Jazz trumpeter John Raymond brings "Foreign Territory" home to Minnesota

Originally published in MinnPost, July 21, 2015

John Raymond
Photo by Ryan Anderson

Minneapolis native John Raymond left for New York in 2009 as a young jazz hopeful on his way to grad school. He comes through this week as an accomplished and lauded musician with two albums to his credit and a third on the way.

His latest, “Foreign Territory,” has its hometown release Thursday at the Dakota. The reviews have been glowing. Writing for the New York Times, jazz critic Nate Chinen called it “impressive” and “a substantial leap forward.” The jazz magazine DownBeat proclaimed that “Raymond is steering jazz in the right direction.”

The new recording has the right stuff: strong concept, fine players, and music that straddles the line between straight-ahead and avant-garde. You don’t have to know a thing about jazz to enjoy these thoughtful, often beautiful, sometimes playful melodies and sonic explorations.

The concept took shape in late 2013, when Raymond realized that originality didn’t have to mean writing music from scratch. He could return to the standards – the songs all jazz musicians and a lot of listeners know – and “just deconstruct and mess with them.” He could start with the chord changes, a song’s harmonic foundations, and see where they led.

Several tunes on “Foreign Territory” are built on other songs. “What Do You Hear” came out of “I Hear a Rhapsody.” “Rest/Peace” has roots in Horace Silver’s “Peace.” “Deeper” began as Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is the Ocean?”

For his band, Raymond turned to pianist Dan Tepfer and bassist Joe Martin, both established young musicians with solid reputations and open minds. On the advice of his producer, esteemed trumpeter John McNeil, he asked Billy Hart to play drums.

A major figure in jazz for half a century, and an artist who has helped to shape the landscape, Hart has worked with Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Charles Lloyd, McCoy Tyner and Stan Getz, to name a few. Today he teaches at Oberlin and the New England Conservatory and has his own quartet with Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner and Ben Street. He’s a member of the jazz supergroup The Cookers. His name on a CD is a guaranteed attention-getter.

Which is why Raymond hesitated.

“I obviously knew who he was, and I knew a little about him, but I wasn’t that familiar with his playing,” Raymond said in an interview Sunday. He didn’t want to just add a big-name drummer. “So I did my homework. I looked up a bunch of records he was on, bought a few, listened, and thought – wow. Ok, I get it.”

From left to right: Dan Tepfer, John Raymond, Billy Hart and Joe Martin
Photo by John Rogers

Hart won’t be at the Dakota on Thursday; an artist of his stature commands steep fees, and Raymond couldn’t afford to bring him in. Martin was unable to make the date. Raymond’s band here will be Tepfer, Chris Tordini on bass (Tordini was last at the Dakota in June with Becca Stevens) and drummer Jay Sawyer, who studied with Hart.

We spoke with Raymond about his life in New York, the state of jazz, and the challenges of making a living as a jazz musician.

MinnPost: What were your goals when you moved to New York in 2009?

John Raymond: Ever since high school, I had this dream of being a jazz trumpet player. I got hooked in the summer between my sophomore and junior years, when I heard a bootleg of [trumpeter] Nichols Payton playing live at the old Dakota [in Bandana Square].

I just wanted to play this music. I knew that to do that, I would have to be immersed in it, and New York seemed like the place to be.

MP: Six years later, are you where you hoped you would be?

JR:  I probably imagined myself further along. It takes a lot more to be a jazz trumpet player than I ever thought it would. The business of jazz is more nuanced than I had any idea about. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. At the end of the day, it’s an industry and a money thing.

My favorite trumpet player of all time is now Art Farmer. Art is well-known among people who know jazz, but he’s not Miles Davis, he’s not Dizzy Gillespie. There are reasons why certain people get the limelight. Some of those reasons are musical, some aren’t. I get the bigger picture now.

MP: What are your goals today?

JR: I want to be able to make some kind of income playing jazz, playing my own music, being a jazz trumpet player. I don’t want to be on the road six or eight months out of the year. I have no desire for that because I have a family. [Note: Raymond and his wife, Dani, have a five-month-old daughter.]

I also want to invest in the community I’m in, the musicians I’m around. We need to support each other. There’s no doubt there’s really not much money in jazz. Many players have to fight to make a living as musicians, and they’re some of the best jazz improvising musicians in the world.

Even if I were in the top 15 or 20 jazz trumpet players, could I make a living? I was so naïve about all of this until I moved to New York. Which probably worked out to my benefit. I was most concerned with what I was passionate about, so my naïvete actually helped me.

MP: What has been the best part of being in New York?

JR: I’m always thinking about growing, being better at whatever I’m doing. For me, being here affords me the opportunity to be around musicians who push me. I’m never in a comfortable musical environment here, and I mean that in a good sense.

I had a gig [recently] at Dizzy’s where the saxophone player threw down the most epic solo, as they do, and I was next. Sometimes I struggle with that because I’m thinking – whoa, that’s hard to top! But the goal isn’t to get the most applause and make the people in the audience go the most nuts. Or maybe that’s some people’s goal. It isn’t mine.

Ultimately, I want to play something singular to me, whatever that looks and sounds like. Jazz has got to be a very personal thing. The people who are able to communicate themselves are the ones who stand out.

I want to make a personal stamp on this music. To play it in a way where you might hear it and say, “Oh, that’s John.”

MP: What has been the worst part of being in the city?

JR: The wear and tear on you, emotionally and physically. It’s such a competitive, high-energy, high-octane place. Dani and I have found that we need to take regular trips out of the city, whether that’s up to New Jersey along the Hudson or coming back home [to the Midwest].

Sometimes you get so insulated here that you start to believe you’re the center of the universe and everything has to revolve around you. You get outside the city and realize that’s not the case at all.

MP: Has playing with Billy Hart changed you?

JR: It definitely has. He’s helped me be much more cognizant of playing to the audience. And he plays every single note at such a level of intensity. There’s so much commitment, authority and conviction [to Hart’s playing]. Especially as a horn player, I’ve learned how crucial it is for me to be as strong as possible. Not domineering strong, or tight-fisted strong, but having a lot of conviction. So whenever I play with him, I have to bring that on a different level.

MP: The title of your new album is “Foreign Territory.” What does that mean?

JR: The premise of the album is to take something familiar to us jazz musicians, and to jazz-educated audiences, and use it as a jumping-off point. To stretch it, change it, mutate and distort it and see where it goes. To take it into foreign territory. I think real magic happens on the bandstand, and for the audience, when you get into foreign territory.

What we’re going after is to be honest, spontaneous and in the moment. When you really have to use your ears and trust each other on the bandstand, exciting things can happen. That’s what makes jazz improvisation so thrilling.

MP: What will we hear Thursday at the Dakota?

JR: We’ll be playing all the music from the album. We’ll probably split it up over the two sets. The only addition might be a tune I first played with [Twin Cities-based pianist] Bryan Nichols last summer, a Charlie Haden tune called “Silence.”

MP: Why should people come to see you?

JR: I’m really excited to bring this band home and play this music at home. A lot has happened with me in New York, and in the past couple of years with this record, and I want to come home and say “Hey! Here’s what I’m doing. I still think about you all the time, Minnesota, and I still love you, and I want to share this with you because you had a part in this, too.”

Everybody hopes to have their hometown, their roots, cheer them on and support them.

MP: You’ve heard the saying that a prophet is never recognized in his own hometown.

JR: I know. I thought that immediately as I said that.

The John Raymond New York Quartet CD release show for “Foreign Territory” is Thursday, July 23, at 7 p.m. at the Dakota. Tickets ($25) are available online or by calling the box office at 612-332-5299.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Six reasons to hit the Iowa City Jazz Festival this Fourth of July weekend

Charles Lloyd is the superstar headliner

of this year's Iowa City Jazz Festival, July 2-4

Photo by John Whiting

We love the annual Iowa City Jazz Festival, held over the Fourth of July weekend, and go whenever we can. It’s a road trip from Minneapolis, but you can take a detour en route and visit a Frank Lloyd Wright site or two: Cedar Rock in Independence, the Wright-designed Historic Park Inn Hotel and the Stockman House (with interpretive center) in Mason City.

You can get lost and stumble across a farmers’ market. You can get distracted by wind farms, green fields, and silos, forget to pay attention, and end up crossing the Dubuque Bridge into Illinois. That adds a lot of miles. Don’t ask how I know that.

But if it’s a nice day, the drive can be the perfect head-clearing transition between life in the city and three days of music in a charming university town in the heartland.

Here’s why this year’s festival is so worth attending.

1. Awesome headliners. This is the festival’s 25th year, and the organizers have gone all out to make it truly memorable. These are the headliners, in alpha order: Ben Allison Think Free. Brian Charette Trio. Dave Douglas and High Risk. Julian Lage Trio. Charles Lloyd Quartet. Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls. Becca Stevens Band.

In a word, wow.

2. Variety. Let’s look more closely at the headliners.

Ben Allison Think Free: A bassist-led band including Jenny Scheinman on violin and Rudy Royston on drums.

Brian Charette Trio: A B3 player/pianist-led band including Rudy Royston on drums.

Dave Douglas and High Risk: A trumpeter-led electro-acoustic quartet, with a DJ. Apparently this comes out of an earlier ensemble called Keystone, which we saw at the Walker in 2010, so we’re really intrigued.

Julian Lage Trio: A guitarist-led trio. Vibraphonist Gary Burton knows how to pick guitarists for his band; Lage was the successor to Pat Metheny and Larry Coryell. Lage is a beautiful player. 

Charles Lloyd Quartet: A saxophonist-flutist-guru led band. Lloyd is one of our most important living musicians, a jazz giant and newly minted NEA Jazz Master whose influence is far-reaching and whose music is profound. Festival committee chair Don Thompson told the Iowa City Press-Citizen: “I’ve dreamed of having Charles Lloyd play our festival since I became involved many years ago.” Lloyd’s band: Gerald Clayton, Joe Sanders, Kendrick Scott. We’ll see them in Minneapolis a few days before Iowa City, because missing a live Charles Lloyd performance is not an option, and seeing him twice in one week on two different stages is an impossibly rare opportunity.

Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls: A saxophonist-led band, a fusion of modern jazz with South Indian classical music. Mahanthappa is a Doris Duke Performing Artist and a very powerful player; Bird Calls is his take on Charlie Parker. Can’t wait to hear it live.

(Too many saxophones? No. Lloyd and Mahanthappa are totally different. What they have in common is knock-your-socks-off excellence.)

Becca Stevens Band: A ukulele-playing-singer-led band. Kurt Elling has called Stevens one of his favorite jazz vocalists. Her new album, Perfect Animal, the one she’s touring behind and will feature in Iowa City, leans more pop than jazz, but her band is so tight, her voice and style so appealing that it’s all about good music. (We saw her in Minneapolis earlier this week and liked her very much.)

Also on the main stage: Atlantis Quartet. The popular and beloved Minneapolis modern jazz group recently won a prestigious McKnight Musician Fellowship. We’ll be cheering especially loudly for them. They write strong, solid original music and they play it very well.

There’s more. Following Dave Douglas on Friday night, Ron Miles and his group Whirlpool play at the Englert Theater starting at 11 p.m. Miles is a brilliant, elegant trumpeter-cornetist who often plays with Bill Frisell. (They played Iowa City together in 2009.)

And this, recently added: Charles Lloyd’s wife, artist and filmmaker Dorothy Darr, made a documentary film about Lloyd called Arrows Into Infinity that chronicles his life in music, his spiritual journey, his great friendship with the drummer Billy Higgins and more. The film screens at the Iowa City Public Library at 2 p.m. on Friday, to be followed by a q-and-a with Lloyd and Darr.

3. Smart scheduling. The headliners are on the main stage. No one else plays during their performances. In between the headliners, who perform every two hours, three side stages light up with local musicians and young musicians. 

Guitarist Steve Grismore, a co-founder of the festival, plays with his trio on Thursday. The electro-jazz ensemble Koplant No plays Saturday. So does the Dakota Combo, a group of high school musicians from Minneapolis. View the whole schedule here.

4. Location, location. Iowa City is compact, idyllic and scenic. A university town on the Iowa River, it’s lovely to walk around, with shops and galleries (AKAR, Iowa Artisans Gallery) and restaurants, patios, and places to sit. 

The city is home to the University of Iowa, which is home to the world-famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop, so all along Iowa Avenue you’ll find bronze plaques in the sidewalks with authors’ names and passages from their works. The city is one of just eight UNESCO-designed “Cities of Literature” in the world, and the only one in the United States.

The festival takes place on a lush green lawn in front of the Old Capitol, and on Clinton Street and Iowa Avenue, which are closed to traffic and open to aimless rambling. Following the final headliner (this year, Charles Lloyd), there will be fireworks over the river, visible from the festival site. The fireworks are always a perfect ending to the festival.

As a university town, Iowa City is full of students. It can be noisy at night, and the bars are usually ear-splitting and overflowing. If you’re not in your early 20s, there will be moments when you feel old. That’s just how it is. On the other hand, it’s kind of nice to be among all of those short shorts, halter tops and beards, even as a tourist.

And – this is one of the small miracles of the Iowa City Jazz Festival – you can take your chair to the festival site mid-morning, set it up where you want it, return hours later for the music, and your chair will still be there. 

Only once have we had cause to doubt that. Last year, we spent the last hour or so of the final night wandering, meeting friends, and taking photos. We returned and our chairs were not where we had left them. They had been moved about 10 feet and turned to face the fireworks. Two strangers were in them. We walked in their direction, they saw us, stood up immediately, and said “Sorry, we thought someone had forgotten them.”

Iowa City, never change.

5. Good fair food. Seriously. You can buy fried stuff if you want, but you can also buy amazing grilled and roasted stuff, and Indian food and other spicy, tasty edibles. You might want to make a dinner reservation for one night, but you can eat well on the street, without a reservation.

6. It’s free. Because of the generosity and civic-mindedness of many sponsors and supporters, every second of music at the festival is free. So thanks to the University of Iowa Community Credit Union, and MidWestOneBank, and Integrated DNA Technologies, and Oaknoll Retirement Community, and everyone else who stepped forward and put money in the bucket. Volunteers will be carrying buckets through the crowd during the festival, if you feel moved to make a contribution.

Related:

Iowa City Jazz Festival website

My interview with Dorothy Darr about Arrows Into Infinity

Interview with an astronaut: Talking with NASA’s Michael E. Fossum

Mike Fossum by John Whiting

NASA astronaut Mike Fossum is in St. Paul this week to help launch the Science Museum’s new exhibition, “SPACE: An Out-of-Gravity Experience.” If you’ve ever thought that being an astronaut is all glamor and glory, “SPACE” will disabuse you of that notion. It’s hard, exacting, dangerous and sometimes smelly work. And yet there are men (and women) who dream of going into space and eventually become part of what is truly an elite group.

Mike Fossum is one. He grew up poor (he didn’t tell us he’d grown up the grandson of sharecroppers, but we overheard him telling someone else), he prayed, he tried and tried again, and now he’s one of the few. To be honest, it was a thrill to speak with him. I’m not often star-struck, but I was around him.

PLE: How long are you in St. Paul?

Mike Fossum: I’m just here for a few days. The main events are today, associated with the opening of the new exhibit. Then back home, back to Houston.

Did I hear you say you were ready to return to the Space Station again?

I am ready. I have a chance. We’ll see. My doctors and my wife are conspiring against me.

I was reading your biography and learned that you have traveled some 77 million miles in space. I can’t get my head around that.

It’s kind of hard to even imagine. But you make enough trips around the planet – sixteen a day – and they add up over 194 days.

And now I realize I’m talking to a real astronaut and my mind has just gone blank.

[Laughs] I’m a normal guy with an outrageous job.

I’m in the generation where we followed everything the astronauts were doing. We watched the launches in school.

We watched them together.

And now it seems like there’s almost an indifference to the space program. What would you say to people to get them excited about it again, or at least pay attention?

Come to see [the “SPACE” show at the Science Museum]. Hear President Kennedy giving us his challenge to go to the moon, which was an outrageous challenge – we had barely launched rockets, to go to the moon in that amount of time took huge national resources, and we know there were geopolitical reasons for doing it, too. Then come through and see some of what the space shuttle program did. It was built to deliver big pieces of space stations to space, and it finally did it. Then see what we’re doing now with the space station, some of the science exhibits that are in here.

Then dream about where we’re looking for the future. Can you see yourself on Mars? There will be human footprints on Mars someday. I hope that there’s an American flag on their shoulder.

About motivating kids: In a lot of ways, they think space is impossible. I was born in Sioux Falls and grew up in one of the poorest parts of the country, down on the Mexican border in South Texas. This was an impossible dream for me, too. I found a way to get through college – it took an Air Force scholarship to help me pay for college, then the Air Force gave me opportunities to go to graduate school, and then I worked in flight test and went to test pilot school. I tried to take the best advantage of my opportunities – to study hard, to do well, to stand out as one of the best.

Maybe motivating school kids to study the science, technology, engineering, math, the STEM fields … but it’s not just about grade school kids. All of us are inspired by this. We did an astronaut selection about two years ago, and we had 6,000 people apply to be astronauts. These are people at the peak of their professional careers. They’re in math, science, engineering, medicine. There were teachers and test pilots. All are working their hearts out to be the best that they can be, and this is one of the things that’s inspiring them. I know it inspired me to reach a little deeper, to dig in and try a little harder to be the best, to be as good as I could be.

All of these people want my job. And there are people who don’t want my job, but they want to be part of something that’s big, huge, outrageous. Putting mankind, putting humans on Mars is an outrageous challenge. And it is hard. We do need the financial support to do it. And the nation has a lot of priorities for how we spend our money. I recognize that. I’m not saying it should be budgeted differently. I can’t make that claim. But it’s the reality of what we do.

But there’s a lot of good that comes from space, too. We’re learning so much now. We have over 2,000 different scientific investigations completed on the space station. Some are to help us develop systems that support the people that keep us healthy for a six, seven or eight month trip to Mars and back again. Some are to research what’s going on here.

The classic one is osteoporosis, bone loss. Without gravity, you begin losing bone ten time faster than a 70-year-old osteoporotic woman. We find that with the right exercise regimen – I came back [from 164 days in space] with essentially no change to my bones and muscles. I exercised, and I also tested a medicine. With the accelerated effects in space, you can test a medicine that would take a long period of time to investigate and prove side effects, prove benefits on the ground.

Mike Fossum by John Whiting

How many astronauts are there now?

There are only 42 active astronauts right now. We have eight junior guys in training that aren’t yet certified as astronauts. That’s down. Not that many years ago, we had 135 astronauts. We were flying 30 to 40 a year in the space shuttle. Right now we’re flying four a year on the space station. It’s a longer grind. It’s a two to two-and-a-half year training flow for a six-month mission. Shuttle missions were about a one-year training after you completed all of your initial training to get ready for assignment.

When you’re not flying, we’re all very, very busy. We’re supporting the development of the Orion capsule, which we tested back in December with great success. That’ll be our exploration vehicle to go further, beyond Earth orbit. I’m supporting the real-time operations on the space station right now. I work with crews in training, I work with the crews on orbit, I work with the mission control team and the mission managers as we’re juggling priorities, working through challenges. There are big meetings going on right now to see if we’re ready to do a space walk tomorrow, for instance. If I was in Houston, I would be doing that. I’m involved with those kinds of things.

Boeing and SpaceX are two companies that were selected to build human ships to get us to and from the space station so we will no longer be reliant solely on the Russians and their Soyuz space craft. That’s a good thing. The Russians have been great partners. There’s a lot of other challenges right now, including with our partnership, but we’re fortunate to be working with them.

I was a cold warrior. I spent the first half of my career as a cold warrior. Now I’m speaking Russian and walking across Red Square at will – not speaking Russian real well, but I can get by. It’s a dramatic change to the way things were. It’s an example of where we can cooperate and work together. We have 15 nations all bound at the hip, that are working together on this, and we need each other. The U.S. and Russia can’t walk away. The space station cannot function without both of us. We both bring critical things to the mission that have to be there to continue the mission.

In some ways, you could say, “Boy, what a dumb decision,” but in other ways, that’s how we saved some money, saved some costs, and we’ve got to find a way to get along. If you think about Earth as a spaceship, wouldn’t it be better if we just had to find a way to get along and resolve issues? Because it’s just imperative. Instead, we sit across borders and cause trouble with each other.

Out of all your high moments, and there have been many, what stands out for you as the highest?

For me, it was the first launch. I applied to over seven selection cycles over 13 years. I interviewed five times before I was selected. That set a record. Five interviews was a record. Somebody’s tied it. It’ll be hard to beat it, and I don’t wish that on anybody.

I have a passion to pursue this. Beyond passion, for me, it’s a calling. It’s a spiritual calling, that I was supposed to reach in this way. I never felt any guarantee that it would work out the way I dreamed it would, that I prayed it would.

Are you a religious man?

I am a religious man.

What faith, if you don’t mind my asking?

I’m a Christian. Lutheran.

I was Missouri Synod Lutheran.

I’m Missouri Synod Lutheran.

(We shake hands.)

After all of those years – 13 years of applying, the years before that dreaming, but now getting serious about it, working my heart out, trying to do as well as I could do in the educational opportunities and career opportunities, being selected as an astronaut – we had an accident that slowed things down, and it was eight more years from the time I was selected until I was strapping in.

Mike Fossum by John Whiting

Which accident?

Columbia. And so now, finally, it’s the Fourth of July in 2006, we’re sitting on the pad, we’ve had a couple of [delays] due to weather, but now it’s looking real, the weather’s good and the systems are coming up. There was some down time and I took a nap on the launch pad, sitting on four million pounds of explosive rocket fuel. I took a nap because I could feel the prayers lifting us up, and I felt – okay, I can release it for just a few minutes here.

I took about a 15-minute nap, and then it’s “Hey, Mike, wake up! We’re getting close!” Because you’re rush, rush, rush, and you’re in there, and now it’s like, what do you do? There’s some time built in for that purpose – not naps, but in case they need to work on communication or something.

So. Here we are. The engines come to life. I’ve dreamed about it forever. This ship that is now a living beast, you can feel it rumble as the main engines come to life. They do a quick gimbal check of them, and you can feel that – the ship itself does kind of a twang, it pushes over because the engines are at a little bit of an angle, they’re doing some quick checks in just a few seconds.

Then the solid rockets light and you are off like a scalded dog, as we say down in Texas. And you feel this incredible surge underneath you, and as you’re burning fuel you’re getting lighter, and so the pressures build and build and build. Eight and a half minutes later, boom, the engines cut off, your arms and your checklist float up off your lap, and you go “Wow!”

But I couldn’t just sit there and go “Wow,” I had a job to do. My job was to jump out of my seat quick as I could, grab still and video cameras and get to the window. We needed to get pictures of our external fuel tanks as they floated away, looking at foam damage to see if we’d been hit by any big pieces.

The tank wasn’t in view yet, so I’m sitting there looking out the window of the shuttle at the North Atlantic, and there’s this blue ocean with a dappling of white clouds, an impossibly black sky, and this curved horizon with a little thin band of atmosphere that’s very visible. And I realized with a shock, this isn’t a picture, this is not a video, it’s my eyeballs looking through some glass at God’s creation down below. And I thought, this is what it looks like when God’s looking down, and I said a prayer of thanks for making the dream come true, for getting us here safely, and – now I’ve got work to do, there’s the tank.

You had three launches?

Yes.

I hope you get to go back.

Me, too.

Our two cents in the 2014 Twin Cities Music Critics Tally, with reasons why

The cover of the Chris Bates Good Vibes Trio self-titled debut  recording

For the past few years, Chris Riemenschneider, local music columnist and reporter at the Minneapolis StarTribune, has invited me to join the annual Twin Cities Music Critics Tally, in which a bunch of us post our Top 10 lists of local releases and our "No. 1 sign the local music scene was alive and well" during the year in review.

Earlier this week, after hearing Karrin Allyson, an exceptional jazz singer with strong local ties, at the Dakota (with Laura Caviani at the piano), we headed to Icehouse, where JT Bates's Monday-night "Jazz Implosion" series featured the Regional Jazz Trio (Anthony Cox, Michael Lewis, JT) and guest trumpeter Greg Paulus, in town from NYC to visit his family for Christmas. On Saturday we were at Jazz Central Studios for the CD release of "Twin Cities Jazz Sampler: Volume One," an audio snapshot of a big part of the Twin Cities jazz scene. Jazz happens every night in many places. To find some tonight, or tomorrow, or any night, check the Twin Cities Live Jazz Calendar on the Jazz Police website.

Here's my Top 10 list for this year's Critics Tally, with reasons for my choices. This is not a ranked list. The lion's share is original music, with a few original arrangements of someone else's music. All albums but one are self-produced on microlabels.

Patty and the Buttons, “The Mercury Blues.” Because button accordionist Patrick Harison (Patty) is always worth watching. His music is both old-timey and fresh, and this album of all original songs made me laugh out loud and want to dance. The band: Harison on accordion, vocals, steel guitar, washboard and uke; Keith Boyles on bass; Tony Bailuff on clarinet; Mark Kreitzer on guitar. Buy it on Bandcamp.

Courageous Endeavors, “Prototype.” Because this is a very impressive first and probably last outing by four well-trained, opinionated young dudes. It's all new, original music by the band members, full of ideas, energy, unexpected twists and solid grooves. I say "probably last" because the group's co-founder, bassist Brian Courage, has relocated to NYC after two years in the Twin Cities, during which he showed up at everybody's gigs, played with almost everyone, earned respect and made a lot of fans and friends. With Nelson Devereaux on sax, Joe Strachan on piano and Miguel Hurtado on drums. Buy it on Bandcamp.

Firebell, “Impossible Vacation.” Because this is an altogether lovely album of fine writing and playing, melodic and musical, thoughtfully put together, well-recorded and worth close, quiet attention. The trio Firebell - Park Evans on guitar, Graydon Peterson on bass, Jay Epstein on drums and exquisitely shimmering cymbals - has played together since 2009, but this is their first CD. It's mostly originals, plus two unexpected pop hits, dusted off and shaken up: "Beyond the Sea," made famous by Bobby Darin in the late 1950s, and Del Shannon's "Runaway." Buy it on Shifting Paradigm Records.

Chris Bates Good Vibes Trio, “Good Vibes Trio.” Because it's just so good, and how can it not be, with Bates on bass, Dave Hagedorn on vibes and Phil Hey on drums? Over the past few years, Bates has been on fire, playing in multiple bands, showing up on MPR podcasts, emerging as a leader and making two exceptional albums: 2012's "Chris Bates' Red 5: New Hope" and now this. It's a satisfying mix of originals by all three and new arrangements of lesser-known tunes by David Berkman, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman and others. Buy it on Bandcamp.

Chris Lomheim, “Timeline.” Because Lomheim on piano is poetry, both as player and composer. His body of work is relatively small - "Timeline" is only his third album in 20 years - which makes it even more precious. Full of gorgeous lines, laced with real emotion, this is elegant, ethereal listening: piano trio perfection, with Gordy Johnson on bass and Jay Epstein on drums and cymbals. Buy it from the artist.

Dean Magraw and Eric Kamau Gravatt, “Fire on the Nile.” Because the first time I heard about this project - just Magraw on guitar and Gravatt on drums, two seasoned masters of melody, improvisation, and music history, turned loose in the studio to do whatever they wanted - I did the happy dance. That Red House Records took a chance made it even better. (Red House is a traditionally singer-songwriter label.) Magraw calls his music "Heavy Meadow." Gravatt spent years on the road with McCoy Tyner. The results of their collaboration are unpredictable, playful, serious and joyous. Buy it from Red House.

Adam Meckler Orchestra, “When the Clouds Look Like This.” Because Meckler's original compositions for a whole lot of instruments are tuneful, atmospheric, lush and cinematic. Parts here and there, and the whole title track, seem inspired and informed by Maria Schneider, which I mean as the highest possible compliment. The musicians are (deep breath) Adam Meckler, Tom Krochock, Sten Johnson, Cameron Kinghorn and Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, trumpets; Keith Hilson, Nick Syman, Mason Hemmer and Jenn Werner, trombones; Nelson Devereaux, David Hirsch, Ben Doherty, Shilad Senn and Angie Hirsch, saxophones; Steven Hobert and Joe Strachan, piano; Trent Baarspul, guitar; Adrian Suarez and Pete Hennig, drums; Graydon Peterson and Chris Bates, bass. Buy it on Bandcamp.

The cover of "Ghost Dance," a sweet year-end surprise

Casey O’Brien: “Ghost Dance.” Because this came as such a sweet end-of-year surprise. It almost didn't make the list; I learned about it second-hand and listened at the last possible minute. (It wasn't officially available until December 14. The CD release is set for January 5 at Icehouse.) So glad I did, because it's a beauty. O'Brien on bass, Nathan Hanson on saxophones and Davu Seru on drums play eight of O'Brien's original compositions. This is music of seeking and finding, pensiveness, tenderness, and a spirituality reminiscent of Charles Lloyd. Even when the tempo speeds up, it takes its time. Buy it on Bandcamp.

Peter Vircks, “What You Believe Is True.” Because it has everything: great writing, playing, band, spirit and soul. With Ron Evaniuk on bass, Kevin Washington on drums and Brian Ziemniak on piano, guests Schoen Oslund on guitar and Michael Nelson on trombone, Vircks plays eight of his own compositions and one by Evaniuk - some straight-ahead, some funkified. This is Vircks' first CD as a leader, and it's one with broad appeal. Buy it from cdbaby.

Jeremy Walker, “7 Psalms.” Because it's profound, majestic and brave. Even those of us who knew Walker's story - a career as a saxophonist sidelined by Lyme disease, the switch to piano and a renewed focus on composition - could not have predicted this evening-length work for jazz quartet, solo voice and choir, based on the unabridged texts of seven psalms. Allow me to quote myself, since I couldn't say it any better if I tried: "Inspired by Johnny Cash and John Coltrane, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Radiohead, Walker wrote new music for the ancient Hebrew poems that are cries for help, howls of frustration and shouts of joy: 'Have mercy on me, O Lord.' 'How long, O Lord?' 'Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.'" With Jason Harms, soloist; Walker on piano; Brandon Wozniak on alto saxophone; Jeff Brueske on bass; Tim Zhorne on drums; and the 7 Psalms Chamber Choir led by Brian Link. Buy it from cdbaby, amazon or itunes. 

The cover of Jeremy Walker's "7 Psalms"

My No. 1 sign the local music was alive and well in 2014:

“Twin Cities Jazz Sampler: Volume One.” Released Dec. 20, conceived by trumpeter Steve Kenny and crowd-funded through Kickstarter, the Sampler symbolizes the resilience of jazz at a time when making a living at it seems especially hard. The Artists’ Quarter has been dark for a year, and the Dakota, like many jazz clubs, has opened its doors to all kinds of music, yet jazz is heard across the Twin Cities every night, from Jazz Central to Icehouse, the Black Dog, Studio Z, and now even Orchestra Hall. Buy it at cdbaby.

The Sampler includes tracks by the Adam Meckler Orchestra, Chris Bates Good Vibes Trio, Courageous Endeavors, and Chris Lomheim Trio. You can check them out, along with several others, then go out and hear them play live at places like Jazz Central, the Black Dog and Studio Z.

_________

Related:

"Lightning meets thunder on new record by Magraw and Gravatt" in the Minneapolis StarTribune

"Jazz composer Jeremy Walker gives an ear to Psalms" in the Minneapolis StarTribune

"The miracle of Jeremy Walker's '7 Psalms': Concert review" on bebopified

"First Twin Cities Jazz Sampler is just the beginning" at MinnPost