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."
When: 4/3/08 Where: The Rosewood Room at Visage Nightclub Who: Atlantis Quartet: Brandon Wozniak (saxophone), Zacc Harris (guitar), Travis Schilling (bass), Pete Hennig (drums)
Two worlds collided on the first night of an intriguing start-up. Jeremy Walker and Jason Jungbluth (mostly Jason) of Jazz is NOW! are curating a new jazz series in the Rosewood Room, sister club to Visage Nightclub. Located in Minneapolis's warehouse district on 3rd Avenue North, about equidistant between the Deja Vu strip club and the site of the new Twins stadium (currently under construction), the Rosewood is a cavernous space with high ceilings, a large central fireplace, a few cushy chairs and sofas, and a painting of Venice over the bar.
I've never been to Visage, but the Web site describes the entertainment it provides: lollipop parties, naughty-or-nice Santa parties, and fashion shows:
So maybe the nightclub is one thing and the jazz club will be another? It's possible but will take some doing. The bartender and servers were dressed as if they had just come from one of the fashion shows. Three young women walked in with their dates and sat at the bar. They were wearing very high heels, very short dresses, and, according to HH, no underpants. I asked how he knew and it's not what you think.
The drinks were reasonably priced and the appetizers we had were delicious: walleye cakes with sweet bell pepper relish, scallops and smoked tomatoes with orange marmalade and coucous. When we got our bill, we learned that our server's name is Sex Panther.
Okay, I'm having too much fun with this and it's really not fair. I would love to see Jason succeed. A new jazz venue means more work for jazz artists, and that's a good thing. The music he has programmed so far is definitely worth seeing.
The Atlantis Quartet, fronted by Brandon Wozniak (the sax player we saw at the Dakota Late Night last Friday) was overmiked and underlit but their music is fresh. Hear samples on their Web site.
On the schedule for the next few weeks: the Chris Thomson Quartet on April 10, the Reid Kennedy Trio on April 17 (Kennedy is with Snowblind), and the Chris Bates Trio on April 24.
I'd go almost anywhere to see any of those groups. Will I return to the Rosewood? Probably, but how many times will depend on how things shake out. Or maybe the club will draw a whole new audience for the music. I'm crossing my fingers and taking a wait-and-see.
My favorite Wednesday night dinner out: Cave Vin. Since late last year, singer Rhonda Laurie has brought gypsy jazz to this cozy southwest Minneapolis neighborhood bistro once a week.
The room is divided (sort of) into a smaller front section with tables and wine bar and a larger back section with banquettes and open kitchen. The first Wednesday we went, most people were sitting in the larger back section. This time, most were sitting in the smaller front section, facing the band and listening to the music.
Laurie usually performs with Philipsek and Brueske; Schulte's violin was a perfect addition to the group and I hope he appears with them more often. Three of us (HH, Andrea Canter, and I) had a lovely dinner (crab-crusted halibut, scallops, steak) and shared a pot de creme.
This is a French bistro, with things on the menu I won't eat (frog legs and snails). But the food and the service have been consistently good in the years HH and I have been coming here, and now we get to hear Laurie and her band as well, really hear them, not battle the crowd noise (think Crave and Maude) to catch a single note.
Photo: Laurie (center) performing with the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota at the Artists' Quarter in 2007. Next time I'll get a picture (or HH will) at Cave Vin.
I've seen bassist Palombi play many times with Curtis Stigers, both here and in NYC at IAJE. He recently left that band and showed up at the Dakota with the Terell Stafford Quintet. We went for both nights and hung out after at the Local on the second night, where I offered to make Palombi a hat. Tim Warfield could probably use one, too, but I didn't get a chance to speak with him.
This is becoming the signature Hats-for-Cats hat; it's the same one (different color) I made for Joe Doermann and the one I'll be making for three members of Irvin Mayfield's band. Because it's ribbed, it fits most heads; because it's cotton, it doesn't itch.
When: 3/29/08 Where: Back Alley Gallery, Lowertown St. Paul
Jason and Peter are among our favorite potters. We've been buying their pots for years. We returned from their 5th Annual Pottery Sale with a pitcher by each artist, a vase by Peter, and a bowl by Jason. All will get a lot of use.
Photos from the sale:
Why buy handmade pottery: Trebs: “Because you can use it.” Jadoonath: “It’s an approachable art form, and affordable.”
On pottery and relationship: Trebs: “When something I make becomes part of someone’s personal space, that’s an intimate relationship.” Jadoonath: “The idea of someone buying a cup I made, and touching it to their lips—that’s an intimate thing. You don’t buy a painting and kiss it.”
Photos by John Whiting. Top: Peter (left) and Jason. A table at the sale. One of Peter's creature pots.
I haven’t seen Wozniak before; he plays around town with Atlantis Quartet and The 3Rio. I learn from his MySpace page that he spent six months working in a jazz club in Shanghai. I like his sound. Tasha Baron is new to me, too; our friends Ben&Amy tell us she’s with Black Blondie. MySpace says she’s also with Hips Don’t Lie and Sferic Witch.
This is the first time these five have played together. Dan Eikmeier, who books the late-night shows, pulled them together and it works. They start with Kenny Garrett’s “Sing a Song of Song,” end with something called (I think) “Play It Twice.” It’s Late Night so there’s a lot of chitchat, even at our table, but I’m glad we stayed.
When: 3/28/08 Where: McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center Who: 7 Black Butterflies is Tim Berne on alto saxophone, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Craig Taborn on piano, Drew Gress on bass, Tom Rainey on drums. Prezens is David Torn on guitar, Berne, Taborn on electronics (Fender Rhodes, mellotron, bent circuits), Rainey.
Jazz at the Walker is always edgy and tonight is no exception. Gress and his group are the opening act for Prezens, which gets top billing. They give us a beautiful acoustic set of improvised music. Since no one announces anything and I’m not that familiar with Gress’s music, I just listen and enjoy. The first piece is fiery and thrilling, the second a gorgeous ballad. I'm listening to the first 7 Black Butterflies CD (2005) as I write this and thinking how much I like the sound.
Last night over Mai Tais, Irvin Mayfield’s bassist Carlos Henriquez reminded us he’d been in Minneapolis/St. Paul several times before, with Danilo Perez and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. “A lot of people come through this town,” he said. I remember that as I watch Gress (who was here with Ravi Coltrane earlier this month), Taborn (here in February with Chris Potter Underground), and Berne (here last September with his band Buffalo Collision). Alessi is new to me but I like him a lot. The 7 Black Butterflies set last about 45 minutes—too short.
The Walker’s Steinway (which Taborn played in the first set) goes away before Prezens comes on. Now the making of music has much to do with turning dials and stepping on buttons and pedals.
Torn is wearing a big fur hat and his guitar looks like something out of the Jetsons. Rainey starts out by hitting his sticks together, then transitions to shaking something wrapped in plastic bags. The band crescendos into buzzing and screaming, decrescendos into soft beeps.
Taborn dances before his stack of keyboards and boxes with buttons. Rainey plays drums with his elbows and Berne mutes his sax with a water bottle. Torn reaches into the back of a box with a lot of wires coming out of it. I can tell (mostly) what Berne and Taborn and Rainey are doing, but Torn is a puzzle.
I’m happy to see and hear Taborn and Berne play almost anything, but the Prezens set is a challenge for me. I don’t love it. Since then I’ve heard that Torn’s music is best approached on recordings, since he layers and edits so much. Until now I’ve preferred free/avant jazz best in live performance. Maybe that’s not possible when the music is so tied to electronics?
Photos, top to bottom: Dave Torn's busy foot, 7 Black Butterflies (not shown: Taborn and the Steinway, off to the left); Torn, Berne, and Rainey; Taborn
When: 3/26, 27, 28/08 Where: Dakota Who: Irvin Mayfield (trumpet), Leon Brown (trumpet), Vincent Gardner (trombone), David Torkanowsky (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), Jaz Sawyer (drums)
Whenever I read about a jazz artist or group spending a week at Birdland or the Blue Note or the Jazz Standard, it makes me crazy. A residency of several days is the ultimate opportunity to hear what live jazz is about: creating, evolving, in the moment.
As I write this, Lee Konitz is in the midst of a six-day stay at the Standard with his trio (Rufus Reid on bass, Matt Wilson on drums) and guest Danilo Perez on piano. I can’t imagine that group is playing the same tune the same way even once.
Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, most artists from out of town stay a day or two, sometimes three. Irvin Mayfield was here at the end of February with his New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He returned for three nights at the Dakota with his sextet, and we went to all three late sets.
Wednesday is an all-music night: “Mack the Knife,” “All of Me” (with Leon singing; he’s been practicing and it shows), “Mandinga” (a Cuban tune from the Los Hombres Calientes days), “St. James Infirmary” (Mayfield sings, and his style is interesting: the word “hat” becomes “hay-ay-at,” and “song” becomes “saw-waw-wong”).
There’s a relaxed, loose playfulness to this band, with a lot of back-and-forth (verbal and musical) and laughter on stage. While one is singing, another eggs him on (“Where’d you go?” “What’d you say?” “What’d you do that for?”).
At one point Mayfield bumps Torkanowsky off his bench and takes over the comping. Later Brown picks up a water glass from a nearby table and uses it as a mute for his trumpet.
Toward the end of the set, Mayfield calls Christine Rosholt to the stage for a song. She announces “Squeeze Me” and nails it. She bosses the band around. She asks for and gets a duet with bassist Henriquez. She even gives us a bitty scat (be-de-be-da-be-doo) and Christine never scats. It’s a terrific performance. Go Christine!
Watch Don Berryman's video from Wednesday's early set.
On Thursday, Mayfield makes many references to the New Orleans Public Library, for which he serves as chairman of the board. The mezzanine is full of librarians from NOLA, in town for the Public Library Association annual meeting and enjoying the Dakota on Mayfield’s dime.
Mayfield greets them and teachers from Kenwood School in Minneapolis, where he spent part of the day. He reads us a book he read to the children: The Jazz Fly by Matthew Gollub. His band plays along and the audience buzzes whenever Mayfield says “fly.” It’s charming and fun.
Mayfield is happy to be here. “There’s no better relationship than the top of the Mississippi River and the bottom of the Mississippi River,” he says.
He also reads a poem by the late film director and photographer Gordon Parks, with whom he collaborated on the Half Past Autumn Suite. And a poem by Pablo Neruda, “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines.” “Love is so short, forgetting is so long,” Mayfield reads, then adds “Lord have mercy!”
It’s a jazz book club, with music: “You Go to My Head” (Vincent sings, the first time I've heard him do that), a “Mandinka” reprise, “All of Me” (Brown sings), a second-line finale complete with guerilla tap dancers who show up on stage and bring the house down.
After the show, several of us go to the King and I Thai restaurant for Mai Tais. Brown, Henriquez, and Gardner are now on my Hats for Cats list.
We’re back on Friday after seeing 7 Black Butterflies and Prezens Quartet at the Walker (more about that separately). It’s an open curtain night, very crowded. I go to say hi to friends seated on the dining room side and am introduced to Kathleen Battle, in town for a performance Sunday at Orchestra Hall. I’m star-struck and babbling.
Tonight is more similar to Thursday than to Wednesday, with readings of The Jazz Fly, Parks, and Neruda. Brown sings “When My Dream Boat Comes Home.” Another guest singer takes the stage, and this one is nearly a train wreck; the band can't find the key she's in, everyone stops playing, and for a few bars she's singing "Summertime" a cappella. The audience falls stone silent. No one breathes. But she hangs in and so does the band. Afterward, a gracious Mayfield explains that these things happen.
The tap dancers return and we learn that they’re pros. Two tall, insane brothers named Rick and Andy Ausland from company called Buckets and Tap Shoes.
In retrospect, I’m not sure how much evolution I heard in Mayfield’s music, but it was a three-day party and I had a great time. I now have a signed Mayfield/Gordon Parks poster and Mayfield’s new CD with Ellis Marsalis, Love Songs, Ballads and Standards. I woke up on Friday with a Mai Tai headache. And I have to make three hats.
Photos, top to bottom: The sextet; Leon "Chocolate" Brown; Christine and Henriquez (all John Whiting). Henriquez plays while Mayfield reads from Neruda. Tap dancing (John Whiting).
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:
