at a studio in Vancouver for barter recording time. Her 1st full length cd was released in 1995. Cherelle put out a new album every 3-4 years, recording them independently to retain full control over the projects.

In between recording, Cherelle spent many hours on the other side of the music industry. Working as President of Pacific Songwriters' Association, vice President of PAIRA-Pacific Alliance of Independent recording artists, Women in music and Salmon City Music, she dedicated herself to helping other artists. She has been nominated for 3 Ethel Tibbits awards and a Richmond Art award and was given the honour of an award for most inspirational Richmond woman. Cherelle’s pet project is a music series that she produces Musical Expressions. Now in it’s 7th year, ME has showcased performers such as Bob Egan from Blue Rodeo, John Mann from Spirit of the West and summer 2010, introduced the series as a songwriters in the round with guest artists such as Shari Ulrich, Kenny Hess, Mae Moore, Michael Friedman and Megan Metcalfe to name a few.

Cherelle started thinking about heading back into the studio as it had been 3 years since Head Traffic. The first thing she did was talk to her daughter Ajaye to see how she would feel about working on a project with her mom. Ajaye agreed and The Jardines project was born. Cherelle started scouting for studios and producers in town to work with. She found out that an old friend from her first recording project, Kirk Douglas, now had his own studio-Sound Lounge Productions and they reconnected and started recording in August 2009. The project was finished just in time for the Jardines to introduce themselves to an Olympic audience. The Jardines performed at the opening ceremonies at the Ozone in Richmond. On February 12th, they released their self titled cd to the world.

Cherelle was the Richmond spokesperson for the “Do you believe” commercials that CTV produced with Pamela Martin, that were shown nation wide.

Ajaye

Ajaye Jardine was born in Richmond BC and hasn't stopped being creative since the day she was born. She spent her time growing up in a musical home. Her mother Cherelle, a successful singer songwriter, included Ajaye as much as she could in musical situations, ranging from the recording studio, live concerts and countless music nights at home with a talented group of musician friends.

"There were always music parties, where nearly everyone that came over played some kind of instrument or sang" Ajaye recalls.

The group of music friends always encouraged all the kids to get involved, either by playing percussion or singing etc. It was that environment that inspired her to start playing music.

Ajaye studied piano with the Royal Conservatory of Music and played the flute in her high school's concert band. She found her voice and started singing with the school choir. Growing up, not only was she interested in music but also in drama and was involved with both the music and the drama department at McNair Secondary School. Ajaye performed in many concerts and plays and in grade 12, earned one of the lead roles in The Diviners, a play by Jim Leonard. 

Ajaye is developing her songwriting skills and is quickly following in Cherelle's footsteps as a singer songwriter. Not only does Ajaye play piano and flute, she also plays acoustic guitar and mandolin.

Aside from her music career, she is currently studying theatre in her second year as a transfer student from UVIC. She is building her body of creative work by appearing in various film and music video projects and now has her 1st cd on her list of accomplishments. Throughout the recording of The Jardines' album, Ajaye assisted as an engineer and also as co producer. She wrote all the vocal harmonies on the project, helped instruct the choir that sang on 2 of the songs plus helped to shape the direction of the 11 song cd. She had creative input every step of the way. Ajaye is currently recording songs for her solo EP, to be released summer 2011.

Press

"The Jardines album is the first thing I would grab for driving through the Rocky Mountains with the top down. But albums like this one can be played anywhere and still evoke the wide open spaces this country so gloriously provides, no matter where your car happens to be stuck. The Jardines, like most bands, are best enjoyed as a live act, but this album is a wonderful crossover into the studio, providing the listener with the energy, talent, and love, to be found in their live show".  - Baron S Cameron

Music

The Jardines (2011)

Video

The Jardines Links