The Northrop Jazz Season returns, relocated and reinvented

Originally published at MinnPost.com, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010

Jazz fans who have been wondering about the Northrop Jazz Season — is it alive? Is it dead? If it’s alive, when is it happening and what artists are coming? — got some but not all of the answers in an email late last week.

Sent to previous jazz season subscribers a few hours before a general press release, the email announced “the new Northrop Jazz Live at the Campus Club.” The first event, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 22, will pair multicultural singer/songwriter Somi with area vocalist/actress Thomasina Petrus.
The other three events in the season will be announced that night, and series tickets to those events will be available then.

In short: New venue (no more Ted Mann Concert Hall), much smaller venue (the Campus Club seats 200 compared to the Ted Mann’s 1,250), new ambiance, new programming approach.

Change was inevitable

Some loyal regulars may feel that change is not good, but anyone who attended a Northrop Jazz Season event in the past couple of years must have known that change was inevitable. With the jazz audience shrinking, the Ted Mann was feeling ever more cavernous and cold. It was depressing to see the sparse attendance earlier this year for violinist Regina Carter’s elegant “Reverse Thread” concert and pianist Danilo Perez’s all-star band. Behind the music, you could hear the sound of money spiraling down a drain.

“What was happening wasn’t working,” says Ben Johnson, director of concerts and lectures at Northrop and the man responsible for both the jazz and dance seasons. “I had two options: reinvent or stop. The whole thing needed a fresh coat of paint.”

Located on the fourth floor of Coffman Memorial Union — which doesn’t sound very high until you get inside — the Campus Club has a spectacular view of the Minneapolis skyline and, closer in, the Frank Gehry-designed Weisman Art Museum, now undergoing expansion. It feels a bit like the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, with its big windows and perspective on Columbus Circle.

Which is precisely what Johnson had in mind. “That, and the romantic feel of the Village Vanguard,” he says. “This will be an alternative to the other jazz spaces in the Twin Cities, with amenities people have grown accustomed to having. We’re now in the business of crafting experiences.”

Seating will be general admission, cabaret-style, with linens on the tables. A full bar and small-plate, locally-sourced food will be available. The club is creating a special cocktail menu for Northrop jazz events.

Emerging musicians, interesting local talent

What about the music? “We’re going to match where I think jazz is going — New York musicians, emerging musicians, people starting to be featured on major rosters in performing arts series across America — with interesting local musicians, and they won’t just be the opening act.”
In fact, the Oct. 22 show puts Somi first, followed by an hourlong set with Petrus and possibly, Johnson hints, a collaboration between them.

“I’m interested in fresh, new voices in jazz, and trying to link that to the energy, vitality, and intellectual curiosity of the university,” he explains. “We’re also investing more in local artists.” Johnson and his staff are looking for ways (and funding) to commission new work from local artists, with plans to present world premieres.

Tickets went on sale Monday, Aug. 9, for the Oct. 22 event. One night, one seating, only 200 seats. It could be a snooze-lose. Johnson would be fine with that. “Having demand for a sold-out show is not a bad thing.”
 
Northrop Jazz Live at the Campus Club: Somi and Thomasina Petrus. Campus Club, Coffman Memorial Union, 4th Floor, East Bank, University of Minnesota. Friday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m. ($35). General admission, cabaret seating only. Tickets online, by phone (612-624-2345), or in person at the Northrop Ticket Office.

Interview Outtakes: Larry Ochs

The 2009–2010 Northrop Jazz Season begins tonight (Oct. 8) when saxophonist/composer/improviser Larry Ochs brings his Sax & Drumming Core to the Whole Music Club at the University of Minnesota. I spoke with Ochs last Friday (Oct. 2) for MinnPost; that interview, in which he talks about improvised music and how to experience it, appears here. Below are other interesting things he said during our conversation.

On touring

It’s not an easy time to be out running around. I feel privileged to be touring and playing music live, which for me is what it’s all about. As [Anthony] Braxton says, play or die…. There aren’t as many venues as there used to be. In the jazz world, of which I’m debatably a part, some 50 years ago there were clubs in every town, every little town, places where people could play. They didn’t used to have to travel very far. That’s how improvised music grew. That kind of music really needs to be played live.

On his many groups, and why so many

I played with the ROVA saxophone quartet almost exclusively from 1978 to 1986. At that point, there was this obvious need [to do something else]. ROVA is still great, still the strongest thing I do, but it’s a particular set of chops, a particular way of playing—more symphonic, more orchestral. There are just lots of other things to check into it.

At first it was just one other group, Room, then What We Live, then [work with the Glenn] Spearman [Trio]. All kinds of things started to open up…

There’s Jones Jones with Mark Dresser on bass, Vladimir Tarasov from Russia on drums. Kihnoua with a singer from Korea [Dohee Lee]. Trio Ochs, Masoaka and [Peggy] Lee. [A trio with] Jean Jeanrenaud [formerly of Kronos].

One band that isn’t on my website is ODE, a trio with Trevor Dunn and Lisle Ellis on bass. We could have another conversation about keeping the website [current].

On Coltrane’s Ascension and Electric Ascension

For the 30th anniversary of Ascension, ROVA did an acoustic version—the exact same arrangement and instruments Coltrane used. Then [in 2003] we did Electric Ascension, which is more worth checking out.

That time, we changed the arrangement and also radically changed the instrumentation. If Coltrane was alive in the 21st century, he would certainly use electronics. We threw the piano out so we wouldn’t be stuck dealing with chord changes. [At the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria earlier this year], Chris Brown played synthesizer. It’s all about sound. You don’t hear any McCoy Tyner-type things going on. We always play with Nels Cline on electric guitar. He really makes it happen.

[At Saalfelden], we were in the Austrian Alps. This is not a hip city scene, although the audience was obviously from all over Europe. Saalfelden is a ski resort, and they were piping our music into the streets. Electric Ascension is a very extreme piece. It’s not like piping Bill Evans out into the town.

On expanding the Sax & Drumming Core to include piano and trumpet

I started with two drummers [Scott Amendola and Donald Robinson]. Tenor sax and drums is this great device, since the early free jazz—Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Braxton and Max Roach, Archie Shepp and Max Roach, Andrew Cyrille and Braxton. I love the drums, and I thought, what else could happen with drums and one saxophone player? Two drummers would be a trio and I’d have two goals: They would be soloists and it would be a collective trio, not the sax up front.

On the first two CDs [The Neon Truth, 2002, and Up from Under, 2007], I tried to give them things to think about that kept them from being just drummers. If we’re going to do a collective thing, we have to have some unusual concepts to keep people from stepping on each other. We have to have a planned hierarchy and be like-minded. Like a string quartert, where everybody’s got their role. I tried to do that with the drummers, to keep them on their toes and force them into sonic areas they might not get to. Then, at a certain point, it was just over. We did a couple of tours, two great CDs, and didn’t know what else to do.

I had done some collaboration with [pianist Satoko] Fujii and [trumpeter Natsuki] Tamura in big-band situations and I loved their playing. I was thinking I would really like to add a trumpet to Drum Core. But the only way I could add Natsuki, who seemed like the right guy, given his personal vocabulary, was to bring Satoko along, too. [Note: Tamura and Fujii are husband and wife.] Though a pianist was the last thing I wanted.

I asked Satoko if she played synthesizer and she said she messed around with it but didn’t play it. Then I found by accident a CD of the Tamura Quartet where all she played was synthesizer. So I told her, “Now that I know you don’t know how to play synth, that’s exactly what I want you to do.” She insisted on a piano being there. I told her why I didn’t want a piano and we had a discussion about that, but I finally acceded because she’s such a great pianist. I said, “Fine, you’re a genius.” Otherwise it’s like asking Coltrane to play with you but saying he can only play soprano sax.

Since then there are pieces I’ve created expressly for piano. Like “Abstraction Rising” on the new CD [Stone Shift, 2009].

At this point, Satoko has a complete understanding of what I’m looking for, so she’s never going to do something I’m not interested in.

On the importance of playing live

This music only matures and grows when you play it live. I guess if we [Sax & Drumming Core + Fujii and Tamura] had the luxury of all living in the same place and could go into the studio and make recordings all the time, that would work, too. But there’s something about the pressure of “this is real” that takes music somewhere…. When you’re playing 5, 6, 7 concerts in a row for 8–10 days, if you’re playing with the right people, they don’t want to repeat themselves.

On imaginary soundtracks

I have these imaginary soundtrack pieces that are soundtracks for imaginary movies. I dedicate them to a certain filmmaker and try to go into a performance thinking about them—what would be interesting to do. It’s not like I’m making a soundtrack for a real movie. It’s much more referential and abstract. I’m thinking, “If I was listening to this and trying to imagine a movie, what would it be like?” Everyone in the audience can make their own visual image.

On the music of the Sax & Drumming Core

The pieces have a finite length, usually. There’s a form there. And thematic motifs. They change, but they have a similarity to them. Which is one of the things I really like about this band. I’m working basically with four forms, so it’s kind of like having a jazz band.

I’ve got the imaginary soundtracks for imaginary films. That’s a particular kind of form, with a graphic score. Then I’ve got more of a jazz thing, like “Abstraction Rising,” with notated heads and solos. More of a traditional thing. Then I’ve got the Finn series [pieces named for his grandson], which is more of an improvised thing. Then I’ve got pieces from when I first started the group—meditations on blues shouters, pieces with “calls,” simple blues line. Like “Across from Over” [on Stone Shift] and “Up from Under” [Up from Under]. Those pieces are really close together. They’re kind of blues, homages to singers. I wanted to open that up a bit.

On speaking to the audience during performances

Usually I don’t talk. I don’t want the audience to understand the music through my ears. I want them to think “Here it is, and here we go”… It’s like a composer who sees a hive of bees and is inspired to write something and tells the audience “I saw a hive of bees and wrote this piece.” From then on, that piece is dead to me…. One time a guy came up to me and said, “If you started a set by telling people to relax, go with the music, have no expectations, enjoy, and just let it happen, that might really help.”

Kurt Elling talks about “Dedicated to You”

When: February 19, 2009 • Where: KFAI Radio • Who: Janis Lane-Ewart, “Collective Eye” host; yours truly; Kurt Elling on the phone from NYC

Today (June 23) is the day Kurt Elling fans have been waiting for: the release of his latest CD on Concord, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Recorded in January 2009 in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, it features saxophonist Ernie Watts, the Laurence Hobgood Trio, and the ETHEL String Quartet.

Earlier this year, on February 19, the night before the “Dedicated to You” tour came to the Ted Mann Theater in Minneapolis as part of the Northrop Jazz Season, Janis Lane-Ewart and I did a live on-air interview with Elling for KFAI Radio. In celebration of the CD release, here’s the transcript, complete and unedited.

KFAI: Mr. Elling, are you there?

Kurt Elling: I sure am. How are you guys doing tonight?

KFAI: We’re fabulous and happy to have you join the Twin Cities community just a few…22 hours before you are arriving in town to share with us the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman concert.

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: Looking forward to that—I will mention that I saw it in Monterey last September; I think that was the second time you performed it. Enjoyed it very much and looking forward to seeing it again.

KE: Oh, great. We’ve got some new arrangements that we weren’t able to put into that show. And we’ve recorded it now.

KFAI: I heard about that. At the Allen Room?

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: Looking forward to hearing that. Janis and I were wondering, and we thought our listeners might be interested to know, what drew you to this project in the first place?

KE: This came about initially at the behest of the Chicago Jazz Festival, which gave me a call about three years ago now inviting me to do something with the Johnny Hartman/John Coltrane material as an opening act for Josh Redman, who was going to be doing the Africa/Brass [a 1961 album by Coltrane]. They wanted to do something that was two sides of John Coltrane.

And, you know, whenever I get a request like that, I’m always interested to entertain it, but I always take it with the proviso that I’m not very interested in the simple reiteration of great music, or even a classic record like this. That doesn’t seem very interesting to me, it doesn’t seem very interesting to the audience… if you want to hear that specific thing, wouldn’t you just want to hear Johnny Hartman do it?

So I was working with a good friend from Chicago named Jim Gailloreto at that time on arrangements for his own recording for his own group featuring saxophone, voice, string quartet, and bass, and it was such an interesting sound that I hadn’t really considered before that I immediately said, well, let’s get some string quartet on this, because it updates the flavor, or it changes it around, or it puts it into a new space in such a way that it maintains the, what, the sort of ballad-neighborhood intensity. So that’s how it started.

We had Ari Brown, a really wonderful tenor player out of Chicago, on that initial thing, and we’ve had Bob Mintzer play it with us a number of times in different configurations, Carnegie Hall and such, and then, as you mentioned, we recorded it just the other week at Lincoln Center with Ernie Watts, who will be with us in Minneapolis this time. It’s just gonna be thrilling.

KFAI: He was with you in Monterey as well.

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: So the string quartet was a really interesting idea. Did you know the ETHEL—you’re using the ETHEL string quartet in your performances and I assume the recording as well—was there a particular reason you went with them?

KE: Well, you know, they have a musical flexibility that is purposeful. You think string quartet, you think four people who are very, very serious, man, who are going to be doing Beethoven’s such-and-such or other, and they can certainly blow like that, but they’re also very interested and they spend a lot of their time doing new music with some very hip people, big pop stars and new music people and Charles Ives things and just crazy stuff, and they can swing, too.

So their musical approach seemed to be to be the right kind of flexibility, and then when we got together and actually tried to play some of the stuff, they sounded great, and they’re wonderful people to work with, too, so it all falls together.

KFAI: They were at the Southern theater in Minneapolis not too long, ago, Janis; do you remember that?

KE: Oh!

KFAI: I do. And I also, having come from Chicago and served on the board of the Jazz Institute and on the programming committee as well, that makes a variety of decisions about programming for the festival, and having heard you describe the musicians that you have performed with on this particular project, I’m also curious about what this particular work means to you at this point in time. It was originally presented to you three years ago, and now three years hence, when we are in a different historical moment, you have decided to not only record the work but are also touring with it. Is there some connection that’s happening for you now in terms of this period of time?

KE: I don’t know if there’s anything as deep as all that specifically happening as much as there is an opportunity for me in between studio recordings…. I had never really intended to record this material, this is more of a special project for me, and people who have followed me in the past know that when I do a special project, it really usually only lasts a couple of nights or a month, or a small tour later or what have you, and then it goes the way of all things, but in this case—

KFAI: This has been kind of a big deal. You’re doing this through April, correct?

KE: Yeah, it’s definitely blossomed of its own accord. And, I mean, you know, it’s my thing, if any number of my other special projects would have had lives as extensive as this, including some of the theatrical things, the things that I’ve done with the Steppenwolf Theatre, the things that I’ve done with dancers and what not, if any of those had come across with the kind of velocity that we seem to be getting with this, I would have been happy about that, too.

You try your hardest to make interesting, beautiful, creative things, and for them to be seen by the broadest number of people. In this case, it seems like people really like to hear it, and thanks to people—you mentioned Monterey before, and a number of different places that just really like the concept, and then when they hear the music they really want to support it, who am I to say no to that?

KFAI: You mentioned that you had some new arrangements for us this time, and I was wondering how else has this project evolved for you since you started performing it?

KE: Well, you know, I think we’ve got a pretty good set list together, for one thing [laughs]. We’ve all grown accustomed to each other, it’s been…. I’ll tell you, one of the really significant ways, because of the number of dates we’ve done, and now the recording, we’ve had the opportunity to get to know Ernie Watts a lot better than we would have had we only done the show a couple of times, and the level of musicianship, and the velocity of his music, and the energy that’s coming out of him, and he’s sharing with us and with the audience, is just a wonderful and overpowering thing. I really can’t say enough about what a pleasure it is, and how inspiring it is, to have him with us every night.

KFAI: In the work that you’re doing now, Mr. Elling, it’s evolved over time, and I know, having come from Chicago, that a lot of your work is in some regards in development through the Wednesday night sessions that you do or have done at the Green Mill. Have you found a similar home for your new development or further development while you’re now in New York?

KE: I haven’t really, but then I haven’t really had that much time to actually be home. We’re on the road so much, we were just counting up the nights from last year, and it was about 180 nights on the road doing dates, so by the time you get to that number of dates and you come home, you’ve done a lot of developing [laughs]. You’re ready to sit down on a Wednesday night and act like a normal person.

KFAI: I want to mention for people who are interested in knowing where you’re touring, and reading your lyrics, and learning about your band, that you have a really excellent, very friendly, accessible, information-packed website at KurtElling.com and I would suggest that people go there.

KE: Yeah. Thank you.

KFAI: We know that you are on Eastern coast time and so we don’t want to keep you up knowing that you’re traveling tomorrow. I do want to ask you if there’s anything else that we’ve not touched upon that you’d like to share with our listeners here in the Twin Cities.

KE: Well, you know, every time I come back to the Twin Cities, it’s a very, very special occasion for me. I have so many wonderful friends and so many memories.

I’m a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus [a college in St. Peter, MN] and I really have a deep, deep love and kinship with Minnesota and with that part of the world. Some of my most wonderful memories, developing, not just as a person but as a musician, at Gustavus and the number of nights we got to sing together—that kind of thing. It’s really a beautiful thing.

I’m so, so pleased to be able to come home again and present such a pretty thing to you. I really hope people will come out and brave that which must be braved. [Elling's reference is to winter in Minnesota.]

KFAI: It’s not so bad at the moment.

KE: We’ll definitely play as well as we can for you.

KFAI: We look forward to hearing you tomorrow night, and tonight’s program will continue with the music you have shared with listeners on various recordings and thjat also provide our listeners with a continuation of the celebration of African-American history here on KFAI.

KE: Beautiful.

KFAI: Thank you very much. We look forward to welcoming you back tomorrow.

KE: Marvelous. Thanks so much.

KFAI: See you then. You’re welcome. Travel safely.

P.S. The set list for the rest of the program included music by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, and recordings by Elling of songs by African-American composers or musicians. (This show aired during African-American History Month.) We ended with Elling’s “Tanganyika Dance” from Bob Belden’s Shades of Blue, a gem from 1994 based on McCoy Tyner’s “Man from Tanganyika” (Tender Moments, 1967) for which Elling wrote lyrics. Shades of Blue came out the year before Elling released his first CD as leader, Close Your Eyes (1995).

At last week’s Jazz Awards in New York, Elling was named Male Vocalist of the Year.

Charlie Haden: More from the interview

The great bassist Charlie Haden brings his Liberation Music Orchestra to Minneapolis tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 27) for the first concert in the 2008-09 Northrop Jazz Season. I had the opportunity to speak with him earlier this month for MinnPost.

Not everything from the interview made it into the article. Here's more.

Haden described the latest LMO album, Not in Our Name, as "a desperate attempt to reach people with beautiful music and try...to make them realize how important it is to have reverence for life. To see the preciousness of life and to recognize the injustices of the world." (This quote does appear in the article.)

I asked him if something specific had happened in his life to make him care so much. He related the story, which has been reported elsewhere, of being rocked to sleep by his mother when he was about 2 years old. She was humming folk songs to him, and he started humming the harmony.

"I think that was my first sensitivity to music," he told me. "From then on, it was a very sensitive journey for me--everything was very delicate, sensitive, vulnerable.... When I was 4, I was screaming in my room, really loud, and my mother ran in saying 'Charlie, what is wrong?' I said, 'I don't want to die!' She said, 'Charlie, you're 4 years old, you're not going to die!' I was confronted [at that early age] with how lucky life is, that the history of the universe is inside of all of us from the beginning of time, and we have to do everything we can to make [life] as beautiful as we can for everybody....

"I saw a lot of things when I was a kid in a racist place.... I don't know why my mother chose to take me once a month to an African-American church and sit and listen to the choir. She took me out of my three brothers and two sisters. All I had to do was look around me--at the lunch counters, the one movie theater where blacks could sit in the third balcony, the one school for African-American students. There were not many places they could go.... My family were not racist. Dad liked Roosevelt and was unhappy with Truman. I was raised in a family that was very liberal. Some things attracted me right away to right injustices in the world, to be more aware."

In 1971, while on tour in Portugal with Ornette Coleman and other jazz giants (Ellington, Miles, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy, Monk), Haden was arrested for dedicating "Song for Che" (a track from the first self-titled Liberation Music Orchestra album) to liberation movements in Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau, which were then Portuguese colonies. He was apprehended at the airport, imprisoned overnight, and interrogated by the political police. The next day, Nixon's cultural attache to Portugal came for him and he was released.

I asked him, "Do you think if you were arrested in Portugal today that a cultural attache would come for you?" He said, and I heard sadness in his voice, "Probably not."

Yet he keeps on keeping on, and his music is not, as you might expect, bitter or angry or full of despair. The title track to "Not in Our Name" is one of the sunniest, most optimistic tunes I have ever heard. It makes you want to dance and run through a field of flowers and smile at strangers.

Northrop sent out an email yesterday to ticket holders with a message from Haden: "We hope to see a new society of enlightenment and wisdom where creative thought becomes the most dominant force in all people's lives."

Two lengthy interviews with Charlie Haden are available online, one by Ethan Iverson for DownBeat (2008), the other by Amy Goodman for Democracy Now (2006). I learned a lot from both of them. Photo of Charlie Haden and Carla Bley by Thomas Dorn.

Mike Vax Big Band featuring alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra

When: 5/3/08
Where: Ted Mann Concert Hall
Who: Kim Richmond, Pete Gallio, Keith Kaminski, Alex Murzyn, Joel Kaye (saxophones), Roy Wiegand, Scott Whitfield, Dale DeVoe, Mike Suter, Kenny Shroyer (trombones), Mike Vax, Dennis Noday, Carl Saunders, Steve Huffsteter, Don Rader (trumpets), Bob Kafka (piano), Chris Symer (bass), Gary Hobbs (drums), Dee Huffsteter (Latin percussion), Scott Whitfield and Ginger Berglund (vocals)

Jerry Swanberg promised the MVBB's sound would be huge and it was. When 25 musicians blow brass at the same time, you feel the breeze.

This was the final concert of the 2007–08 Northrop Jazz Season, and it wasn't my favorite. I almost wrote "I'm not a big fan of big bands," but that's not true; I enjoy the JazzMN Big Band, and the Northrop season has featured several big bands and jazz orchestras over the years: the Dave Holland Big Band in 2002–03; the Carla Bley Big Band, Chico O'Farill's Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band in 2003–04; the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Maria Schneider Orchestra in 2005–06. Those were all good shows, with up-to-the-minute music.

Even the Mingus Big Band, which has a similar mission to that of the MVBB—to honor and sustain the music of a composer and musician who died several years ago—never sounded stale. (Kenton and Mingus both died in the same year, 1979.)



But while Vax insisted "this is not a ghost band" and "fifty percent of everything we play on the road is new, written by band members in the Kenton style," it felt like an old band, and not just because most of the band members are over 60. (Ahmad Jamal is 78, Randy Weston is 82, Dave Brubeck is 88, Roy Haynes is 82...there's a long list of jazz artists who are up there in age and still vital in terms of what they play.) It felt like an old band because they were corny. They told corny jokes and did corny things like spread out into the audience to play. (HH said that reminded him of the time he was trapped in the downstairs bathroom with bees.)



The music didn't thrill me: "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "You Are So Beautiful." I did like their version of "In a Sentimental Mood" with its long trumpet solo. Often, the rhythm section was buried by the brass; I'm not sure I ever heard the piano, and I know I never heard the congas.



To be fair, plenty of people enjoyed the show, and there were certainly Kentonites in the crowd. When band members asked how many had heard Stan Kenton live, how many knew the London album, how many remembered a night at the late Prom ballroom when there was so much snow the band almost didn't make it, and how many recognized the "boat quotes" in one of the tunes, hands went up all around. And there were shouts of recognition and approval throughout the first set. (We didn't stay for the second.)

The Northrop Jazz Season has always been about variety and taking chances. The 2007–08 lineup also included Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Steven Bernstein, Ramsey Lewis, Ravi Coltrane, and Roy Haynes. So Mike Vax didn't rock my world, no big deal. It was a good year and I'll continue to subscribe.

Ravi Coltrane Quartet and Roy Haynes Quartet

When: 3/6/08
Where: Ted Mann Concert Hall
Who: Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Luis Perdomo (piano), Drew Gress (bass), E.J. Strickland (drums); Roy Haynes (drums), Jaleel Shaw (saxophone), Martin Bejerano (piano), David Wong (bass)

One night, one hall, two fine quartets. I know NYC is supposedly the place to live if you love jazz, but tonight you’d have a tough time convincing me that anywhere is better than Minneapolis.

Coltrane, second son of John and Alice, named for sitar legend Shankar, begins with a tune Ralph Alessi wrote for William, Ravi’s young son, called “One Wheeler Will.” It’s a high-energy tune right out of the gate that gives everyone a chance to shine. This is the second time I’ve seen this quartet (the first was at the Dakota in March 2005) and I wonder if Ravi ever plays his father’s music.

Next, “For Zoe,” written by Ravi, serious and dark. Bowed bass, slow sax, and soft percussion over a thick carpet of piano arpeggios. The piece grows in passion and intensity and the saxophone is increasingly pleading. Transition into Ornette Coleman’s “Little Symphony,” then a mellow tune by bassist Gress called “Away.”

Ravi looks beautiful. His hair is cropped short, his glasses are cool, and he’s wearing a shirt of something black and drapey—silk or cashmere. I’m musing on his elegance, enjoying the music, when I hear a brief but familiar phrase on the piano. Ravi’s horn is fierce and Perdomo is packing as many notes as possible into each measure. That phrase again. Either the quartet is playing “Giant Steps,” the most iconic of John Coltrane compositions, or Perdomo is teasing us with quotes. In fact, they are playing it. Ravi has turned his father’s most recognizable tune—and one that’s famously hard to play—into a personal statement.

Side note: Although Ravi’s soprano saxophone is on stage with him, he never picks it up. This is a tenor-only night.

During intermission, Utne Reader editor and jazz lover David Schimke tells us that Roy Haynes has made more recordings than any other jazz artist. Over the 60-plus years Haynes has been out there beating his drums (on the night of this show, he’s a week away from turning 83), he’s played with everyone: Lester Young, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roland Kirk.... His label, Dreyfus, recently released a box set that spans his career.



Tonight he’s ferocious. Between songs, he sometimes stands up, backs away from his drums, and bounces on the balls of his feet like a boxer between rounds. His quartet is superb; everyone is much younger than Haynes (it’s possible all their ages barely add up to his) but youth is not necessarily a benefit in this band, where rule #1 is probably “Keep Up with Roy.”

For those of us who have seen Haynes at his most recent Artists’ Quarter appearances and heard his latest CDs (including Whereas, recorded live at the AQ), the set list is familiar: “Green Chimneys,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” Monk’s “Twinkle Trinkle,” Pat Metheny’s “James.” (Shaw tells us later that the cue for “James” came sooner than he expected. He’s standing at stage right when Haynes begins the tune and literally sprints to center stage with his alto sax and starts blowing.) As an encore, they give us “Summer Nights.” No surprises, but no complaints.

What does Roy Haynes hear in his head as he goes about his day? Does everything he encounters have a pulse?



Photo of the Ravi Coltrane Quartet from his Web site, (C) Darlene DeVita. Photos of Roy Haynes and his quartet by John Whiting.

The Gospel According to Ramsey Lewis: Concert review

When: 2/2/08
Where: Ted Mann Concert Hall
Who: Ramsey Lewis (piano), Larry Gray (bass), Leon Joyce (drums), William Kilgore (organ), Eleanor Hampton (voice)

Back when jazz had a chance at cracking the Top 40, Ramsey Lewis had a string of radio hits ("The In Crowd," "Wade in the Water," "Hang On Sloopy," "A Hard Day's Night"). With very few exceptions, he hasn't played clubs in decades, and I had never seen him perform live until he came to the Ted Mann.

Lewis has been on tour since January 2007, appearing solo, with his trio, with Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, and the Joffrey Ballet Company in various venues from New York to California. Minneapolis and Wisconsin appear to be the only places he brought his gospel show, although he also performed with a gospel choir in Strathmore, Maryland.

The first half of the performance featured the trio and music from "To Know Her...," Lewis's collaboration with the Joffrey. They did a beautiful cover of the Beatles' "In My Life," with bowed bass from Gray and big drums from Royce. After a lengthy solo of music from the Joffrey work, Lewis announced, "It's time to go to church."

Hampton came out singing "Amazing Grace," and Kilgore took his place behind a tiny keyboard. He was supposed to have a Hammond B-3, "but someone didn't get the memo," Lewis explained. Kilgore was robbed and so were we. After a few robust organ-like chords, the keyboard seemed to fail entirely, and Kilgore's considerable talents (he plays organ on Lewis's award-winning gospel album With One Voice) were wasted.

We heard "Precious Lord," Ellington's "Come Sunday," "Wade in the Water," "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" (one I didn't know; maybe Lutherans don't sing it?), and "This Little Light of Mine," some sung, some instrumental. This wasn't pure gospel, it was jazz gospel, with quotes and improvisation. And it wasn't a gospel revival show like the Blind Boys deliver, although Hampton tried more than once to get us clapping along with the music. For encores, they gave us "The In Crowd" (still a good tune) and "Oh Happy Day."

I'm glad I had the opportunity to see Ramsey Lewis live (this concert was part of the 2007-2008 Northrop Jazz Season, to which we subscribe), but the evening seemed like two separate performances with an awkward segue. There was no intermission, which would have helped effect a transition. We wondered later if the whole program might have been gospel, or included more gospel, had it not been for the organ failure.

Subscribers were invited to a meet-and-greet reception following the show. We spoke with Kilgore, who was wearing a very fine suit, with Hampton, who was charming, and with Joyce, who spent much of his music career with Marine Corps bands.

Photo of Ramsey Lewis from Narada.