Live jazz to see in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Christmas weekend and beyond

KBEM's holiday broadcasts are automated, so I won't be on the radio with Ed Jones this Friday (Dec. 24) or next Friday (Dec. 31). We'll be back at 8:30 am on Friday, January 7.

Many clubs and cafes are closed on Christmas Eve and day, including the Artists’ Quarter, Café Maude, Honey, and the Red Stag. The Dakota is closed on Christmas Eve. If you plan to visit a favorite venue, call first.

The Bad Plus by Cameron Wittig

Saturday–Monday, December 25–27: The Bad Plus. It wouldn’t be Christmas in Minnesota without Holidazzle on the mall and The Bad Plus—pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King—at the Dakota. The trio first appeared at the old Dakota in Bandana Square as “The Bad Plus featuring Dave King” in 2000. That was before These Are the Vistas (released on Columbia in 2003) earned raves and caused a ruckus (“The Bad Plus is saving jazz!” “The Bad Plus is killing jazz!” “The Bad Plus is the new direction of jazz!” “The Bad Plus isn’t jazz at all!” yadda yadda). Since then, they have released several more albums, left Columbia, started their own label, and continued to do their own thing, which may not be as shocking as it once seemed but remains as intriguing and musically rewarding as ever. Their latest album, Never Stop (2010), is all originals, no covers, but if we don’t hear their signature takes on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” or “Iron Man,” I will be just a hair disappointed. Three nights, two sets each, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Dakota ($40). Tickets online or call 612-332-JAZZ (5299).

Connie Evingson by Tray Hirez

Sunday, December 26: Connie Evingson’s Holiday Songbook. Hear the songs of the season and learn the stories behind their creation. (For example, Mel Torme and Bob Wells wrote “The Christmas Song in 45 minutes on a blistering hot day in Los Angeles. I did not know that.) One of the Twin Cities’ favorite and most consistently satisfying singers, Evingson has done a series of performances this year in the intimate, inviting Jungle Theater. Her program on Sunday will include popular and lesser-known holiday songs and selections from her award-winning CD, The Secret of Christmas. One day, two performances, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Jungle Theater ($25). Tickets online or call 612-822-7063.

Maud Hixson by Judd Sather

Monday, December 27: Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson at the Loring Pasta Bar. The Loring Pasta Bar is hosting a new series on Mondays called “Musique Mystique dans la Chambre Rouge”—Mystical Music in the Red Room, upstairs from the main Pasta Bar space. Each Monday they’re featuring a different female vocalist from the Twin Cities, and we’re fortunate to have so many. This week it’s the always elegant Maud Hixson, joined by her husband, Rick Carlson, a pianist much in demand by singers for knowing precisely how to be a perfect accompanist. 7 p.m., Loring Pasta Bar, Dinkytown, no cover.

Faye Washington

Wednesday, December 29: Capri Big Band Holiday Concert. Snowed out on December 11, this worthy event was rescheduled. Faye Washington leads the Capri Big Band in its third annual Christmas concert, “Home for the Holidays.” With vocalists Charles “Chako” Andrea and Aja Pridgen. Proceeds support the band’s twice-monthly rehearsals at the Capri. 7 p.m., Capri Theater, 2027 West Broadway, Minneapolis ($10). Tickets online or call 866-811-4111.

Connie Evingson at the Bloomington Jazz Festival

When: Sunday, August 10, 2008 • Where: Bloomington Jazz Festival (Normandale Lake Bandshell) • Who: Connie Evingson, voice; Bryan Nichols, piano; Dave Karr, saxophones, flute, and clarinet; Terry Burns, bass; Jay Epstein, drums

When I previewed this festival for MinnPost, I hoped to attend more than just Connie's set but that's all we could do. It turned out to be a perfect start to the evening: beautiful location, lovely weather, and a fine set from the singer and her band. "Nature Boy," "some Peggy Lee songs ("I Don't Know Enough About You," "Gone Fishin'"), Toots Thieleman's "Bluesette," an arrangement Connie did with Dave Karr blending "I Love Paris in the Springtime" with "It's All Right with Me," selections from her recent CD with Dave Frishberg including "Peel Me a Grape" and "My Attorney Bernie," tunes from her Swedish Hot Club CD, "Comes Love" with Karr on clarinet. Kids were running around and dancing in front of the stage. Some people in the audience were attentive, some not so much. It was Carmen's first jazz festival and she seemed to like it.


Photo of Carmen the wiener dog by Andrea Canter.

Connie Evingson

When: 2/25/08
Where: Dakota
Who: Connie Evingson (vocals), Phil Aaron (piano), Dave Karr (tenor saxophone, flute), Gordy Johnson (bass), Phil Hey (drums)

It’s the CD release party for Connie Evingson’s eighth recording and maybe her strongest, Little Did I Dream. (The “maybe” is because I’m not familiar with her 2000 release, Some Cats Know, which a lot of singers love.) All 14 tracks are by St. Paul native, jazz legend, and wiseacre Dave Frishberg, who plays piano on the CD and is in the house tonight. It’s an open curtain show and looks sold out. Minneapolis and St. Paul love Connie.

The band warms up with an old song (1938) by Rudolf Friml called “Only a Rose.” Then Connie comes on stage looking fabulous in a sparkly, lacy cocktail dress and shrug. This is her night and she’s ready. She opens with the title track from the CD, “Little Did I Dream,” a swinging, sophisticated tune. Next up is the saucy “Peel Me a Grape,” a song I first heard sung by Diana Krall; it has also been recorded by Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horn, and Anita O’Day, among many others. This is a new arrangement Frishberg created for Connie, speedier than the languid, late-night Krall version.

She follows with the ballad “Our Love Rolls On,” then “Can’t Take You Nowhere,” more smart-aleck Frishberg. She tells us that Frishberg wrote the next tune, “Listen Here,” for Mary Tyler Moore in the 1980s. Before beginning “My Attorney Bernie” (as on the CD, she’s alternating more straight-ahead numbers with the witty lyrics Frishberg is famous for), she tells us that Bernie is in the room tonight as well.

After “Bernie,” Frishberg is persuaded to take the stage. He and the quartet play a song they recorded earlier that day, Fats Waller’s “Sweet and Slow.” Then Frishberg introduces “Quality Time,” a tongue-in-cheek tune about a couple too upwardly mobile for romance (“Come fly with me/Unwind, kick back, relax/I’ll bring my laptop fax/You’ll bring your new screenplay….”). He thanks Connie for making the record and all of us for coming: “This is probably the biggest audience I’ve ever had.” It’s a warm and affectionate segue to “Snowbound,” the song they sing together on the CD.

The first set ends with “Zoot Walks In,” with a spoken lead, Beat Poet style, by Karr (“Jazz is a saxophone sound...”). The second set continues to take us through the CD: a sweet and lovely “Eastwood Lane,” “In the Evening” (just Phil Aaron and Connie on this one), “Zanzibar,” “I Want to Be a Sideman,” “Heart’s Desire.” Connie is relaxed and easy with this music, and she nails every tune.

Frishberg’s Web site is full of fun stuff.

Gordy and Connie. Photo by John Whiting.

Three CD release events to cure those February blues

You can count on having a good time at a CD release event. The months and sometimes years of work that go into creating a CD are over, and the artist has shiny new music to share. Friends and relatives show up. (They're fairly easy to spot because they're the ones who make most of the crowd noise and pay the least attention to the performance.)

If you like, you can meet the artist and "take the band home in a box," as Craig Eichhorn will suggest at the Dakota.

February brings three CD releases by three area artists, each a unique talent and a major presence on our music scene. The first happens tonight (Wednesday).

Dan (Daddy Squeeze) Newton: 'Hi-Top Sneakers'

When: 8 tonight, Feb. 13
Where: The Varsity Theater
How much: $12

This is a jazz column, and "Hi-Top Sneakers" is not a jazz CD, but I've been a Daddy Squeeze fan since he came to my house several years ago and played for a bowling party. He's so busy with his other bands (Café Accordion Orchestra, the Rockin' Pinecones) and gigs (he's a frequent guest of the Guy's All-Star Show Band on "A Prairie Home Companion") that I'm surprised he had time for a solo CD, especially one with all-original tunes.

It's a rollicking mix of roots music and Western swing, jug band, Latin jazz, Colombian cumbia, gospel polka, Parisian romance and kitchen sink. If you can sit still while hearing it, you're probably dead.

Newton's CD releases often include dancing, and although the Varsity is not a dance hall, "people can feel free to make their own space to dance," Newton says. "Almost all the music I play is dancer-friendly."

A self-taught musician who began on piano, Newton earned his name and fame playing the accordion, an instrument widely considered uncool. By mastering a variety of musical styles and surrounding himself with other fine musicians, he made it cool.

"I guess I've never been too concerned about being a part of the accordion world," he says. "One of the things that sets me apart from the stereotypical accordionist is the music I choose to play. Fortunately, most musical traditions before rock had a history of accordion. So it was easy to find recordings of accordions in Jazz, Western Swing, Country, Tex-Mex, Blues, Cajun, Latin, Scandinavian, Irish, et cetera … all the music that I liked to play. Or maybe it's because I'm just an old hippie at heart."

For the Varsity gig, Newton will sing and play accordion and piano, maybe tambourine and kazoo. He'll bring the musicians who joined him on the CD, including Pat Donahue, Gary Raynor, Bob Ekstrand, Tom Lewis and Steve Kaul.

Apologies for the late notice, but imagine what this music can do to lift the "it's-too-cold-for-February-won't-winter-ever-end?" blues. See him perform here.
 
Connie Evingson: 'Little Did I Dream'

When: 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25
Where: The Dakota
How much: $20

"My Attorney Bernie," "Zoot Walks In" and "Peel Me a Grape" ("Pop me a cork/French me a fry") are a few of the smart and witty tunes on Evingson's latest CD, her eighth. Earlier releases spotlight gypsy jazz, the Beatles and Peggy Lee. This time it's songs by St. Paul native and jazz great Dave Frishberg, a four-time Grammy nominee the New York Times described as "the Stephen Sondheim of jazz songwriting."

"I've been in love with Dave Frishberg's work forever," Evingson says. When she discovered that Frishberg and Twin Cities saxophonist Dave Karr had been classmates and friends at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s, she thought it would be fun to bring them together in the studio. (Karr also provides the hipster spoken introduction to "Zoot Walks In.")

The songs are first-class, including better-known and lesser-known Frishberg gems. Some are wry and others are romantic, giving Evingson ample room to display her impeccable interpretative skills. She's in beautiful voice on the CD and you can expect the same at the Dakota, where her band will include Karr, Gordy Johnson, Phil Hey, and Mark Henderson — everyone who appears on the CD except Frishberg. His place at the piano will be taken by Phil Aaron, and you won't mind a bit. It will all be very classy.

Irv Williams: 'Finality'

When: 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 29 and March 1
Where: The Artists' Quarter
How much: $10 

True, Williams already had a CD release event at the Dakota in early January. But if he wants another one across the river, who's going to stop him? There will probably be at least one table full of his grandchildren, and plenty of the AQ's regulars will come out to celebrate "Mr. Smooth," who's "88 and playing great."

Some of the songs on "Finality" are wistful and nostalgic — "Wee Small Hours," "Old Folks" (he'll try to tell you this is his theme song), "Too Late Now." Others, like "Come Rain or Come Shine," swing hard. His tone is sublime. For the CD release, it's likely he'll be joined by Peter Schimke, Gordy Johnson and Kenny Horst.

I waited too long to start listening to Williams and I've been trying to catch up ever since. This is jazz everyone can enjoy, full of emotion, wisdom, experience, and soul. View a video of Williams performing at his own 88th birthday party at the AQ here.

Originally published on MinnPost.com on February 13, 2008