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

For those of you who used to read the weekly jazz picks in MinnPost's now-defunct Arts Arena, welcome to their new home.

SATURDAY CANCELLED DUE TO SNOWSTORM Friday-Saturday: Bryan Nichols Quintet. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen pianist/composer Nichols play in the past few years. I go to a lot of his gigs. He plays interesting music with interesting musicians, including some I also follow around town. It’s nice when they’re together on the same stage and I don’t have to choose. Increasingly, Nichols' music is original, his own compositions. The quintet includes Michael Lewis and Brandon Wozniak on multiple saxophones, Eric Fratzke on electric bass (Fratzke is standing in for the quintet’s usual bassist, James Buckley, who’s on the road with the Blenders), and JT Bates on drums. Gentlemen, start your engines. Here’s a very recent interview with Nichols. (We spoke on Thursday morning.) Friday-Saturday, Dec. 10-11, 9 p.m., Artists’ Quarter, in the basement of the Hamm Building in St. Paul ($10).

James Moody, 1925-2010

From Jazzcorner.com:

A jazz giant passes: James Moody, 1925-2010.

John took this photo during Moody's last visit to the Dakota, January 2009.

Talking with jazz pianist and composer Bryan Nichols

Bryan Nichols by John Whiting

It’s a good time to be Bryan Nichols. Earlier this year, he won a prestigious McKnight Artist Fellowship for Performing Musicians. He’s about to go into the studio for his first two recordings as leader. He just bought a new piano, a Boston grand, replacing his ancient Steinway upright.

He has his own trio, quartet, quintet, and large group (called We Are Many) and plays in several other bands including Gang Font, Off the Map, the James Buckley Trio, and the Zacc Harris Quartet. Plus he and his wife, optometrist Marcie Nichols, are expecting their first child in July.

His quintet—Nichols on piano, Michael Lewis and Brandon Wozniak on saxophones, Eric Fratzke (stepping in for James Buckley) on bass, JT Bates on drums—will play the Artists’ Quarter in St. Paul this weekend. We spoke about music and musicians, McKnights and composing.

PLE: Why a quintet?

Bryan Nichols: One of the things I love about music is the social aspect. I like the possibilities of having more musicians, more interaction. We’d been playing as a quartet with a mixed cast—[saxophonists] Mike Lewis or Brandon Wozniak, [bassists] Adam Linz or James Buckley, [drummers] JT Bates or sometimes Sean Carey. Brandon and Mike have such interesting individual styles and musical approaches that I thought, maybe I should try to get both of them when they’re in town. So that solidified the concept. It offers opportunities for things to happen that wouldn’t otherwise. And if someone’s gone—if Mike is out with [Andrew] Bird or Brandon’s gone with the Dave King Trucking Company—we can do a quartet.

Jazz Top 10 lists

It’s that time of year, when jazz writers, critics, bloggers and fans post their annual Top 10 lists. I’ve never made such a list—I know what I’ve been listening to, and I know what I like right now, at this moment, but I always suspect that two or three really great CDs are somewhere in the pile of things I haven’t yet gotten around to listening to. (For example, I'm listening to saxophonist John Devine's brand-new CD, A Little o' That, as I write this, and I like it a lot.) So I’m content to read other people’s lists and the contentious, incredulous, and occasionally rude comments they generate.

For those who also enjoy reading such lists, here’s a sampling. Some include links to other lists, so don’t blame me if you emerge, dehydrated and blinking, several hours after reading the first one. Or if you suddenly realize you’ve just spent a lot of money at Amazon.com or iTunes.

NPR’s A Blog Supreme. Patrick Jarenwattananon leads with Jason Moran’s Ten. Bill Carrothers’ Joy Spring takes the #4 spot. No argument here.

Changes coming to the live jazz calendar

Starting now, all new entries to the live jazz calendar will begin with the artists' name, not the venue. Many upcoming events have already been entered into the calendar, and I'll change those as time allows. I'm doing this so I can include an agenda version of the calendar here, as Dean Minderman does on his St. Louis Jazz Notes blog. The full calendar will still be available on its usual page.

I've asked a very few people (all jazz artists) what they think of this change. Some say do it, others say don't. If you have strong opinions one way or the other, please chime in.

Comments

Comments to bebopified are now open. There's a brief word-verification thing you have to do before you leave a comment, but you no longer have to be registered or have a Google account.

Yours truly, interviewed on KBEM's Corner Jazz

Maryann Sullivan, host of KBEM's "Corner Jazz" program (which airs live on Saturday nights from 8-11 p.m.), invited me into the studio last month for an interview. Portions aired in November, and now the whole edited interview is up on KBEM's website. We talk about jazz and jazz writing, learning curves and listening, how I got started, that sort of thing. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and grateful. I left the studio feeling I had been a boring blabbermouth, but Maryann's editing made me sound like a reasonably intelligent and thoughtful sort of person.

Maryann is a warm, smart, and gracious interviewer. Anyone she asks to speak with should say yes and be glad. She once told me that when she's preparing to interview someone, she writes down one question and lets the rest come naturally. That would scare the bejesus out of me.

Adios, MinnPost Arts Arena

A little over three years after my first MinnPost article was published, the Arts Arena is no more. Starting today and going forward, the very smart and capable Max Sparber will be covering all arts and culture in his daily column, “Max About Town.” I’ve been asked to stay on as a contributing journalist (which I have been all along) and write an article on jazz every four to six weeks, and I’m happy to do so.

I’m not so happy that arts coverage in the Twin Cities continues to shrink. I’m not saying that Sparber can’t write about anything his heart desires, just that I miss the classical music writers, and the dance writers, and the theater writers—people who developed expertise in specific areas. All arts writing is not alike.

And I’m not questioning MinnPost’s decision. In fact, I’m surprised that I was allowed to inhabit my merry little jazz corner for as long as I did. Most readers go to MinnPost for news about politics, public policy, and the media. The fact that I was paid to write about jazz (not a lot, but I was paid) for more than 150 weeks is pretty GD amazing, in retrospect.