Christine Rosholt

When: 3/24/08
Where: Dakota
Who: Christine Rosholt (vocals), Dave Karr (saxophone and flute), Vinnie Rose (guitar), Tanner Taylor (piano), Graydon Peterson (bass), Jay Epstein (drums)

Christine has become a regular at the Dakota, I'm happy to say, and she always draws a good crowd. Tonight she premieres several new songs: Jobim's "Waters of March," Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," "Something Cool" by Billy Barnes. We also hear old favorites: "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Blues in the Night," "Savoy."

"Waters of March" is a mouthful with challenging, nonsensical lyrics ("A stick, a stone/It's the end of the road/It's the rest of a stump/It's a little alone.... The plan of the house/The body in bed/And the car that got stuck/It's the mud, it's the mud"). Say what? The only singer I've heard pull it off in live performance without a hitch is Jane Monheit. I credit Christine with taking it on.

Her band, as always, is wonderful. I like the addition of guitarist Rose, a college friend of bassist Peterson. Read what Andrea Canter says about Christine's band.



Photos by John Whiting.

Singers

Christine Rosholt, pictured here with her regular bassist Graydon Peterson, performs at the Dakota on Monday. She's one of the artists featured in my MinnPost column this week, which didn't start out to be all about singers but turned out that way.

Bruce Henry called from Chicago and we talked briefly about the Tuesday Night Band, the group he'll perform with on Tuesday (duh) at the AQ. He hasn't sung with them before and wanted to know what to expect.

"Are they jazz? Soul? R and B?" Bruce asked.

"Funky jazz soul, I guess," I told him. "I haven't heard them except on Don Berryman's YouTube videos."

"Whatever they play is fine," he replied. "I know a million songs, and whatever they want, I can do."

So it's going to be new for everyone including the artists. Can't wait.

Christine Rosholt

When: 1/31/08
Where: The Dakota
Who: Christine Rosholt (vocals), Dave Karr (saxophone and flute), Tanner Taylor (piano), Graydon Peterson (bass), Jay Epstein (drums)

Christine recorded her next CD over two nights at the Dakota. We were there for the second night, and so were many of Christine's friends and family members, and a table full of people celebrating the birthday of someone named Ginger.

Did Ginger et al. realize a live CD was being recorded? Did they care? Might someone have announced this from the stage at the start and respectfully requested the whole audience hold it down a bit under the circumstances? Might a manager have gone to the table to politely suggest they modulate their voices or at least not shriek with laughter and hiccup loudly?

(deep breath)

Christine sang beautifully, and her band was right there with her. I liked their Latin arrangement of "If I Were a Bell," and their speedy (maybe a little too speedy?) "Surrey with the Fringe on Top," and the lovely "Estate" (where Christine's voice became lower, more resonant and emotional), and the Harold Arlen tunes; someday I hope she will do an all-Arlen CD, because it's clear she loves his music and it's a good fit for her voice. Dave Karr's flute on the "Tea for Two" cha-cha was charming. I enjoyed "Alone Together" arranged for bass, drums, and voice, "One More for the Road" for piano and voice, and their fresh take on "Summertime," one of the world's most recorded songs. Christine looked happy and relaxed. I look forward to the CD.

Read a brief interview with Christine on MinnPost.

Photo of Christine Rosholt and Graydon Peterson by John Whiting.

Christine Rosholt to record CD at the Dakota

One of the perks of living in the same town for a while is finding artists you enjoy and following them around. I'm not sure when I heard Christine Rosholtfor the first time, but it was probably soon after her local debut as a vocalist at La Bodega in October 2002.

Since then, I've seen her several times. In an especially memorable show in February 2005 at Macalester College, she sang jazz arrangements of works by Shakespeare while wearing a ruff.
Her theater background (she spent two years with the Children's Theatre Company and has performed at the Loring Playhouse and with Theatre de la Jeune Lune) serves her well; she's confident on stage, knows how to move and has impeccable diction. Through the years, her beautiful voice has become warmer and richer. She can do sensuous and sassy, and she can swing. Hear her sing here.

Rosholt (pronounced "ross-holt") released a demo CD of four songs in 2003 and her first full-length CD, "Detour Ahead," in 2006; the latter earned a Minnesota Music Awards nomination for Jazz Recording of the Year. On Jan. 30 and 31, she will record a new CD at the Dakota Jazz Club.

Perhaps the hardest-working jazz vocalist in the Twin Cities, with many gigs each month in all kinds of venues, Rosholt knows how to pick band members. Her Dakota recording will feature her regular trio of Tanner Taylor on piano, Graydon Peterson on bass, and Jay Epstein on drums, plus recent McKnight Artist Fellowship Award winner and beloved Twin Cities saxophonist/flutist/clarinetist Dave Karr.

I spoke with Rosholt Wednesday about what to expect at next week's recording sessions.

MinnPost: What songs will you perform and record?
Christine Rosholt: We'll do a mix of lesser-known and more common tunes. "Cheek to Cheek," "If I Were a Bell," "Down with Love," "Tea for Two." "Estate" by Bruno Martino, with lyrics by Susannah McCorkle. Bob Dorough's "Devil May Care." He wrote the "Schoolhouse Rock" music. The CD will have 16 songs, most from the 1930s and '40s.

MP: How did you choose the songs?
CR: It's hard because there are so many good ones, so I just try to mix it up — upbeat songs, some with a Latin feel, one or two in waltz time. Fun songs and serious ones, sexy songs, ballads. Not too many in the same key. I asked the band to tell me their favorites and took that into consideration.

MP: So in a time when everyone is buying singles from iTunes, you're still treating this as an album?
CR: Yes, it will be something you can listen to all the way through.

MP: Who does your arranging?
CR: All of us. I've been playing with these guys for years — Jay since the beginning, Graydon since our first gig together at Nochee's [now Harry's] on New Year's Eve 2004, Tanner since about 2003, Dave for about two years. Our ways of doing the songs have just evolved.

MP: After two nights in the club, will you follow up with studio work?
CR: I hope we won't have to. Steve Wiese from Creation Audio is our recording engineer, and he's so good I hope it can all be live. I don't really like going into the studio. You're alone in a little room and it's so cold. I hate the term "people person" but I guess that's what I am. I prefer an audience.

MP: Are you still happy with your previous CD, "Detour Ahead"?
CR: Yes and no. It was arduous for me, and I tweaked it too much. Also, I sing a lot of those songs lower now, so sometimes when I hear it, it sounds weird. But the other night I was driving home from a gig in Wisconsin and listening to Maryann's show ["The Jazz Connection with Maryann Sullivan" on Minnesota Public Radio] and she played "Early Autumn" and I thought, "Oh my god, that's pretty good."

MP: When you're not performing, what local singers do you like to hear live?
CR: Carole Martin. I love Lucia [Newell]. And Connie [Evingson]. I'm excited for her new CD with Dave Frishberg. ... We have such a good scene here. I was in Chicago recently, and there wasn't a lot going on.

What: Christine Rosholt: Live CD Recording
Where: The Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 30 and 31
How much: $5
Phone: 612-332-1010
Website

Upcoming Picks

Chris Bates et al: Bassist Bates is another artist I follow around. He emailed this tantalizing description for an upcoming show at the 331 Club: "Improvised music from me, Wendy Ultan, Anthony Poretti and Stefan Kac plus 2 other bands." (This is the club that will host the First Annual Drunken Spelling Bee on Feb. 2. Sounds like a fun place.) 331 Club, 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25 ($3).

Jon Weber: A perennial favorite at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival (formerly the Hot Summer Jazz Festival), pianist Weber is inventive, sublimely entertaining, incredibly knowledgeable and very tall. The Artists' Quarter, 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27 ($10).

Hugh Masekela and the Chissa All-Stars: The South African superstar is much more than "Grazing in the Grass." Expect a spicy stew of jazz, funk, and Afro-beat. He's bringing singers. The Dakota, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29 ($50 and $35).

Originally published on MinnPost.com on January 25, 2008

Photo by Ann Marsden

MinnPost: Christine Rosholt CD Recording Preview

I like Christine Rosholt personally and as a singer. We were trying to remember when we first met; she thinks it was when she was walking behind John and me in the skyway to Orchestra Hall for some event and she overheard us talking about Kurt Elling.

It was fun to interview her for this week's MinnPost article, a preview of her upcoming live CD recording at the Dakota. I learned a little of what she had done before she became a jazz vocalist:

"My degree is in performance art and photography [from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago].... I used to combine photography and theater in performance pieces, multimedia with photography projections; I did shows in New York, tons of show in Chicago, and a lot of independent hole-in-the-wall theaters.... I've done a lot of crazy ass performance art, and I'm so glad I got that out of my system."

Photo: Christine and bassist Tom Lewis at the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota CD Release Party, the Artists' Quarter, July 15, 2007

Christine Rosholt at Rossi's: CD release concert review

Until recently, fans of Twin Cities singer Christine Rosholt who needed a fix between live shows had to content themselves with a four-song demo CD. Recorded in 2003, featuring Jay Epstein on drums, Michael Gold on base, and David Roos on guitar, it’s delightful but leaves one wanting more. With the release of Detour Ahead, her first full-length CD, we can settle in for 13 classic tracks—some instantly familiar, some less so, each delivered with a dusting of sugar.

Drummer Jay Epstein returns, but the rest of the band is new: Michael O’Brien on bass, Tanner Taylor on piano, Robert Everest on guitars and voice, Steve Roehm on vibes. All five are on hand (O’Brien having flown in from his new home in New York) for the official Detour Ahead CD release on Friday, February 3, at Rossi’s Blue Star Jazzroom, arguably the area’s noisiest jazz club.

Christine looks adorable in the fur-trimmed black dress and black hat she wore for the Detour Ahead cover shoot. Before the show begins, she walks the room, greeting family and friends. Her husband, Brooks Peterson, beams from beneath his signature pork-pie hat. Three “CD girls”—friends of Christine’s wearing pink and magenta wigs and little black dresses—go from table to table selling copies of the new CD. (It turns out they sell a lot.) Following a hasty introduction by someone who can’t pronounce the headliner’s name (it’s “ross-holt,” not “rosh-holt”), Christine joins her band onstage.

In a concert preview published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Tom Surowicz called Christine “the hardest-working, most bubbly new jazz singer in town.” She’s approachable, she’s warm, and she has no diva airs. When she meets you, she remembers your name. If you show up to see her perform, she’s thrilled. She’ll put you on her email list, if you want, and keep you informed of her upcoming gigs, of which there are usually several—at places like Nochee and the French Press, the Wabasha Caves (with Beasley’s Big Band), the Times, the Dakota, Bar Lurcat, Norton’s Restaurant in Bay City, and the Twisted Grill in Hudson. Like many jazz artists, she does benefits, bookstore openings, happy hours, and private parties. Some of the Twin Cities’ most popular and respected musicians play in her bands: Dave Karr, Chris Lomheim, Clay Moore, Reuben Ristrom, Gary Raynor, Pooch Heine. Even other singers say nice things about her. This is Minnesota, where high-road behavior is the norm, but still, singers who have been around a lot longer than Christine admire her drive, energy, and talent.

The show opens with a trio (Epstein, O’Brien, Taylor) and the first cut from the new CD, “East of the Sun (And West of the Moon”). It’s lilting, lovely, and in other clubs the crowd would have shut the heck up to listen. The second song, Ellington’s “Just Squeeze Me,” is not on the CD, hinting that tonight is also about repertoire. From there, Christine leads her band through a speedy “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” from Oklahoma, revealing another of her strengths: crisp, clean articulation. Those of us who saw her in “Take All My Loves: Christine Rosholt Presents an Evening of Shakespeare” at Macalester’s Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center a year ago already know that about her. Singing jazz arrangements of Shakespeare songs was a tongue-twisting, brain-bending challenge, and she pulled it off—wearing a ruff.

The fourth song revisits the CD: Harold Arlen’s “Out of This World.” Christine is singing music she loves, and it shows. She’s relaxed and chatty. Steve Roehm comes onstage, Christine exits for a short break, and the quartet plays Chick Corea’s “Sea Journey.” When she returns, it’s for Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek,” and we’re in heaven. The pensive Ellington-Strayhorn “Daydream” follows. The live performance features Roehm, as does the recorded version; both times, voice and vibes blend beautifully. Christine reminds us that everyone heard on the CD is appearing with her tonight. A live show is always different from a recording, but it’s nice to know we can bring home the same people and essentially the same sound we’re hearing now.

Off goes Roehm and on comes Robert Everest, making his first appearance of the evening. It’s also his first live-in-front-of-a-crowd performance with Christine. Matthew Zimmerman of Wild Sound Studio, where Detour Ahead was recorded, suggested Everest to Christine, and it’s a perfect pairing. Singer, songwriter, guitar player, and world traveler, he joins Christine for Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade (No More Blues).” Her voice grows silkier to match his—the soft, convincing caress of the Brazilian style—and the elegant sound of his guitar, which somehow manages to penetrate the Rossi’s din. She sings in English, he in Portuguese. We make a note to hear more of Everest in the future: at Maria’s Café on east Franklin, where he regularly performs for Sunday brunch, or perhaps at Barbette or Lurcat

O’Brien opens “Besame Mucho” with a bowed bass solo, and couples rise from their tables and move to the small dance floor while Christine sings. Afterward, she leaves the stage to Everest, who leads O’Brien and Epstein on another Brazilian journey. Christine and Roehm return for Jobim’s “Wave,” and the blend of vibes, nylon strings, bass, and drums is delicious. Following another instrumental, this one without Everest, Christine regroups with the original trio of Epstein, O’Brien, and Tanner for “I Cover the Waterfront” by John Green and Edward Heyman, which is heard on the new CD, and “Comes Love” by Lew Brown and Sammy Stept, which is not. They conclude the set with an ebullient “Tea for Two” in cha-cha style.

Our stay at Rossi’s is over. Christine and her band are halfway through theirs; they’re scheduled to perform another two hours (until 1 a.m.), during which (we can only suppose) they’ll treat the crowd to the other half of Detour Ahead—songs including “From This Moment On,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “Bye Bye Blackbird.” This has been an evening of high points and surprises: Everest’s sensuous guitar, O’Brien’s brilliant bass, the freshness of a top-notch band shifting from trio to quartet and back again, a fine selection of songs, and holding it all together, the sweet-voiced, effervescent Christine. It’s a detour we’d gladly take again.

P.S. The only drawback to an otherwise excellent evening was the venue. At Rossi’s Blue Star Jazzroom, live music is an excuse for the crowd to talk even louder. Please, people, can we refrain from shouting “Hey, Pauly, baby!” to a friend across the room when a singer is singing? Can we turn off the televisions at the bar during a show?