Adios, MinnPost Arts Arena

A little over three years after my first MinnPost article was published, the Arts Arena is no more. Starting today and going forward, the very smart and capable Max Sparber will be covering all arts and culture in his daily column, “Max About Town.” I’ve been asked to stay on as a contributing journalist (which I have been all along) and write an article on jazz every four to six weeks, and I’m happy to do so.

I’m not so happy that arts coverage in the Twin Cities continues to shrink. I’m not saying that Sparber can’t write about anything his heart desires, just that I miss the classical music writers, and the dance writers, and the theater writers—people who developed expertise in specific areas. All arts writing is not alike.

And I’m not questioning MinnPost’s decision. In fact, I’m surprised that I was allowed to inhabit my merry little jazz corner for as long as I did. Most readers go to MinnPost for news about politics, public policy, and the media. The fact that I was paid to write about jazz (not a lot, but I was paid) for more than 150 weeks is pretty GD amazing, in retrospect. 

MJF/51: Maria Schneider

On Saturday, September 20, jazz composer and conductor Maria Schneider will lead her orchestra in the world premiere performance of "Willow Lake," a work commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival. It's her second MJF commission and, like her first, "Scenes from Childhood" (1995), inspired by memories of Windom, the small Minnesota town where she grew up. She still calls Windom "the best town in the world." I spoke with her last week by phone for this week's MinnPost column.

More from our interview:

"Whenever you have a premiere, you're working out new things you've never done before. Some people say 'We should record the premiere.' No! It always takes the band a while to find the piece. Premieres always stress me out. We haven't found our way.... 'Cerulean Skies' [which won a Grammy in 2007] now plays itself. At the premiere, I was thinking it was horrible. As we played it more and more, we found our way....

"When you write orchestral music, you have to write in every little nuance of every little note. With my band, I don't even put dynamics in. I want it to be different every time on different nights. So much more malleability. But then it's hard because you're writing something around all these unfinished elements."

In October, Schneider comes to St. Paul for another world premiere, this time of her first work for chamber orchestra (the SPCO). It's a cycle of songs based on poems by the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade, translated by former U.S. poet laureate Mark Strand (who will be in the audience and, I hope, will also do a reading while he's here, maybe at the Loft?). The great soprano Dawn Upshaw will sing. So, how did Schneider end up with two premieres of original commissioned work within about a month of each other?

"It wasn't intentional. It's been very difficult. The Monterey thing snuck up on me, quite honestly.... I've been touring a lot, five trips to Europe, one with my band.... It's busy but it's good. When you're writing, you become such a hermit, and when you're on the road you become so externalized. You get exhausted in a different way. It's hard going back and forth, back and forth. You have to be an extrovert, then all of a sudden you have to become an introvert....

"Writing music isn't about writing music. It's about expressing life through music. If you get so busy doing music music music, you don't fill your life with experience to create more music. One thing I'm doing coming up is putting more space in my life. More space for reading, going to museums, hearing concerts. Life always has opportunities it throws at you, but if you're so busy you don't have space in your life, they pass by..... I want to live life more as an improvisation."

Photo by Jimmy and Dena Katz.

Jon Weber on quoting

Pianist Jon Weber is a prodigious and profligate quoter. While playing one tune, he’ll toss in phrases from others—sometimes many others, and they're not always jazz tunes. He has a vast library of all kinds of songs stored in his head and I imagine tiny creatures running around up there, pulling volumes from shelves at a furious pace and tossing them down to other tiny creatures waiting at Weber’s fingertips.

While interviewing Weber for a MinnPost profile, I asked, “How do quotes happen?” He said:

“I guess if you’re playing and if you’re familiar enough with a given tune and its harmonic structure and you pretty much know where the 32 bars are going to be and the 12 bars, you know the form blindfolded in your sleep…instinctively, you start to look for more things to do. It’s like I want to juggle an extra chain saw, carry on a conversation, or add another intellectual process. It’s a form of human expression…. Sometimes songs remind you of other songs, you tangentially go from one to the next, and you want to include it…. Imagine a Quote Meter. You want to tempt fate and see if you can add one more. It’s fun. You do it for the other musicians and anybody else who knows and shares your repertoire…. The older and hokier the tune, the funnier it is, if you can sneak something in that’s so silly it doesn’t belong there. A trombone player and I used to have a gig at a Hyatt and we played this game we called ‘That Has No Business Being In There.’ We’d sneak in a quote from ‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ just enough that people got it.”

Read a review of a Jon Weber show at the Artists' Quarter in January.
Photo by John Whiting.

Tanner Taylor

This week's MinnPost column features Tanner Taylor, a young pianist who hails from Iowa and has been burning up keyboards all over Minneapolis/St. Paul since relocating here seven years ago. I enjoy hearing him play, other musicians respect him, and he works hard. I was glad to have the chance to write about him.

During our telephone interview, I asked him about something I had read on Jazz Police: that his first inspiration to try jazz came "after seeing The Glenn Miller Story when I was twelve."

Yes, he said, that's true.



I had seen the movie (1954, directed by Anthony Mann, starring James Stewart and June Allyson) for the first time a few weeks earlier and decided to share something I had learned from the post-film commentary.

"You know," I babbled, "there's this new theory about how Glenn Miller died—that his plane was hit by a bomb dropped by a British plane returning home from France. Rather than land in England with live bombs, they dropped them into the Channel."

[Pause.]

"Actually," Tanner said, "there are three theories about how he died. I'm a huge Glenn Miller fan."

Note to self: Resist the urge to tell musicians things they probably already know.



Photos by John Whiting taken during three different performances. (Tanner's ever-changing facial hair is a topic of conversation among the ladies who go to hear him play.)

Grand Marais Jazz Festival

Every story is a human interest story. When I decided to write about the Grand Marais Jazz Festival for this week's MinnPost column, I thought I'd do a straightforward piece on who's playing when and where, with a bit of historical perspective. When I started talking with people about the festival, things changed.

I learned that festival founder Mike Raymond hosts a jazz radio show, sells real estate, and is a pilot who flies over area forests and wilderness to check for fires. People wear a lot of hats on the North Shore.

Last year, on May 5, a fire started that burned more than 75,000 acres at the end of the Gunflint Trail and into Ontario. This year, in recognition of the first anniversary of the Ham Lake Fire, the area is hosting a Gunflint Green Up on May 2–3. They're expecting hundreds of volunteers who will pitch in to plant 75,000 seedlings, weather be damned. (There's still ice on the water in northern Minnesota, and it could snow. It could snow in Minneapolis, too.)

I learned that the jazz festival is less about jazz, more about building tourism in the off-season in an area hard-hit by economic downturn with an off-season that lasts half the year. (Now factor in rising gas prices.) Headed by PR pro and go-getter Kimberly Soenen, the newly-formed Cook County Events & Visitors Bureau is convincing area business leaders, artists, outfitters, and lodgers to join forces, combine resources, and pony up dollars to fund events like the festival.

Soenen thinks Cook County could be the next Door County, and the Grand Marais Jazz Festival could be the north shore's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I wouldn't advise standing in her way. She's a woman on a mission.

And I learned that singer Rhonda Laurie and her family have a cabin in Finland near Silver Bay. She's originally from New York City and I never saw her as an outdoorsy type but there it is.

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.

The Jazz88 Reel Jazz Film Series

Kevin Barnes is starting a jazz film series to benefit KBEM, the Twin Cities' jazz and education radio station, and I previewed it for MinnPost. When I asked Barnes what inspired him to start the series, he said:

We helped sponsor the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film festival and brought in a Miles Davis documentary maybe six years ago.... I thought it would be nice if we could find the right setting and the opportunity to do something with both independent jazz documentary pieces and independent films created with jazz as an important part of the musical landscape.... A key part of this launch was Ed Jones's show "Reel Jazz" on Monday nights, which looks at both jazz and film.

I had never heard Jackie Paris before now, and I certainly didn't know he was the first singer to record Monk's "'Round Midnight." You can hear sound clips on the film's Web site or download songs from iTunes. His most famous recording: "Skylark."

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.

Kevin Mahogany

Kevin Mahogany sounds as yummy on the phone as he does when he sings. When I interviewed him for MinnPost about his upcoming performance with the JazzMN Big Band, I probably kept him on the line longer than I should have.

I mentioned how much I liked one of the songs on Another Time Another Place, his 1997 release on Warner Bros. It's a sassy, light-hearted banter between two men about the same woman. Mahogany wrote it and recorded it as a duet with country singer Randy Travis, which seems an unlikely choice but makes sense when you listen. It's all about the voices. Mahogany told me more:

It surprised a lot of people when we did that. I always thought [Travis] had a wonderful voice. When you hear that combination, it worked great. I was writing a duet for two men and didn't want to split a standard tune in half. [Travis] agreed to do it with me. We were both on Warner Bros. We had such a great time. As much fun as you hear on the record, that's how much we had in the studio, if not more so. What makes it exciting is that [Travis] has less twang [in his voice] than in his country music. And jazz people had the chance to hear an incredible singer who sings country.

On the recording, Travis doesn't scat (Mahogany does), but he swings.

Photo of Kevin Mahogany from his MySpace page.

MinnPost: Three CD Releases

Dan "Daddy Squeeze" Newton, Connie Evingson, and Irv Williams all have new CDs and they're all having CD release events this month. Good news for local music and worth writing about for MinnPost. My column is short and so was my time so I interviewed just one of the three, Daddy Squeeze, who celebrates the release of Hi-Top Sneakers at the Varsity tonight. I asked him, "When did you start playing accordion? Did you choose it or did your parents make you play?"

Dan: I started on piano. I was "self-taught" or learned by ear. I also played some guitar, dulcimer, harmonica, recorder, mandolin, ukulele, and other odd instruments. In 1978 I was playing piano in a country band in my home town of Lincoln, NE. We got booked in a bunch of bars that didn't have pianos. I was complaining to a friend that I wouldn't be able to do the gigs. She said she had an instrument with piano-shaped keys in her attic that her uncle used to play. I brought it to the band's next rehearsal and the leader, who had just returned from a trip to Texas and Louisiana, said if I was going to play accordion we had to learn some Cajun, Zydeco and Tex-Mex tunes. It got quite a reaction from the hippies and cowboys that hung out in the Nebraska clubs back then. By 1987 I was living in the Twin Cities, playing only accordion.


Photo of Dan Newton from his Web site.

MinnPost: VocalEssence WITNESS Preview

Although I can't attend this year's WITNESS concert, "The Duke Ellington Effect," my editor at MinnPost asked me to preview it. Thanks to VocalEssence communications manager (and big U2 fan) Katryn Conlin, I was able to interview Philip Brunelle, the group's founder and artistic director and someone I have admired for a long time. Someone should give him one of those MacArthur Genius awards.

Written for the Pi Press in 2000, Matt Peiken's profile of Brunelle is colorful and full of details—a bit old but still worth reading.

Duke Ellington photo from VocalEssence Web site.

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

MinnPost: Children's Theatre Company Preview

To prepare for this week's MinnPost article about the music for Bud, Not Buddy, the new play at the Children's Theatre Company. I read the book on which the play is based, saw a preview performance of the play, and read articles online about the book, the author, the play, and the playwright. Victor Zupanc, CTC's resident composer, was generous with his time despite the fact this is preview week and he'd just come out of a long rehearsal. He told me how rare it is for a theater to have a resident composer and how important it is to him to be on staff at CTC:

"I like to be in rehearsals, all the rehearsals, from the first day—to be there with the director and develop [a play] together. That's not normal these days, unfortunately, because of economics. Most theaters can't afford to hire a composer to sit in rehearsals for six week. Usually they hire someone to write a score, maybe attend three to four days of rehearsal, then tech rehearsals. I have worked that way, and I am never fully satisfied when I do that.... I have worked at 40–50 theaters but haven't worked at another one with a full-time music director. It's a luxury, and it's great. It's crucial for the type of work we do and how rich and colorful all the shows are."

In the book Bud, Not Buddy, author Christopher Paul Curtis has a jazz singer perform the song "What's New?" In the play, she sings "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." That was director Marion McClinton's idea, something he was able to share with Zupanc because they were there together, and it works perfectly in a play about a boy in search of a family and a home.

MinnPost: Cafe Maude

This week's MinnPost is about Cafe Maude, where the food is tasty and the music (especially the jazz on Fridays) is not at all what you'd expect to hear in a fancy bistro in a sleepy southwest Minneapolis neighborhood.

The woman who books the music (who insisted on anonymity in the article, which got me into trouble with my editor) told me more about how she does it:

"I have a very particular ear. I'm bringing in people who are doing something different.... It also has to do with personality. Whose ego can handle that room? It's noisy. People have to be able to handle that.... I'm giving the clientele what I want, not what they want.... I know what I like. I'm trying to feature free jazz as opposed to straight jazz.... We thought we were going to hear complaints, that the music would be way too out. But everything we've brought in has gone over.... People think they're coming to dinner, and we bring them in touch with their soul."

It's risky, it's different, and I can't imagine any other restaurant in town doing it. Yet Maude is working—because of the music? In spite of the music? Or maybe the music is just sonic wallpaper for people who go because they've heard they should or they want to try something new. Who knows? Meanwhile, the prospect of seeing Mike Lewis tonight makes me happy.

Cafe Maude: Unlikely venue offers serious jazz on menu

Originally published on MinnPost.com, January 4, 2008

On a Friday night in early December, I stood at the bar at Café Maude waiting for a table. People were crammed three-deep around it, clutching their cocktails and jostling each other and eyeing those lucky enough to be seated.

Across the room on a small stage beneath a large painting by local artist Stuart Loughridge, two musicians were playing some serious jazz. I could barely hear them through the din. They weren't just any two musicians or the kind whose names you'd normally read on a restaurant chalkboard.

By the time we scored a table, the crowd had thinned enough that we could follow Michael Lewis on the tenor saxophone and pianist Bryan Nichols in their complex, rhythmic dance of melody and improvisation.

Lewis's other bands include Happy Apple and Fat Kid Wednesdays, among the most innovative jazz groups around. Nichols teaches at MacPhail, has performed at the Kennedy Center and is part of Kelly Rossum's working quartet. Neither is background music material. And their performance was about as far from smooth jazz as you can get without a passport.

Jazz on the menu

Since the doors opened last summer at this hot new bistro in southwest Minneapolis, owner Kevin Sheehy has been committed to serving good music along with very good food. Stroll in almost any night and you'll hear something interesting: music played or selected by DJ Howard Hamilton III, international music, experimental music, solo piano, soul-dub-Afro-beat.

But Fridays belong to jazz, and the lineup so far has been stellar: Lewis and Nichols, Adam Linz, Alden Ikeda, Chris Thomson, Dean Granros, James Buckley, Park Evans, Chris Bates, J.T. Bates, Anthony Cox, Gordy Johnson, Laura Caviani, Joey Van Phillips, Peter Schimke, and other top area talent who also play the Artists' Quarter, the Dakota, the Cedar and the Clown Lounge. Even Kenny Horst, who owns the Artists' Quarter and rarely plays elsewhere, packed up his drums and brought them to Maude.

As well as drawing hordes of diners, Maude has become a musicians' hang. After Matt Wilson and his Carl Sandburg Project performed recently at the Minnesota Opera Center, everyone went to Maude. Nichols and drummer Jay Epstein were already there, listening to the Enormous Quartet (Thomson, Evans, Bates, Van Phillips). Dave King and Reid Anderson of the Bad Plus showed up for a party on the Sunday after Christmas.

The woman behind the programming

The demographic on stage tends to be young and cutting-edge; at the booths and tables, it's more conservative and better heeled. Which is precisely the mix Sheehy and music programmer "Maude" have in mind. "Maude" prefers to keep her real name anonymous so that she isn't inundated with requests for bookings. She had such interesting things to say about how she works that I agreed to let her keep her anonymity.

People may come to Café Maude for the crab cakes, roasted corn chowder and quail with squash cheddar gratin, but they'll also get an earful of sounds that push the boundaries of what they're used to.

Some may find this uncomfortable. Others feel happy without knowing why. "Our mission is a bit subversive," says "Maude." "We're bringing strange music to a fairly straight crowd. This is our way of inspiring people."

It's entertainment, but it's also an education, she says. "When musicians give you something you haven't heard before, it makes your ear stronger for the future."

For a new restaurant to do a build-out, hire a creative and experienced chef, develop a menu that consistently wins raves, staff up, and win a liquor license in a neighborhood that initially opposed it, live music may seem like reckless splurge.

"Obviously it's one of those expenses we could cut," Sheehy says, "like our flower budget or some other thing if we were desperate, but thank God we're not. We'll do it as long as I can afford it."

Between now and April, during which Sheehy and "Maude" will both be traveling, the roster will feature artists that regulars have come to know: Tasha Baron and Liz Draper, Van Phillips, Lewis, a night with Linz and Ikeda and Tommy O'Donnell, an evening with Granros and Schimke.

Call in advance to get a reservation, or take your chances and just drop by. To avoid the biggest, noisiest crush, arrive late; the kitchen stays open until midnight, and last call is 11:50 p.m. The music lasts until midnight, too. "It's free," Sheehy says. "Come and see it."

What: Jazz on Fridays
Where: Café Maude, 5411 Penn Ave. S., Minneapolis
When: 9 p.m. to midnight
How much: No cover
Phone: 612-822-5400
Website

Upcoming picks

Bill Carrothers' "Armistice 1918" Band U.S. premiere: A native son brings home his magnum opus and French Grammy winner for two complete performances. The Artists' Quarter, 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4, and Saturday, Jan. 5 ($15). Read a preview on MinnPost, "First must-see of 2008: Bill Carrothers' 'Armistice 1918'"

J.J. and Beyond: Celebrating the Trombone: You can't have too much brass on one stage. Michael Nelson and Dave Graf celebrate the works and artistry of legendary trombonists, accompanied by Locally Damaging Winds, a jazz trombone ensemble led by Brad Bellows, and the Mary Louise Knutson Trio. Connie Evingson makes a guest appearance. Co-sponsored by the Twin Cities Jazz Society. Bloomington Center for the Arts, 2 p.m. Sunday, January 6 ($19).

Irv Williams' CD release: For the follow-up to his sublime "Duo" with Peter Schimke, the ageless saxophonist gathered a Who's Who of local greats (Schimke, Gordy Johnson, Kenny Horst, Loren Walstad, Gus Sandberg) and recorded 10 tunes including two originals. He calls it "Finality" but we'll see about that. The Dakota, 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6 ($5).

MinnPost: Bruce Henry

Leigh Kamman called him "an international voice...the Jazz Messenger Supreme." The manager of a Paris nightclub where he performed called him "astounding and unclassifiable" (probably in French). Bruce Henry knocks my socks off. Hear him sing "Afro Blue" and read about his upcoming holiday show at the Dakota.

Photo by Andrea Canter.

Local jazz artists recommend gift-worthy favorites: Holiday jazz CDs

Originally published on MinnPost.com on December 7, 2007

Pianist Michel Legrand once observed, "Jazz is the best of all nourishments." Jazz also makes a great gift, says someone who hopes to get some. (Hint to husband: We don't yet have all of these.) Jazz CDs are small enough to tuck into stockings, varied enough for the eight nights of Hanukkah.

But where to start and what to buy?

MinnPost turned to experts: local jazz artists. What do they consider gift-worthy and why? We asked them to recommend CDs by other local artists and suggested they not be holiday CDs, the better for year-round listening. We also said the CDs did not have to be new or recent. The best-selling CD of all time, Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," was released 40 years ago and is sure to end up under a tree or two. So why not Jay Epstein's "Long Ago" or Gordy Johnson's original "Trios"?

Pianist Bryan Nichols calls "Long Ago" (1997) "a great piece of music from three great musicians, and still one of my favorite Minnesota jazz releases ever." Drummer Epstein is joined by Bill Carrothers on piano and Anthony Cox on bass. (Carrothers lives in Michigan but grew up here so we still claim him as ours.) Nichols would also give saxophonist Chris Thomson's new electro/acoustic "The Three Elements" (2007): "Easily my favorite local record of the year. Plus, for the holidays, it has lots of bell sounds."

Lauds for Maud

Singer and radio personality Arne Fogel loves Maud Hixson's just-released "Love's Refrain" (2007). Backed by her husband, Rick Carlson, on piano, "she sounds like nobody else, and the record is a definitive document of that unique sound." He also recommends "Voracious: Live at the Times" (2007) by the Wolverines Big Band. "An absolute killer."

Bassist Gordy Johnson was driving home from a gig when he heard a track from Hixson's "Love's Refrain." "I got goose bumps as I was listening. ... It's in the groove and polished, totally first class. I would give that disc to anyone and everyone."

Singer Maud Hixson joins Fogel in recommending "Voracious: Live at the Times." And she likes Erin Schwab's "Martinis and Cleavage" (2007), recorded live at Jitters downstairs from the Times. "Erin was taking requests on cocktail napkins during her live recording." Another Hixson pick: Twin Cities Hot Club guitarist Reynold Philipsek's latest solo acoustic release, "What It Is" (2007).

Tailoring for tastes

Trombonist Dave Graf customizes his choices. "For someone whose taste in jazz runs to mellow yet sophisticated: 'Duo' (2006) by Irv Williams and Peter Schimke. For someone who likes a larger ensemble and adventurous-yet-accessible original composition: Snowblind's 'Taking Shape' (2007). For someone who would dig some fun and funky a capella horn work: The Hornheads' 'Fat Lip' (2004). For a wide range of jazz listeners: 'Call Me When You Get There' (2001) by Mary Louise Knutson. Hey, it's a delight."

Like Graf, pianist Mary Louise Knutson considers the recipient. "If I don't know someone's musical tastes, I'd say 'Some Cats Know' (1999) by Connie Evingson. Connie's voice is always easy on the ears. ... For a Doris Day fan, 'Daydreaming' (2004) by Connie Olson. If it's a horn player, 'Fat Lip' by The Hornheads. For a piano trio lover, 'I Love Paris' (2005) by Bill Carrothers. Accessible to all."

Singer Christine Rosholt has "always loved Connie Evingson's 'Some Cats Know.' As I was just getting going in the biz, I would listen to that CD all the time. I also love Lucia Newell and Departure Point's 'Steeped in Strayhorn' (2004). Lucia's rich voice and unique phrasing, paired with Pete Whitman's band, is close to perfect."

Pianist Laura Caviani is another Lucia Newell fan. Her pick: an older disc, "Enter You, Enter Love" (1995) by guitarist Joan Griffith and Newell. "It's a very romantic CD, with warmth and genuine joy. Perfect for the holiday season."

Phil Hey digs fellow drummer George Avaloz's "The Highest Mountain" (2004). "Great solos and arrangements of really cool tunes, including the title track. George swings his ass off." Listen for soulful Twin Cities singer Debbie Duncan on "A Beautiful Friendship."

Seduced by 'Subduction'

Guitarist Joel Shapira gives the thumbs-up to "Subduction: Live at the Artists' Quarter" (2005) by the Phil Hey Quartet. "Great players, great club, adventurous tunes, great arrangements. A jazz lover's delight."

Singer Vicky Mountain mined her home play list for favorites she'd share. " 'The Bridge' (2002) by the Chris Lomheim Trio. Beautiful, lyrical playing. 'Steeped in Strayhorn' by Lucia Newell and Departure Point. Mary Louise Knutson's 'Call Me When You Get There.' Very relaxing. And all of the Gordon Johnson 'Trios' CDs." There are three: "Trios" (1996), "Trios V. 2" (2002), and "Trios Version 3.0" (2004), and those of us who know them want Gordy to hurry up and make more.

Accordionist Dan Newton would give the recording by Dick & Jane's Big Brass Band, a local band that plays New Orleans street music. "Festive and celebratory, it fits the holiday season and can be enjoyed any time of the year." Good luck finding it, but if Daddy Squeeze likes it, it must be good and worthy of sleuthing out. Check the band's website http://dickandjanesbbb.com and try one of the phone numbers there. I left a message.

Where to find CDs mentioned above: Check the Electric Fetus, a strong supporter of local artists (2000 Fourth Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-870-9300). Try the CD Baby website. Visit the artists' websites (many have their own). Best of all, ask the artists themselves; they live here, they play here, and many have holiday shows scheduled around town. That way, you can have your CDs signed.

Upcoming picks

Matt Wilson's Carl Sandburg Project: Poems, improvisation, and wacky hats. The Minnesota Opera Center http://www.mnopera.org/page/22, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, $15. See this week's MinnPost story, "Rhyme, rhythm and riffin': Jazz meets poetry in drummer Matt Wilson's Carl Sandburg Project."

Happy Apple: The locally grown jazz/improv/indie/whatever trio of Michael Lewis (saxophones), Erik Fratzke (electric bass) and Dave King (drums; King also plays with The Bad Plus) is the most fun you can have sitting down, if you can find a seat. (If not, check them out here.) The Artists' Quarter, Friday through Sunday, Dec. 7-9, 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday ($12).

Rhonda Laurie: At last, live music comes to one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. Vocalist Laurie has a regular weekly gig with guitarist Reynold Philipsek and bassist Jeff Brueske. Cavé Vin, Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., no cover.

Interview outtakes: George Cartwright and GloryLand PonyCat

This week's MinnPost piece is on free jazz saxophonist George Cartwright and his trio GloryLand PonyCat. Cartwright, bassist Adam Linz, and Jazz Police publisher Don Berryman all responded to emails I sent while writing the piece. Here are some interesting bits that didn't make it into the article.

Question for Adam: "What is it like for you to play with George Cartwright?"

Adam: “I have wanted to play with George since I was 16. I heard of him through my ear training teacher Kevin Norton. I was looking for someone to study composition with while I was in New York. Unfortunately George had moved to Memphis. After I moved back to the Twin Cities I heard that George moved here. I got his number and called him and asked him if I could study composition from him. After he heard that I was a bass player he said, 'Just bring your axe and let's just play' We haven't stopped since then. So I get my lessons for free as we play. Playing with George is like playing with one of those jazz greats that you build up in your mind as a kid. You think that maybe one day you'll be good enough to play with them. George is such a nice guy also. Sometimes you meet your heroes and they turn out to be the exact opposite as you hoped for. George is like that funny uncle that says the wrong thing at the right time and makes all the kids laugh."

Question for George: "Imagine you're talking with people who haven't heard much free jazz (or any). They have agreed to come to the Cedar show, maybe on a dare. What can you tell them to help prepare? What can they do to really enjoy it?"

George: "Everybody has a different reaction to all music. Since we are all individuals we process what we hear on our own personal level(s) and that is what I would stress, that it gives you an experience that you can't get anywhere else and and it is your own to process past the 'how'd you like it?,' 'pretty good' kind of conversation. We've all spent much time and effort to manifest our own single selves through music (hopefully in a positive way) and being able to do that even better in a group (strength of the individual/power of the group kind of thing) and we hope to give that to the listeners also in some form or other. (( ...trying not to get 'mystical' here))."

Don summed up the experience of hearing Cartwright by quoting another jazz pioneer: "The late Steve Lacy said: 'The difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.' Well, this is a band that nails it in that 15 seconds."

MinnPost: Pan-Metropolitan Trio Preview

This week's MinnPost piece is on the Pan-Metropolitan Trio, three young musicians who play tuba, Chapman Stick, and drums and will release their first CD, Isolation, on November 24.

I enjoyed writing last week's piece—a primer/overview of jazz in the Twin Cities (in which I egregiously omitted traditional jazz, and thanks to Dick Parker for pointing that out). But now is when the fun begins.

See the Chapman Stick and how it works.

Jazz finds steady rhythm and soul in the Twin Cities

Originally published on MinnPost.com on Friday, November 9, 2007

Maybe it's just artsy civic pride, but I've heard local jazz enthusiasts boast that there are more live jazz venues per capita in the Twin Cities than anywhere else in the United States.

I haven't done the math but it is true that if you're so inclined, you can attend a live-jazz performance here any night of the week, including Sunday, with the occasional exception of a holiday. If you want to attend more than one show a night, you can do that, too.

We have three nationally known jazz clubs (the Dakota, the Artists' Quarter and Rossi's), the annual Northrop Jazz Season, and the JazzMN Big Band, a professional orchestra now in its ninth full season. You can hear jazz at Orchestra Hall, the Walker Art Center, the Cedar Cultural Center, the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Mears Park in St. Paul's Lowertown and the Lake Harriet band shell.

The University of Minnesota's jazz ensembles give free public performances. MacPhail Center for Music sponsors Jazz Thursdays. The Twin Cities Jazz Society has an annual "Jazz from J to Z" concert series. Earlier this year, the Minneapolis Central Library hosted a six-part program on jazz with live music. At some of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Friday evening concerts, you can spend the second half in the Ordway lobby listening to jazz instead of returning to the seat you paid for, something I don't quite understand but there it is.

When you make a restaurant reservation, you may get a side of jazz — at the Times, Babalu, the Birchwood and more recently Crave and Café Maude, to name a few. On Saturdays at D'Amico Cucina in Butler Square, there's jazz in the bar; on Mondays, you can enjoy jazz with your pepperoni at Fireside Pizza in Richfield beneath the spreading boughs of its faux indoor tree. And we haven't even gotten to the small cafés and coffee shops (like the Acadia, St. Paul's Amore, and the Beat in Uptown) that give jazz musicians a place to play.

Each year brings a series of jazz festivals: the Twin Cities Jazz Festival (previously the Hot Summer Jazz Festival) in June and a Winter Jazz Festival in February. The Minnesota Sur Seine, conceived as a jazz festival for regional and international musicians, has expanded to include other forms of music. But the festival (formerly held in October, now moved to May) is still a lively showcase for the experimental and avant-garde. And Burnsville has its own jazz festival each August.

In the 1920s, jazz was branded the devil's music, but today in Minneapolis you can hear it in church. The Soul Café series at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church serves poetry with jazz. Mercy Seat Church in northeast Minneapolis offers a jazz liturgy.

Why is Minneapolis-St. Paul such a thriving jazz community? We know it's not the climate or the late bar hours. Michele Jansen, station manager at KBEM and host of "Jazz and the Spirit," notes that "the music community in general thrives here." She credits the jazz programs in our schools and says that "jazz touches people's souls."

Kelly Rossum is a jazz artist, composer, and educator at MacPhail, where he coordinates the jazz program. He not only hears a lot of jazz, but he also performs a lot of jazz in the Twin Cities and elsewhere, seeing a bigger picture than most of us do; he'll spend much of this December in New York City. He believes "the support for the arts here is arguably at the highest level of any metropolitan area in the country." Minnesotans, "specifically here in the Twin Cities," have a deep commitment to culture and the arts. Many fine musicians live here, and our music scene is strong enough to support different kinds of music, even different kinds of jazz.

One thing we don't have is a major music label. "The national spotlight still follows the outdated model of the '90s," Rossum says, "which is to follow the releases and careers of signed artists." With more artists starting their own labels or breaking away from the big ones, that might not matter for long.

Pamela's picks

Tim Ries's Rolling Stones Project: Ries plays saxophone and keyboards with the Stones when they go on tour. With the blessing of the Glimmer Twins, he has created jazz arrangements for several Stones tunes including "Satisfaction" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." It's not only rock 'n' roll and people like it. The Dakota: Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m. ($18) and 9:30 p.m. ($12).

Photo by C.F. Wesenberg

Frode Haltli Quartet: The Norwegian accordion player (above) is part of the Walker's New World Jazz mini-series, programmed by Philip Bither, which is turning out to be an umbrella for all sorts of surprises. Haltli could play anything from waltzes to Albert Ayler-inspired free jazz, and he's bringing a singer with him, and a trumpet player, and a violist. Please, no accordion or viola jokes, and don't call him Frodo. Walker Art Center, McGuire Theater, 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. ($25; $21 Walker members).

Rondi Charleston: She's a classically trained Juilliard grad who sang chamber music and opera until she "broke free" (as one bio put it) and made the switch to jazz. Along the way, she was an investigative reporter for "Prime Time Live." She's playing top venues, getting good reviews, and touring for her third CD, "In My Life." She's with a stellar band including Bruce Barth on piano and Joel Frahm on saxophone. The Dakota, Monday, Nov. 12 and Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m. ($22) and 9:30 p.m. ($15).