Jazz Night Out

There's live music at 16 clubs and restaurants tonight, and a free trolley to take you from one to the next and the next after that. You can hear singers, straight-ahead jazz, piano jazz, salsa with soul, some blues and roots, improvisation, and the Great American Songbook. You can take your beer on the trolley. Are you in New Orleans? New York? Surely not St. Paul, Minnesota.

When the Twin Cities Jazz Festival moved this year from mostly Minneapolis to exclusively St. Paul, it brought along one of my favorite parts: the Jazz Night Out that opens the festival. Buy a button for $15, ride around free from 8:30 pm to 12:30 am, get in free everywhere, save a buck on beer and rail drinks. A fun way to spend a summer evening.

We have dinner at the Bulldog, then go to the Camp Bar for the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota show (where we hear Gregg Marquardt, Tommy Bruce, Connie Dusseau, and Lucia Newell...Lucia, will you please record some of those Betty Carter songs? Arne and Nancy, will you forgive us for leaving before you sang?). From there to the Black Dog (via a circuitous trolley route) for the Fantastic Merlins with Nathan Hanson, Brian Roessler, and Pete Hennig. From there to Rumours & Innuendo for Framework with Chris Olson, Chris Bates, and Jay Epstein. Dance music thumps up from downstairs. Olson plays his iPod guitar. We drink more beer.

From there (for some of us) to the Artists' Quarter for a rare appearance by The Five with Kenny Horst, Dave Karr, Steve Kenny, Tom Lewis, and Mikkel Romstad. HH and I head home so I can be relatively bright-eyed for my 8:30 am Friday radio date with Ed Jones, which turns out to be an 8:10 am date--good thing I get up early and check my email.

The Jazz Festival continues through Saturday night. It looks like a good weekend for live music in Mears Park.

Photos: The $15 button. Jazz Police Chief Don Berryman on the trolley but not, as he noted, on the wagon.

Jazz at the White House

A good-news press release from Jazz at Lincoln Center. Amazing: Jazz at the White House and it's not even Black History Month. Amazing x 2: Jazz education at the White House. Amazing x 3: A music education series that starts with jazz. What's next, a garden on the White House grounds?

Sean Jones, who's dear to us in Minnesota and the Dakota (and who played "Happy Birthday" to HH last year around this time), will be part of the program. Go Sean!

White House Music Series Begins with Jazz Hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama
June 11, 2009

First Lady Michelle Obama will introduce the White House Music Series which will feature artists of all ages who will perform, educate and interact with young people. The series will begin with the Jazz Studio on Monday followed by country and classical music events this summer and fall.

On Monday, June 15th, 150 students will participate in classes led by jazz experts including Wynton, Branford and Ellis Marsalis. They will then attend a concert featuring jazz greats, Paquito D’Rivera and child protégés Tony Madruga with his ensemble…

Jazz at Lincoln Center is honored to participate with Mrs. Michelle Obama in the launch of the White House Music Series: The Jazz Studio. The series presents educational events that demonstrate the importance of arts education to reinvigorate the creativity and innovation that has made this country great.

Through the Jazz Studio educational workshops, young students will come to the White House to celebrate this uniquely American art form and learn from and interact with some of the world’s most renowned jazz musicians.

Musicians and educators leading the Jazz at Lincoln Center produced workshops include: Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Sean Jones, Stephen C. Massey, Todd Williams, Eli Yamin and others.

The White House has brought together a number of organizations to participate and Jazz at Lincoln Center is proud to collaborate with the following: Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts; Duke Ellington Jazz Festival; Levine School of Music; New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts; SITAR Arts Center; Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz; WPAS Capitol Jazz Project.

The Jazz Studio workshop themes include exploration of the core elements of jazz: American History and Jazz; The Syntax of Jazz; Improvisation; The Blues Experience and Jazz; Duke Ellington and Swing. The audience will include 150 instrumental middle school and high school students from the collaborating organizations.

The Jazz Studio culminates with a concert featuring Paquito D’Rivera, Artistic Director of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, with Tony Madruga, Zach Brown, Kush Abadey and Elijah Easton.

Source: JALC

Hats for Cats Headcount

In October 07 I decided to make Dave King a hat. I like his music, he shaves his head and lives in Minnesota--why not do my part to keep his head warm? The whole thing snowballed, or yarn-balled, after that. Making hats for jazz musicians and others in the jazz world became an ongoing thing. It's basically an excuse for watching Law & Order reruns.

Here's the list of people who have Hats for Cats so far. If you happen to find a black hat with a green stripe and a Hats for Cats label inside, please return it to Dan Eikmeier at the Dakota. It was stolen from his car last year.

Reid Anderson • Chris Bates • Leah Beach • Don Berryman • Brian Blade • Walter Blanding • Leon “Chocolate” Brown • Andrea Canter • James Cammack • Laura Caviani • Larry Clothier • Pat Courtemanche • Joe Doermann • John Economos • Craig Eichhorn • Dan Eikmeier • Michael Ekhaus • Douglas Ewart • Arne Fogel • Scott Fultz • Larry Fuller • Vincent Gardner • Alvester Garnett • Rick Germanson • Ted Gioia • Benny Green • Doug Haining • Roy Hargrove • Carlos Henriquez • Kenny Horst • Ethan Iverson • Gordy Johnson • Sean Jones • Stanley Jordan • Jason Jungbluth • Dave King • Mary Lewis • Michael Lewis • Adam Linz • Dean Magraw • Wynton Marsalis • Charnett Moffett • Kristen Mors • Phil Palombi • Lowell Pickett • Joshua Redman • Justin Robinson • Reuben Rogers • Kelly Rossum • Maria Schneider • Lilly Schwartz • Jaleel Shaw • Greg Skaff • Maryann Sullivan • Chris Thomson • Deborah Upchurch • Jeremy Walker • Marsha Walker • John Whiting • Davis Wilson

Updated 8-23-09

Photo: Michael Lewis in his hat (actually hat #2, long story), taken with his iPhone

The Dakota Combo on 3-Minute Egg

Matt Peiken, former arts reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, former managing editor of Walker magazine at the Walker Art Center, is now producing mini-videos called 3-Minute Eggs about the Twin Cities arts scene (as he says, "the Twin Cities arts seen"). The ones I've watched have been terrific--beautifully produced, informative, intriguing, just long enough to make you feel you've learned something and whet your appetite for more.

Recently Peiken made an Egg on the Dakota Combo's performance at MacPhail Center for Music. There doesn't seem to be a direct link to it, but if you go to Peiken's website and scroll down to 28 May 09 you'll find it.

The Dakota Combo is an elite group of area high school musicians, chosen annually by audition, who have spent the past year learning and rehearsing with MacPhail jazz coordinator Kelly Rossum. Now that Adam Linz has been named to lead the jazz program at MacPhail, he'll take over Combo duties.

Hat tip to Tom Trow, who saw David Brauer's piece on MinnPost, which I somehow missed. You can also watch the Egg on MinnPost. Twin Cities Public Television is now airing Eggs. That's great news, except TPT isn't paying Peiken. Can't they pay him something? Really?

Image from Matt Peiken's video.

Talking with Adam Linz

Bassist Adam Linz (Fat Kid Wednesdays) has been tapped to head MacPhail's jazz program when Kelly Rossum leaves for NYC at summer's end. Read about it on MinnPost. Here's more from our interview.

PLE: Who were your influences?
AL: Those players that kind of blurred the lines between playing a lot of different stuff—somebody like Gary Peacock, Henry Grimes, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland definitely. Also I'm a big fan of Andy Simpkins, who played in the Three Sounds. And I was a fan of the lesser-known players...Israel Crosby, who played with Ahmad Jamal for a long time. I wasn't a kid who was like, there's Ray Brown and Larry Grenadier.... I kept my distance from the normal.

PLE: When did you start playing?
AL: I was a late starter. Electric when I was 16, double bass when I was 19. I grew up on rock and roll. When I was a really young kid, I saw a couple of band videos where the guitar players all had black guitars and the bassists all had white basses. I wanted to play the white bass. People thought I should be a guitar player; they thought my hands were too thick and chunky to play guitar. But my uncle was a bass player and the bass player seemed like the hippest player in the band..... I got into music through hip-hop, rock, and metal. The first three cassettes I bought were Run-D.M.C.'s "Raising Hell," Van Halen, and "Miles Davis: Greatest Hits." I definitely as not a musical kid. I did other things. I was in all kinds of sports, karate, BMX racing, skateboarding. I came to study music late in life but to appreciate it a lot earlier. I still have a huge record collection. I'm a listener.

PLE: What are you listening to lately?
AL: Today, a Gary Peacock/Bill Frisell duet record called "Just So Happens." I've been listening to this great singer/songwriter Sam Amidon, "All Is Well." He's on a label out of Iceland called Bedroom Community. The arrangements are lush. It's one of the best records I've heard all year.... An electronic duo from japan called Tennis Coats. They're awesome. I've been listening to Eliot Carter, the classical composer. Just his first symphony. I've been listening to the last Jim Black No Access record, "Dogs of Great Indifference." It's on the Winter Winter label.

PLE: You're following Kelly Rossum as head of MacPhail's jazz program, but I'm not going to ask the hair question. [Rossum famously wears a mohawk. Linz has a regular haircut.]
AL: I had dreads for twelve or thirteen years. I cut them off and sent them to Atlanta so the cancer society could make a dreads wig for this lady.

PLE: Free jazz, avant-garde jazz, left-of-center jazz.... What do you call it?
AL: Just playing for me.

When a jazz venue closes

Earlier today I was interviewing bassist Adam Linz when he told me that the upscale Italian restaurant D’Amico Cucina was closing. I hadn’t yet seen the StarTribune story or read the company press release. Now I know the reasons: the times, the economy, parking problems, the proximity of the new Twins stadium.

Both the Strib story and the press release talk about the restaurant’s history, reputation, food and wine. Neither mentions that for 22 years D’Amico Cucina was a jazz venue. Not a jazz club, but a place where you could go to hear jazz on the weekends because owner Richard D’Amico liked it.

For 22 years, bassist Gordy Johnson and pianist Benny Weinbeck played there. For 15 years, starting when he was 19, Linz had a regular gig there. So did pianist Tommy O'Donnell.

All those years, all those weekends, all that music. The regular gig. The loss of these things makes me sad.

Whenever HH and I went to NYC, we would make our way to Ruth’s Chris on West 51st, where pianist Rick Germanson had a regular gig in the bar. We would sit at the bar for dinner, the better to hear him play. That ended several months ago.

Last year, Cue restaurant at the Guthrie featured jazz every weekend for several months. It has new owners and no one believes the music will return. The Phil Aaron Trio (with Tom Lewis and Jay Epstein) had a regular gig in the Chez Colette Lounge at the Hotel Sofitel for many years. Saxophonist Irv Williams ("Mr. Smooth") played the Top of the Hilton in St. Paul from 1968–74. Where are the regular gigs these days? Will anyone ever play anywhere again for 5 or 10 or 20 years?

Upscale restaurants are great places for live jazz. Piano jazz, or piano-bass jazz, or even piano-bass-drums jazz (as long as the drums aren’t too crashy) makes fine food taste better. It adds excitement to the air. It’s sensuous and unpredictable. It makes you want to start off with a dry martini, then order a bottle of wine, then work your way down the menu, simply because everything goes so well together. Piano and steak. Piano and lobster. Piano and bass and gnocchi and chocolate truffle cake. You enjoy your cocktail and smile at your dinner partner and converse in lower-than-usual tones and laugh, and once in a while you look over at the musician or musicians, men in suits and (less frequently) women who have taken time with their hair and makeup, and one is seated at a grand piano and one is embracing a double bass and it’s all good. Maybe they take requests and maybe they don’t, but chances are they play something you know, and on the way out you leave a tip in the jar on the piano.

Lose the live music and you lose more than the music. You lose the sophistication, the energy, the elegance, and the surprise that live performance adds to the ambience and the air itself. Pipe music in and it's like buying your food from a vending machine.

Everyone at D’Amico, including staff and musicians, got the news about the closing yesterday or today. Linz called it “a great ride…really one of the best gigs I’ve ever been fortunate to play.” Weinbeck called it “awesome.” Johnson is in NYC this week playing at Birdland with Stacey Kent. I hope he knows…I hope he doesn’t.

D'Amico closes its doors for good on June 27. There will be many opportunities between today (June 4) and then to hear Linz and Weinbeck and Johnson. Check the live jazz calendar at the top of the blog.

Interview with Fred Hersh on jazz.com

I keep asking people who enjoy and follow jazz, "Do you know the website jazz.com?" and they give me blank looks. That has got to stop. Ted Gioia's site has become one of my favorites for many reasons. It's wide-ranging, articulate, well-edited, and well-written. It has a growing encyclopedia of jazz musicians, many, many reviews of individual jazz tracks (rather than review whole albums, jazz.com addresses tracks, an approach that makes sense in the age of digital downloads), a Visual Jazz section (jazz art), and some of the best interviews I have ever read. Including Ted Panken's with the great pianist Fred Hersch, posted May 19. A taste:

"I've used the analogy that what I do, or what jazz improvisation is, is if you take the analogy of a tune being like a glass mixing bowl, you can put rocks into it, take out the rocks, put a goldfish into it, take out the goldfish, put in jello, take out the jello—but the container stays the same size and it's transparent, but it's solid. That's what tunes are to me."

Roy Hargrove Quintet at the Dakota

When: Monday, June 1 • Where: Dakota • Who: Roy Hargrove, trumpet and flugelhorn; Sullivan Fortner, piano; Justin Robinson, saxophone; Dwayne Burno, bass; Montez Coleman, drums

As always, Roy Hargrove made us glad we went to see him. And his new pianist, Sullivan Fortner, is a knockout. Read a review of last night's late set on MinnPost.



Setlist:
"I'm Not So Sure"
"Starmaker"
"The Stinger"
"Speak Low"
"Invitation"
"Bring It on Home to Me"



Photos by John Whiting.