Frankhouse at the Black Dog

When: Friday, July 24, 2009 • Where: Black Dog • Who: Dan Frankowski, trumpet and flugelhorn; Shilad Sen, saxophone; Karl Koopmann, guitar; Graydon Peterson, bass; Dave Stanoch, drums

Still to come: a review of Frankhouse's CD release at the Artists' Quarter in June. Tonight was their first performance since then, with more scheduled for the coming months: at the 318 in August, the Dakota in September. I like this group a lot, and their approach to music: serious with a sense of fun.

Their choice of covers and how they play them is revealing. Joni Mitchell's "All I Want," Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground," Michael Jackson's "Human Nature"--all songs we know, interpreted from a jazz/improv perspective (but not necessarily swing jazz, Frankowski explains). Then, out of the blue, Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Well, why not? (They also cover Kevin Washington's "Three Days," a beautiful ballad with a plaintive melody that's crying out for lyrics. What a torch song that would be.)

Where they really shine is on Frankowski's original compositions: bright, upbeat tunes like "Ambulatory;" "Enough," with its soaring theme (and intertwining horns); the sly, witty "Folly;" the menacing "Don't." He writes melodies that stay with you, that bear repeated hearings, that sound even better live, then you return home and put on their CD, Thought versus Emotion, and enjoy them all over again. Ed Jones at KBEM has said more than once that he thinks it's one of the best CDs of the year. Find it at CD Baby.

Starting out, the crowd at the Black Dog was small. Which may have something to do with the fact that Cirque de Soleil has literally pitched its tents for its latest touring show, Kooza, in the Dog's backyard and parking, always a challenge in Lowertown, is now impossible. Kooza runs through August 9.

Frankhouse's MySpace
Photo: Silly iPhone shot of the band and someone's not-yet-cleared dinner dishes. L to R: Stanoch, Sen, Peterson, Frankowski, Koopmann (hidden behind Frankowski).

Ingo Bethke

When: Friday, July 25, 2008 • Where: Dakota • Who: Geoff Senn, trumpet; Shilad Sen, tenor saxophone; Stefan Kac, tuba; Steve Gilbertson, piano; Matt Peterson, bass; Nick Zielinski, drums

When a new band (like Ingo Bethke) starts up, it doesn’t consist of people who moved here yesterday. All are in other bands, other configurations, playing various types of music around town. Kelly Rossum thinks this is part of what makes the Twin Cities a thriving jazz community—the opportunity to play all kinds of music with many different musicians and some of the same musicians as they move from band to band. I'd add to that the opportunity to listen. For example, hearing Bryan Nichols play with Connie Evingson is not the same as hearing him play with Michael Lewis.



Everyone in Ingo Bethke plays or has played in other bands around town. (They all played together formerly in a band called The Journey.) I’ve seen Shilad Sen with Snowblind and Stefan Kac in a surprising number of places, considering he plays the tuba, not an instrument many people associate with jazz.

We hear an extended composition by Kac—“Lights of Loveland,” I think it was, for which he recently won an International Tuba Euphonium Association award. Something by Buster Williams. Something that sounds like the soundtrack to a Fellini movie with carnivals and masks. Gilbertson's "Chaos Theory." Another Kac opus, "Caitlin's Tune." An Ornette Coleman tune. Solid straight-ahead stuff, too.

Sometimes the tuba is so low you can barely hear it, like distant thunder.

About the name Ingo Bethke: One of the band members (probably Zielinski) tells the story of how Bethke was a German who busted his brother out of East Germany in 1988. Is it true? There are stories about Ingo and Holger Bethke on the Web but they’re in German. Zielinski has a thing about the Cold War; read his MySpace bio to learn more about that.



I like the sound of this group. It’s an interesting blend of instruments; a tuba always adds dimension and something else I haven’t yet figured out how to define/describe. It’s like a foundation for the rest of the music, but a foundation with open spaces. The notes linger and sigh and unfurl.

The music is inventive but not too out there. More or less what I expected after I saw Ingo Bethke on the schedule for a free concert in a Minneapolis city park earlier this summer. When people are walking and biking in you can’t feed them a big helping of avant-garde jazz.


Photos by John Whiting.

Snowblind

When: 4/9/07
Where: Dakota
Who: Shilad Sen (tenor saxophone), Adam Rossmiller (trumpet), Scott Agster (trombone), Graydon Peterson (bass), Reid Kennedy (drums)

I caught Snowblind only briefly at the Winter Jazz Fest and was overdue to hear more. All brass, drums, and bass, no keyboards of any kind, they have a sound all their own. Listen on MySpace or on their Web site.

We hear "Night and Day," trombonist Agster's "Entre'acte," and a new composition by Sen called "Journey." Sen tells us they're recording tonight's show for a possible third CD. Kennedy's arrangement of "Pajamas" starts by quoting the Brahms Lullabye.

I like the tight, bright and airy sound of all that brass. And I like how SnowBlind is dressed to the nines in suits and ties. Of course good music does not depend on what the musicians wear, blah blah, but I appreciate it anyway. It makes me think they're serious.

They play "Sleepers," a tune by bassist Peterson, whom I rarely see when he's not backing a singer (usually Christine Rosholt). When there's a singer, that's where the spotlight goes, and it's good to hear what Peterson can do in this type of setting.

The first set (the only one we can stay for—we're on the way to the Times for Arne Fogel) continues with "Country Drive," which Sen introduces as another original and the band's favorite ballad. "This has been our dinner music set--mellower," he explains. They end with the not-so-mellow "Shake It."

If Snowblind had an email list, I'd sign up for it. I like this group. Does anyone else think Reid Kennedy looks like Ed Norton?

Photo by John Whiting.