Rondi Charleston

11/12/07, The Dakota: After her teaser show on Sunday the 11th, Rondi Charleston returned to the Dakota with her full band, and what a band it is: Bruce Barth on piano, Joel Frahm on tenor sax, Dave Stryker on guitar, Rufus Reid on bass, Hadar Noiberg on flute, and Alvester Garnett on drums. I'd never seen Frahm live before but have often listened to his CD with pianist Brad Mehldau, Don't Explain. He can come back anytime.

The affectionate rapport between Rondi and her band was fun to see as they performed old standards and new songs: "Someone to Light Up My Life," Frank Loesser's "I Hear Music," the lovely "Estate" (Summer) sung previously by Shirley Horne, "Telescope" (words by Rondi, music by Bruce), the Beatles' "In My Life," Carole King's "Beautiful," Bill Evans's "Waltz for Debby" (love the melody, hate the lyrics..."In her own sweet world/populated by dolls and clowns/and a prince and a big purple bear"...I'm going to bring a pea shooter to jazz shows and use it every time I hear about that bear).

We also heard "Fragile as a Song" by King Crimson bassist Tony Levin, which describes his experience of playing music with bonobo apes and Peter Gabriel. Frankly, I don't think that one will enter the canon anytime soon. Small world: Levin plays the Chapman Stick, which I recently wrote about for MinnPost. Levin's latest album is big on the stick.

While things onstage were warm and fuzzy, a drama played out at a table between us and the band. She: low-cut, big hair, too many champagne cocktails. He: Walter Mitty, buttoned-down, phone blinking on belt. She gets louder; he says something; she can't believe he would dare, pulls her hand away, marches off to the ladies (for the third time), returns, gulps her drink, slams her glass down, shatters the base (it's a stem), and suddenly she's holding a sharp spear of glass pointed in his direction. Will she plunge it into his heart? We hold our breath--and so, we hear later, does the band, who are all trying to ignore what's happening under their noses.

Photo by John Whiting. L to R: Bruce, Rufus, Hadar, Alvester (hidden), Rondi, Dave. Rondi wore a red dress that was an engineering marvel. She snagged it on a bracelet; I hope it can be fixed.

Party at the Dakota

11/11/07, The Dakota: On a Sunday night at the Dakota soon after daylight savings time kicked in (the bad end of DS time, when it gets darker earlier), Lowell Pickett and the staff at the Dakota threw a party for A-Train members. They treated us to light appetizers and music and it was lovely. Sets by Sam Miltich and other members of the Clearwater Hot Club bookended a teaser set by Rondi Charleston and two members of her band, who would appear at the Dakota on Monday and Tuesday.

I forget how much I enjoy hot club music until I'm sitting in a room where it's being played well. It all looks so easy and relaxed, and it sets such a convivial mood. Miltich, the wunderkind who first learned to play the guitar at age 13 and almost immediately started channeling Django Reinhardt, was joined by his dad Matthew Miltich on bass, Mark Kreitzer and Rob Henry on rhythm guitars, and Dave Karr on saxophone. Both Sam and Dave wore red socks. Sam introduced his father as Leo Tolstoy; you can see why from the photograph. During their second set, violinist Mark O'Connor walked in and said hi. He had played Orchestra Hall that afternoon with Sharon Isbin. We were all hoping he'd brought his violin but he hadn't.

With Bruce Barth on piano and Rufus Reid on bass, Rondi gave us a nice selection of standards: "No More Blues," "I Believe in You" (from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "Shall We Dance." It was another light appetizer, a taste of what to expect when we returned the next day.

Photos: Sam Miltich and Matthew Miltich; Rondi Charleston and Rufus Reid.

Back when Sam Miltich was 18, NPR did a story about him.

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).