The making of a radio show, part 3: In the studio with Debbie Duncan

More in this series: Part 1 (Nancy Harms), Part 2 (Maud Hixson)

Arne Fogel and Debbie Duncan listen hard

Although it’s late November, it might as well be spring. As we arrive at Wild Sound recording studio in northeast Minneapolis, Debbie Duncan is singing the Oscar-winning Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “It Might As Well Be Spring” with so much warmth that she could melt the snow on the ground.

We’re here at another recording session for Arne Fogel’s new series for public radio station KBEM, where he hosts The Bing Shift each Saturday at 7 pm. Fogel has a long history with radio. For 12 years, he produced and hosted a series of Arne Fogel Presents programs for MPR, followed by programs for KLBB and (with co-host Connie Evingson) Singers and Standards for KBEM from 2002–2005.

Fogel’s latest, Minnesota Voices: Certain Standards will air later this year for 13 weeks, 5 days/week. Five singers—Nancy Harms, Maud Hixson, Debbie Duncan, Connie Evingson, and Fogel—are each recording 13 songs from the Great American Songbook. The show will include 65 classic songs and the stories behind them.

Debbie’s voice breaks on an interval near the end of “Spring,” so she sings the phrase over twice, then takes a completely different approach. If something doesn’t work for her, she has a hundred more choices in her pocket. She also knows what she wants from pianist Tanner Taylor. When she hears a chord she doesn’t like, she asks for a do-over, Arne concurs, and Wild Sound's Matthew Zimmerman punches it in.

The making of a radio show, part 2: In the studio with Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson

More in this series: Part 1 (Nancy Harms), Part 3 (Debbie Duncan)

Clockwise from top: Arne Fogel, Maud Hixson, Rick Carlson, hamming it up

Maud Hixson is not happy with her latest take of “Laura.” She makes that abundantly clear with words never heard in a Johnny Mercer song.

It’s one of several funny moments during this afternoon’s session at Wild Sound studio. Recording is hard work but there’s an easy, relaxed feel to this group: vocalist Hixson and her husband, Rick Carlson, on piano, Wild Sound’s Matthew Zimmerman at the board, singer/radio show host Arne Fogel calling the shots.

The making of a radio show, part 1: In the studio with Nancy Harms and Tanner Taylor

More in this series: Part 2 (Maud Hixson), Part 3 (Debbie Duncan)

Nancy Harms and Tanner Taylor

Singer and radio host Arne Fogel is creating a new series for public radio station KBEM called (working title) Minnesota Voices: Certain Standards. Tentatively scheduled for spring 2011, it will run for 13 weeks, 5 days/week.

Listeners will hear songs from the Great American Songbook sung by Twin Cities vocalists Debbie Duncan, Connie Evingson, Nancy Harms, Maud Hixson, and Fogel himself, plus Fogel's stories about the songs.

It's an ambitious project that should add much to our understanding of these songs and their importance. Each singer is recording 13 songs; each weekday will feature a different singer.

Jazz concert review: "Blue" makes Capri crowds happy

When: Saturday, Oct. 9, and Sunday, Oct. 10 • Where: Capri Theater • Who: Katie Gearty, Nancy Harms, and Rachel Holder, vocals; Phil Aaron (piano),  Graydon Peterson (bass), Jay Epstein (drums); directed by Arne Fogel

Build a jazz concert on the topic of blue—color, mood, feeling—and audiences will come. Reprising a program originally conceived for the Twin Cities Jazz Society and performed in April of this year, Blue: Songs on the Indigo Side so impressed Capri Theater director Karl Reichert that he brought it back to launch the theater's annual Legends series. Both the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon shows drew large and enthusiastic crowds. HH and I were there on Sunday.

After a relaxed and swinging opener by the trio (Miles Davis's "Nardis," renamed "Blue Nardis" for the show), the three featured vocalists—Katie Gearty, Nancy Harms, and Rachel Holder—joined in singing Miles Davis's "All Blues," with lyrics by Oscar Brown Junior. The three different voices blended beautifully in a song that also ended the program, a pair of blue bookends.

In between, with the exception of "Blue Moon" and a medley, all of the songs were solo performances. Highlights:

• Nancy's "Mood Indigo," arranged by pianist Bryan Nichols in 11/4 (if I remember correctly), a slyer, sexier version of Ellington's original 4/4 rhythm and one that leaves me a bit breathless. She performed an earlier version, even more mathy, at an Artists' Quarter show in August. Hearing Nancy sing almost any song makes you want to listen very closely, as if it's brand-new. Her sense of timing is such that each beat seems like a limitless expanse. Sometimes she sings the actual notes of a melody, sometimes she sings her own notes, but the melody is still present. Yet her singing never seems showy, artificial, or forced. You hear her and think, "Of course—that's how a particular song should have been sung all along." Except nobody else could sing it that way.  Visit her website and check out "Blackbird."

• Rachel's take on Toots Thieleman's lilting "Bluesette," with updated "girl power" lyrics by Rhiannon.

• Nancy's "Blue Monk," for which she sang her own newly-written lyrics ("Spinning around/Dreaming in blue/All the stars are dancing two by two... Thelonious Sphere/Floating in a world of blue/Lovely shades and hues of blue").

• Katie's "Blues on a Holiday," with lyrics by Susan Tedeschi. I've heard Katie sing before, but in small bits--a song here and there, or as one of Bruce Henry's group of singers. I like her bluesy attitude, the way she forms words and sings them with conviction, and the rich, resonant quality of her voice. I'll have to watch for her and catch her again soon, perhaps with Vital Organ.

• "Blue Moon," sung by all three with "mystery voice" Arne Fogel in the background. After a straight-ahead start, they swung into the Marcels' doo-wop version (bomp-bomp-ba-domp-a-dang-a-dang-dang). A fun, lighthearted moment in the program.

The last part was a medley and I'm not a fan of medleys. Actually, I resent them. You're just getting into a song (in this case, "Blue Bayou" or "Blueberry Hill") when it's yanked away, replaced by another, and the transition is rarely very interesting.

Throughout the show, I thought there was a bit too much talking. I appreciate it when vocalists (and instrumentalists) tell us what they're about to perform, and maybe something about a particular tune--the composer, the context, the significance. Fogel is a music historian and he's known for doing that in his live performances and on his radio shows. (You can hear his current program "The Bing Shift" every Saturday from 7–8pm on KBEM.) I don't want to discourage anyone from providing some background, but sometimes less is more and not everything needs an introduction.

"New York Nancy": Arne Fogel writes about Nancy Harms

Singer Nancy Harms made her New York debut in June at the Bar Next Door in the West Village. Her friend/mentor/booking agent Arne Fogel was there. These are his thoughts on Nancy, that performance, and her future. She's moving to New York in September. Read an interview with Nancy here.  bb

Nancy Harms

I remember the meeting, but only vaguely: the monthly Sunday-afternoon meeting of the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota group, which consisted largely of relatively new and aspiring jazz-oriented vocalists, as well as a few veteran singers. As usual, we gathered at the now-lamented Times Bar and Restaurant, and as the participants took their seats, I noticed a new presence: rather serious in countenance and demeanor, unpretentious, yet with a stateliness about her that was unmistakable.

She didn’t talk much. To the best of my recollection, she & I did not speak to each other at all that day, but I took note of her, and her name, “Nancy Harms,” because “Harms” is the name of one of American music’s oldest and most venerated New York publishing firms. I remember wondering if she was perhaps related to that family, and wondering what she sang like.

It was late 2006.

Of course, there’s no way I could have known that nearly four years later I would be facing the difficult task of saying goodbye to this same young woman (no relation to the publishing family, as it turns out), now one of my dearest friends and closest associates, as she embarks upon what will prove to be the greatest adventure of her professional and personal life: Goodbye Twin Cities, hello New York….

Cut to June 21st, 2010, at the lovely and intimate Bar Next Door on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, NYC.  I’m watching and listening as Nancy serenades the sell-out room, with classy accompaniment by former Minnesotan Michael O’Brien on bass, along with NY guitar legend Paul Bollenback.

I joyfully take note of the audience’s warm response to this trio, and once again study the Harms modus operandi, with which I’ve become so familiar: First of all, it’s a highly original physical presence; a kinetic consisting of bends, kicks, and the unorthodox movement of hands and arms, all of which are in service of the music and telling the story. The beautiful face is animated, but not overly so. There is mystery there, with abundant smiles and good humor, but the occasional flash of something untold; a sudden downward tightening of the mouth and far-away focus of the eyes…. She seems to draw upon a passing sense-memory to more effectively convey the feeling of the lyric. Often, it’s a sense of hurt, or the pain of long ago; artfully intermingling with the good humor and inviting warmth of Nancy’s overall persona.

And the kid has a way with a song! -- a few pop flourishes here & there (she did grow up in the 80s and 90s, after all), but somehow, she discovered jazz in college, or rather, jazz discovered her, and now she lives it: One doesn’t just suddenly “do” jazz just because it’s the cool thing to do. You are born with the ability to sing, to hear pitch, and to effect the microtonal slurs and blue nuances needed to inform the idiom in whichever form of the jazz vocal art you choose to follow. And--importantly--you either breathe swing or you don’t. Once again, one has to be born with this ability. You can’t effectively teach it to someone who doesn’t have it in the bones.

When I first heard Nancy sing, a month or so after that first encounter at the Times, I was most pleased to hear that she had arrived with the tools: She was pretty green, but she was distinctly in tune, and she had the beat. She swung. Also, I noticed that she seemed to have a natural affinity for the inner drama of what she was purporting to sing about. Virtually everything else can be taught, and I was reminded of the fact last month, watching her in that NYC club, that she has revealed the most skyrocketing learning curve of any musician I’ve ever known in my life.

I predict that Nancy will do extremely well in New York, or wherever she chooses to ply her trade in the future. She is one of those rare individuals who possesses a totally distinctive quality, and without any fuss or bother on her part, she simply stands out just as much amongst the NYC populace as she does here at home.

This was made apparent to me during my conversations with people in New York, as well as during my own observations of Nancy and the way she handled herself during the days I spent with her there, leading up to and including that NY performance.  She graces the scene like a veteran. She sees and conquers, with a smile (and that outrageous laugh of hers!) that belies her intensity of focus and her levelheaded self-confidence.

Arne Fogel

Nancy is also savvy enough to realize that this is not going to be easy. But she has a place to stay, and is determined to get that “day job,” the make-or-break elements so important to the leavening of ambitious daydreams into some usable form of practical reality. Beyond that, it’s the adventure of the unknown.

It’s important to note that Harms is not relocating exclusively for the advancement of her career: She fell in love with the pace of the city, the endless variety of the scene, and the highly-attuned sense of artistic camaraderie that, thus far, she has found in abundance in the jazz connections she’s made there.

In short: She loves the place. To the best of my powers of observation, there are already a number of NYC folks for whom the feeling is mutual, and I predict that this number will continue to grow during whatever period of time Nancy chooses to stay there. Many folks here will miss her, but all will wish her well. It’s a wise individual who recognizes and seizes the moment. Nancy is one of the wisest people I know. This is her moment.

Photo of Nancy Harms by Lisa Venticinque. Photo of Arne Fogel by Travis Anderson.

Jane Donahue, friend of jazz

I last saw Jane Donahue at the Dakota sometime in November. I can't remember the occasion; was it Evan Christopher's performance with Henry Butler? It could have been almost anyone or anything. Jane's tastes in jazz were broad and varied, and she was as likely to show up at the Dakota as the AQ or a JazzMN Big Band concert. We knew each other as jazz fans only, and would always stop and speak about the person or band we were seeing that night, or someone else we had seen recently and enjoyed. She was a kind and gentle soul, one of those people who come out to support live music over the years but don't call much attention to themselves and one day you realize--wow, that lady has known a lot of jazz in her time, and spent a lot of hours in booths and on chairs and bar stools, and paid a lot of covers.

When I saw her at the Dakota, she was wearing a sterling silver Kokopelli pin. Acting on impulse, given that we knew each other only casually, I said, "I have some Kokopelli pins in my jewelry box. I rarely wear pins. May I send them to you?" She was surprised but said yes. I sent them off a few days later and immediately received a warm and gracious thank-you note saying I had put a smile on her face. The point of this story is not my own wonderfulness; it's the randomness of life, the dearness of each moment, perhaps the importance of acting on impulses (the good ones). More and more, I'm discovering the power of the gift that has no strings.

Jane died on Friday, December 18, following a car accident on December 2. I heard she had a tough time--a broken neck and/or back, a heart attack while in the hospital, a respirator, dialysis. Family members who visited her reported that she seemed to be recovering and her sense of humor was intact. Her obituary in the StarTribune reads, in part:

The Twin Cities jazz scene is mourning the loss of one its most passionate participants. Not a singer, musician or composer.

A retired nurse, Jane Donahue.

A significant behind-the-scenes contributor to the genre for nearly three decades, Donahue died Friday from injuries suffered in a single-car traffic accident 16 days earlier in Lake Elmo. She was 77.

Donahue, of Roseville, helped promote jazz in the metro area in any way she could, whether it was recruiting members to the Twin Cities Jazz Society, editing the society's Jazz Notes monthly newsletter or compiling the jazz scene's most comprehensive metro area performance calendar.

"Jane was there at the start [of the Jazz Society] 30 years ago," said Lee Engele, a jazz singer and the current society president. "She was part of that group that really got it going. ... She was so exuberant about it, [but] calm and quiet and humble in her way."

Engele said that when she arranged to honor Donahue in February at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis for her tireless contributions, Donahue "just kept her head down, she didn't want to come up on the stage ... she didn't want to talk. It was so cute."

Arne Fogel, a society board member, jazz singer and regular host on KBEM (FM 88.5), the metro area's radio home for jazz, said of Donahue: "You might be excused if you saw her as a quiet suburban lady who didn't get enthused about much of anything, until you talked to her."

Photo from the Hudson Star-Observer (Jane was born and raised in Hudson).

Arne Fogel

When: 4/9/08
Where: The Times
Who: Arne Fogel (vocals), Tanner Taylor (piano), Keith Boyles (bass), Jendeen Forberg (drums)

Singer Arne Fogel is the topic of this week's MinnPost jazz column. We go to see him at the Times on Wednesday night and meet practically his whole family, including his 91-year-old father and his daughter, Rebecca, who are all seated near the stage. Between verses of songs he is singing, while the band is doing its thing, Fogel often bounds off the stage and runs over to say something to his family. During "Ring-a-Ding-Ding," he brings his daughter up to sing with him.

We hear two wonderful sets and several classic songs: "Old Man River," "Here's to the Losers," "Do I," "The Tender Trap," "Take My Sugar to Tea," "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone." Fogel is as fun to watch as he is to hear. His performance is loaded with personality, energy, and grand gestures. Taylor, whom we most often hear backing singer Christine Rosholt or fronting his own trio, plays big stridy chords. Forberg wears a tank shirt printed with "Pink Is the New Black" in metallic ink.

Fogel mentors young singers, and lately it's Nancy Harms, who's in the house and takes a solo turn on stage with "It's Almost Like Being in Love" from Brigadoon. Perhaps in a musicals mood, Taylor tosses in a little "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from Oklahoma. I like Nancy's voice and her broad, open vowels, and her red hat.



Fogel talks a bit about his latest CD, Transistor, a reissue of recordings he made in his 20s with a rock band called Batch. The word "transistor" recalls my phone interview with him earlier this week. What I thought would take maybe ten minutes turned into nearly two hours of conversation. We discovered something we had in common as kids with enforced early bedtimes: We both tucked transistor radios under our pillows and listened into the night through earbuds the size and shape (and hardness) of little acorns.

Fogel has made a career of radio as well as singing (and advertising, and other things). He reflected on this during the interview:

I've always been the vaudeville guy spinning plates. Get one going, tend to another one. I find myself talking to younger singers an awful lot now—a sign of venerability—and one of the main things I tell them is to stay focused. I spent so much time trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up that I grew up before I figured it out.

Photos by John Whiting.

MinnPost: Jazzy Holiday Treats

What to give the jazz-loving friend, or the friend who might grow to like jazz with a little encouragement? For this week's MinnPost piece, I asked local jazz artists to recommend CDs by other local jazz artists. A dozen responded within 24 hours.

To fit everyone's recommendations into an article that was supposed to be around 500 words (and ended up around 800), I had to edit down what people wrote. Here are a few comments I would have liked to include in their entirety:

Singer and KBEM radio personality Arne Fogel on Maud Hixson's Love's Refrain and the Wolverines' Voracious: Live at the Times: "Both of these CDs sport a great deal of musical integrity. These discs feature people who know what they're doing and they just nail it, with no pretense. I admire that, and I enjoy hearing that sort of musical declaration."

Trombonist Dave Graf on the Hornheads' Fat Lip: "For someone who would dig some fun and funky a capella horn work, the Hornheads is probably the slickest horn section on the planet. Their 2004 release Fat Lip is an incredible display of chops and finesse, imbued with a wicked sense of humor. Michael B. Nelson's inventive writing, and the group's astonishingly tight execution of it, just makes you gape in wonderment. And lest you think it's accomplished by some sort of studio magic, they sound just as amazing live."

Bassist Gordy Johnson on Maud Hixson's Love's Refrain (a CD a lot of people like): "Wow, at first I thought of just ignoring this, or bowing out. It's a tricky question. Then I remembered driving home from a gig and hearing a track from Maud Hixson's new disc Love's Refrain, featuring just her with Rick Carlson at the piano. I would give that disc to anyone and everyone. I got goose bumps as I was listening on the way home that night. Everything about it is so absolutely right on, it's amazing! The piano is perfect and beautifully recorded. The piano playing is classic Rick Carlson: Swinging and casual, understated and perfect. Maud sounds relaxed and has such command of her art. Her intonation and phrasing are immaculate. It's in the groove and polished, totally first class."