Chris Lomheim©Andrea Canter

Chris Lomheim’s first keyboard was the family organ, and as a child he studied both organ and piano in Minneapolis. He focused on R&B in the 1980s, playing with such bands as Big John Dickerson and Down Right Tight. Gaining a reputation as a composer as well as performer, he was featured at the West Bank School of Music Composer’s Forum in 1991. A member of the acclaimed Illicit Sextet in the 1990s (and recently reunited), Lomheim has played and/or recorded with a long list of Twin Cities’ musicians, including Gordy Johnson, Kelly Rossum, Reid Kennedy and vocalists Debbie Duncan, Christine Rosholt, Patty Peterson, Lucia Newell, and Vicky Mountain. As leader, he has made two acclaimed trio recordings, And You’ve Been Waiting? (1994, IGMOD) and The Bridge (2002, Artegra). Jeremy Walker of Brilliant Corners called Lomheim “the most sensitive and romantic player you will hear around the Twin Cities' scene. He has prodigious piano technique and an individual ear for harmony.”

“Since most of my life has been devoted to playing strictly jazz, Alec Wilder's music is a perfect middle ground for me to dip my little toe back into the classical realm a bit.” –Laura Caviani 

Laura Caviani©Andrea Canter

Just two days after a live recording session with Pete Whitman’s modern jazz X-Tet, pianist Laura Caviani switches gears a bit to present a melding of classical and jazz in the songs of Alec Wilder. This free concert, held on the Carleton College campus in Northfield Sunday afternoon, will feature Carleton music faculty along with guest jazzers Gordy Johnson and Phil Hey, also cohorts in the X-Tet. 

“I pride myself in my propensity to want to play lesser known standards by lesser known songwriters. Little gems that will awaken the ears and heart.” --Rhonda Laurie 

Rhonda Laurie©Andrea Canter

The music swings with a hot club pulse and will warm you over like the “Hot Toddy” in their songbook. Vocalist Rhonda Laurie joins forces with Sidewalk Café --Reynold Philipsek, Gary Schulte and Jeff Brueske--at the Dakota on Monday, February 1st. 

Rhonda Laurie

Rhonda is a “real” New Yorker. Growing up in Queens, Rhonda’s life was infused with music from the beginning. Her maternal grandfather was in New York vaudeville, a trumpeter and bandleader at the Plaza Hotel in the Catskills where young Rhonda spent her summers. Her maternal uncle was at one time the youngest trumpeter to play in Broadway pit orchestras. On stage at the Plaza, Rhonda was singing with her grandfather’s band before she started kindergarten. Through high school, she continued “on stage,” performing in and directing school productions, playing in a rock ‘n roll band,  and attending the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater, whose alumni include Gregory Peck and Joanne Woodward. 

Pete Whitman’s X-Tet © Andrea Canter

About once per month, the Artist Quarter hosts one of the more unique ensembles in Twin Cities jazz, a “little big band” featuring some of the most accomplished musicians in the area. This week, Pete Whitman’s X-Tet is on the bandstand (and a bit of the main floor as well) for a special pair of living recording sessions, January 28-29. It also marks the first return visit of trumpeter Kelly Rossum since his "defection" to New York in September.

The X-Tet is one of several projects led by veteran sax/flute performer, composer, and arranger Pete Whitman. A graduate of jazz studies at North Texas State University, Whitman’s credits on tenor, alto and flute include performing with Randy Brecker, Jack McDuff, and the Woody Herman Orchestra. In addition to leading his X-Tet and smaller ensembles in the Twin Cities, he works regularly with the Jazz MN Big Band and Laura Caviani Quintet. In 2007, Whitman was commissioned to score the film, Been Rich All My Life, about a quartet of octogenarians reprising their dancing days in vaudeville. A dedicated educator, Whitman heads the Woodwind and Brass Department at St. Paul’s McNally Smith College, teaching saxophone, improvisation, and arranging.

Davey Williams (l), Josh Granowski©John Whiting

A product of a Jerome Foundation Composer Commissioning Grant and several prodigious and unfettered imaginations, “Bonanza: The Musical” made its debut at Studio Z in St. Paul’s Lowertown on Friday, January 22. 

It’s “Bonanza” in a general characters-and-context sort of way, and a musical because it has music. No dancing, singing, costumes or sets, thank goodness. 

“Bonanza: The Musical” is a radio play written by Davey Williams, an improvising musician/guitarist/writer/painter and longtime member of Curlew, the experimental/free jazz group founded by composer/saxophonist/bandleader George Cartwright in 1979. 

Reynold Philipsek©Andrea Canter

I lost count of the number of press releases I have received in the last few months regarding events honoring the 100th birthday of Django Reinhardt. Birdland has an annual event every December, but now many clubs are joining in. The Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis hosted what has to be one of the best and most comprehensive, a “Django Feast” covering a wide range of music influenced by the gypsy jazz styles of the 1930s hot clubs in France and subsequent popularity of the legendary pairing of Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. The four-day event kicked off Sunday night with a triple-header of area bands (Twin Cities, Parisota and Clearwater Hot Clubs) hosted by guest vocalist Connie Evingson, and continued with two nights of the Dorado Schmitt All Stars and a final night with Mark O’ Connor’s expanded Hot Swing Trio. The momentum seemed to grow exponentially each night, and each band brought a unique interpretation to the music.