Live jazz in Minneapolis-St. Paul: This week's picks

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.

This is an exceptional weekend for jazz in the Twin Cities. Next week, the great vocalist Kurt Elling comes to town for two nights. Later this month, Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard bring their quintets to Orchestra Hall. Meanwhile, I’m keeping a gimlet eye on a local venue that has presented live jazz regularly but is now “making changes.” You'll know more when I do.

Friday: John Scofield at the Dakota

When asked to name the three greatest living jazz guitarists, most jazz fans will say Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, and John Scofield. Diverse, eclectic, and innovative, Scofield’s music ranges from post-bop to R&B and funk-edged jazz. His resume includes stints and recordings with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, Miles Davis, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, and many more. In January, he toured with Joe Lovano; he brings his own trio to the Dakota for one night only. 

7 and 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, Dakota ($40/$30). 612-332-5299.

D'Amico Cucina: The second-to-last night

When: Friday, June 26, 2009 • Where: D'Amico Cucina, Butler Square

A few years back I took HH to D'Amico Cucina for his birthday. Last Friday's repeat performance was tinged with nostalgia. The fabled Italian restaurant would close the next day, a casualty of changing economic times, the proximity of the new Twins stadium, and various traffic and parking woes.



It's not that the company is failing--D'Amico and Partners owns Cafe and Bar Lurcat, all of the D'Amico & Sons restaurants, Campiello (although the one in Minneapolis has closed, there are others in Eden Prairie and in Naples, Florida for snowbirds), and Masa, the gourmet Mexican restaurant on Nicollet Mall. The closing is "proactive" and it's rumored that Cucina might relocate.

But the original location was special. It was beautiful, comfortable, and the food and service were amazing. It was also, for 22 years, a sophisticated jazz venue on the weekends and a constant gig for many area musicians. Think Bobby Short at the Carlisle in New York City.



The regulars came out on Friday, and many friends. We sat at the bar, where the music was. Adam Linz and Luke Polipnick were at the other end. Jeremy and Marsha Walker showed up. Benny Weinbeck was on piano, Gordy Johnson on bass, JT Bates on drums. The players changed throughout the evening: Adam briefly took over for Gordy, Phil Hey replaced JT, Tommy O'Donnell sat in for Benny. Scott Fultz brought his saxophone, Benny's brother Henry his cornet, and for a time it was a quintet.



From where we were sitting, we could see the musicians, and while they spent most of the evening playing, there were breaks when they stood and talked together, handsome men in suits and ties, class acts in a classy place. We ate ahi tuna and veal in a sauce and perfect seared scallops, lobster gnocchi and tiny green beens, beef tenderloin and chocolate. The place was packed, the bartenders worked at hyperspeed, it was noisy but fun. The music—classics, standards, swinging and sweet, the kind you can turn to and focus on, then turn away from to toast and kiss your husband, yet you're still hearing it and it's shaping your mood and making your wine taste even better—the music went on and on and then it stopped.



Photos by John Whiting. Top to bottom: Benny Weinbeck; Gordy Johnson; Phil, Gordy, Benny, Scott, Henry; Henry Weinbeck.

When a jazz venue closes

Earlier today I was interviewing bassist Adam Linz when he told me that the upscale Italian restaurant D’Amico Cucina was closing. I hadn’t yet seen the StarTribune story or read the company press release. Now I know the reasons: the times, the economy, parking problems, the proximity of the new Twins stadium.

Both the Strib story and the press release talk about the restaurant’s history, reputation, food and wine. Neither mentions that for 22 years D’Amico Cucina was a jazz venue. Not a jazz club, but a place where you could go to hear jazz on the weekends because owner Richard D’Amico liked it.

For 22 years, bassist Gordy Johnson and pianist Benny Weinbeck played there. For 15 years, starting when he was 19, Linz had a regular gig there. So did pianist Tommy O'Donnell.

All those years, all those weekends, all that music. The regular gig. The loss of these things makes me sad.

Whenever HH and I went to NYC, we would make our way to Ruth’s Chris on West 51st, where pianist Rick Germanson had a regular gig in the bar. We would sit at the bar for dinner, the better to hear him play. That ended several months ago.

Last year, Cue restaurant at the Guthrie featured jazz every weekend for several months. It has new owners and no one believes the music will return. The Phil Aaron Trio (with Tom Lewis and Jay Epstein) had a regular gig in the Chez Colette Lounge at the Hotel Sofitel for many years. Saxophonist Irv Williams ("Mr. Smooth") played the Top of the Hilton in St. Paul from 1968–74. Where are the regular gigs these days? Will anyone ever play anywhere again for 5 or 10 or 20 years?

Upscale restaurants are great places for live jazz. Piano jazz, or piano-bass jazz, or even piano-bass-drums jazz (as long as the drums aren’t too crashy) makes fine food taste better. It adds excitement to the air. It’s sensuous and unpredictable. It makes you want to start off with a dry martini, then order a bottle of wine, then work your way down the menu, simply because everything goes so well together. Piano and steak. Piano and lobster. Piano and bass and gnocchi and chocolate truffle cake. You enjoy your cocktail and smile at your dinner partner and converse in lower-than-usual tones and laugh, and once in a while you look over at the musician or musicians, men in suits and (less frequently) women who have taken time with their hair and makeup, and one is seated at a grand piano and one is embracing a double bass and it’s all good. Maybe they take requests and maybe they don’t, but chances are they play something you know, and on the way out you leave a tip in the jar on the piano.

Lose the live music and you lose more than the music. You lose the sophistication, the energy, the elegance, and the surprise that live performance adds to the ambience and the air itself. Pipe music in and it's like buying your food from a vending machine.

Everyone at D’Amico, including staff and musicians, got the news about the closing yesterday or today. Linz called it “a great ride…really one of the best gigs I’ve ever been fortunate to play.” Weinbeck called it “awesome.” Johnson is in NYC this week playing at Birdland with Stacey Kent. I hope he knows…I hope he doesn’t.

D'Amico closes its doors for good on June 27. There will be many opportunities between today (June 4) and then to hear Linz and Weinbeck and Johnson. Check the live jazz calendar at the top of the blog.

Benny Weinbeck and Gordy Johnson

When: Thursday, July 3, 2008 • Where: D'Amico Cucina • Who: Benny Weinbeck, piano; Gordy Johnson, bass

It's one of the best-kept secrets in Twin Cities jazz: Every Saturday (and often every Friday as well), Weinbeck and Johnson perform in the tasteful and elegant bar of the very gourmet Italian restaurant in Butler Square. (We were there on the Thursday before the Fourth of July because owner Richard D'Amico was coming in and wanted live music.)

Johnson says it's been his regular gig for--12? 13?--years. I've known about it but haven't gone because the restaurant is notorious for being pricey. (I had first-hand experience of that several years back when I took HH there for his birthday with a few friends. Great food, wonderful time, but yikes, the bill.) What I didn't realize until recently is you can book a table or club chairs in the bar and eat there--or not eat and just enjoy the music with a cocktail and an appetizer or two.

If you sit at the bar, your chin is nearly on the bar because the soft leather chairs are luxe and low. Which simply means the lobster gnocchi doesn't have to travel as far to reach your mouth. I admit--we dined, making our way down the menu and sharing. The bartender treated us well. The music was perfect. And the bill wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Maybe D'Amico isn't that expensive after all, or maybe other Twin Cities restaurants have caught up.

I had the gnocchi ten years ago and have thought about it often since. It's still the amazing dish I remember: light, silky little pillows, not the usual gluey blobs. Fabulous.

Photo of Johnson and Weinbeck outside Butler Square from Weinbeck's website. Next time we go, we'll take pictures if they don't mind.