New Smithsonian Jazz Anthology due out March 29

The original Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a cornerstone of many jazz record collections. Long out of print, it's also hard to find, and if you do find it, you'll pay a premium.

Good news: Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (no longer "classic") will be released on March 29. It's 80 percent new, with 111 tracks (vs. the old 95) on 6 CDs (vs. 5) covering the years 1917–2003.

Why stop at 2003? I guess that's a question to ask the 43-person advisory panel or one of the 35 contributing writers or 145 total contributors. (The original seems like it might have been a simpler endeavor: selected and annotated by Martin Williams, with biographies by Ira Gitler.)

John Hasse, a fellow Carleton graduate (and author of the definitive Ellington biography Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington), was on the selection committee and served as one of the producers.

The set comes with a 200-page book. A complete track listing is available here. SRP is $107.98; you can preorder and save $18 (at the moment; the preorder price supposedly goes up soon). Amazon has a preorder price of $96.95 and free shipping.

Raymond Hayes' Top 10 Jazz CDs of 2010

Jazz writers are supposed to create Top 10 lists. Maybe next year. Meanwhile, here's a list from Ray Hayes. Ray is one of my go-to guys for jazz expertise. He listens to a lot of music and attends a lot of shows, and I trust his opinions and his judgment. Someday I would love to get a look at his music collection. bb

TOP 10 JAZZ CDs 2010

1. Brad Mehldau: Highway Rider

This was the most anticipated jazz release of 2010. I can happily say it was worth the hype. Mehldau starts with his normal trio of Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard, then adds Joshua Redman on sax, Matt Chamberlain as an additional drummer, and, last but certainly not least, a chamber orchestra. This is a suite of songs—or compositions, if you prefer—that ostensibly take you on a journey, which can be either literal or figurative, like a journey through your life. It is a long record, a double CD, but surprisingly not difficult to listen to. That's because of Mehldau's writing, which right now is at the top of the game. These types of jazz/classical collaborations usually see one side or the other just looking on from the sidelines. That does not happen here. Everybody seems fully engaged. I look forward to Mehldau's future jazz/classical collaborations. But even if he does not do any more, this one’s for the books.

2. Darcy James Argue: Infernal Machines

This officially came out last year, but I probably listen to it as much this year as I do anything else. Here is a big band for the 21st century, with as much indie rock and electronica influences as there are Duke Ellington and Count Basie influences. Again, really smart songwriting or composing is the real secret here. Add some of the hottest young players in New York and you have one of the stellar releases, not just of this year but any year. Argue also has one of the coolest websites around, called Secret Society, which is also the name of his band. He records all of his concerts and allows you to download them for free. He is also one of the smartest writers about music. The only bad thing about this is waiting for his next project.

CD review: Kurt Elling's "The Gate": From King Crimson to amen

Kurt Elling by Timothy Saccenti

The successor to a Grammy winner is eagerly awaited, then examined under a high-powered microscope. Will it be as good? Will it be better? Will it be a letdown? 

Fans of jazz singer Kurt Elling who have waited a year and a half for the follow-up to 2009’s Dedicated to You, his Grammy-winning tribute to/reinterpretation of the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman classic, will be thrilled by The Gate. Listeners new to Elling (and to pianist/arranger Laurence Hobgood, Elling’s longtime collaborator) will want to catch up on earlier albums. 

Among male jazz singers today, right now, Elling stands alone. He simply has the most exceptional voice out there. Famously spanning four octaves, resonant and warm, it mostly lives in baritone land but can rise to a dazzling falsetto. He’s a master of dynamics and phrasing, texture and tone, and his swing seems effortless, like breathing. One moment he can woo you with a tender ballad, the next astonish you with rapid-fire, acrobatic scatting. He’s a romantic and a hipster, sincere and playful, authentically charismatic. He writes his own vocalese lyrics, many of which are pure poetry. 

It seems there’s nothing he can’t do, and if he’s increasingly being mentioned in the same breath as Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme and Louis Armstrong, it’s because he deserves it.

Live jazz to see in Minneapolis-St. Paul: This week’s picks

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.


Many music fans (and most jazz musicians in town) have probably heard by now that Cafe Maude in south Minneapolis will stop featuring live jazz as of March 1. It was one of the few places in town we could count on for improvised music played by top area musicians and interesting visitors. Maude, we'll still love your flatbread and grilled brussels sprouts and creative cocktails, but your music will be sorely missed. Although it's not over yet: on Friday, you can hear the Joel Shapira Quartet starting at 9.


More music for this weekend and into next week:

Jon Weber at the Artists’ Quarter

An affable, entertaining genius, pianist Jon Weber once claimed to know 20,168 songs. Today that number is probably on the low side. In a rare winter appearance in the Twin Cities (he’s a regular at our Jazz Festival each summer), he’ll pull who knows what from his bag of tricks—stride, straight-ahead, original compositions, tunes jam-packed with musical quotes—and he’ll tell you the birth dates of the composers.

9 p.m. Friday, Artists’ Quarter ($10).

Hollywood Cabaret: The 30s at the Black Box Theater, Bloomington Theatre and Art Center

The first in a series of three “Hollywood Cabaret” concerts in the intimate Black Box Theater celebrates the era of the great Hollywood musicals.

News about e.s.t.

For e.s.t. fans, the latest press release from their manager in London:

Today we have launched the new website for Magnus Öström:

www.magnusostrom.com <http://www.magnusostrom.com>

Magnus Öström will release the first album as a leader of his career on February 25, 2011. The album is titled “Thread of Life” (ACT) and you can listen to short samples of some songs on the website. We will inform you again in late February when the album hits the stores.

For Magnus this release ends over two years of silence after the untimely death of Magnus´ childhood friend and band colleague Esbjörn Svensson in the summer of 2008. Together with Dan Berglund (bass) they had formed e.s.t., the genre-defining jazz trio of the past decade. The first European jazz band ever to be featured on the cover of the American jazz-bible, the “Downbeat” magazine. Awarded with nearly every prize in the book from Swedish Grammys to the Guinness Jazz Award in Ireland, the British Jazz Award, four German Jazz Awards in platinum and uncounted in gold, Album of the Decade for “Live in Hamburg” by the London Times, the special prize of the MIDEM in France, “Choc”s for nearly every album release and the Export Music Prize by the Swedish Government. And the list goes on …

It was a big hit for Magnus and it therefore does not surprise that the music on the album develops a depth and intensity that mirrors the existential feelings and borderline experiences he made in the course (or curse) of the past two years. His signature sound, that already graced e.s.t. albums, is unmistakably present and listeners can discover his talent to compose catchy hook-lines and create a “soundscape” of amazing depth and beauty. 

Maude in photos

Just some of the music we heard at Cafe Maude over the years. It was a good run. The music at Maude ends March 1.

Bryan Nichols and Dean Magraw

Firebell (Park Evans, Jay Epstein, Graydon Peterson)

The music ends at Maude

Nathan Hanson

Cafe Maude opened in southwest Minneapolis on Thursday, June 7, 2007, and has featured live music nearly every weekend ever since. Not just live music, but really good live music by top area musicians and visitors from out of town. And not just really good music, but usually improvised music, a.k.a. avant-garde music, free jazz, or whatever you choose to call it.

An incomplete list of musicians who have performed at Maude, in no particular order: Chris Thomson, Chris Morrissey, Bryan Nichols, Tim Glenn, Anthony Cox, Jay Epstein, Dean Granros, Patrick Harison, Dean Magraw, Dosh, Paul Metzger, Michael Lewis, Adam Linz, JT Bates, Chris Bates, Dave King, James Buckley, Milo Fine, Davu Seru, Alden Ikeda, Earworm, Eric Gravatt, Park Evans, Luke Polipnick, Rahjta Ren, Jeremy Boettcher, Sean Carey, Zacc Harris, Brandon Wozniak, Josh Granowski, Todd Clouser, Peter Schimke, Graydon Peterson, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Brian Roessler, Pete Hennig.

As of March 1, there will be no more music at Maude. Bookings already scheduled for that month have been cancelled. I spoke with owner Kevin Sheehy yesterday to find out why, although I already knew the reason: the challenge of running a restaurant in a cruel economy. Over the past few years, he had done everything possible to keep the doors open and finally concluded that the music had to go. If he stops paying musicians, moves the piano out, and replaces the stage with a banquette and more tables, maybe Maude will survive.

Live jazz to see in Minneapolis-St. Paul: This week’s picks

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.

The temperatures are plummeting (25 below this morning? Seriously?), but the jazz calendar is heating up. The Loring Theater (formerly the Music Box Theater) is booking jazz performances worth going out for: last week’s Dave King Trucking Company, and the forthcoming (Feb. 4) solo appearance by avant-garde pianist Matthew Shipp. The “Musique Mystique Dans La Chambre Rouge” (Mystical Music in the Red Room) series at the Loring Pasta Bar (no relation) is well underway, with Tim Sparks scheduled to appear with Connie Evingson on Jan. 31. Roberta Gambarini closes out this month at the Dakota and starts the next. Grammy winner Kurt Elling comes to town for two nights (Feb. 9-10) right after the release of his new CD, The Gate, on Concord. Later that month (Feb. 27), you can hear Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard at Orchestra Hall. In between, on Feb. 12, the Israeli guitarist Roni Ben-Hur performs at the St. Paul JCC. See the calendar at right for details.

Meanwhile, dress warm, check your wiper fluid, and get out there. If the artists can brave the weather (often carrying their own gear), so can we.

Nellie McKay at the Dakota

As I write this, I’ve just returned from Thursday night’s performance, and as many times as I’ve seen Nellie McKay perform, I’m still astonished. She combines stereotypical ditsy blonde shtick with a savage intelligence, wicked wit, and genuine sweetness (her version of "Midnight Sun" is enchanting). She sings Jobim and Doris Day, reggae and original tunes, jazz standards and tongue-in-cheek screeds (“Feminists don’t have a sense of humor…They have a tumor on their funnybone”). Her voice is unremarkable, her piano playing passable, but she defines originality. Club owner Lowell Pickett introduced her as “fresh out of rehab.” Surely that was her idea.

7 p.m. Friday, Dakota ($32). Tickets online or call 612-332-5299 (JAZZ).