Arne Fogel©Andrea Canter

The Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota have a number of individual gigs in April. Their showcase at the Twin Cities Winter Jazz Festival on March 2nd drew a good crowd to the atrium of the new MacPhail Center for Music, with short sets from members rotating over seven hours to provide nonstop song. It was a great way to introduce Twin Cities’ audiences to some of the newest talents in town. JVM is also proud to announce that member Arne Fogel will be among several jazz artists honored as inductees into the Midwest Music Hall of Fame on May 2nd. April gigs: 

Dorothy Doring

• April 19, 3-7 pm at Club Saratoga (Duluth)
• April 25, 7:30-10:30 pm with the Ed Thorpe Trio at Jensen’s Supper Club (Eagan)
• April 30, 9-11 pm, “Chick Singer Night” with Sisters in Song at the Minnesota Music Café (St Paul)

Nellie McKay photo credit: RD/Leon/Retna

Looking for a cure for cabin fever? Tired of waiting for the ice to melt on your favorite lake? Look no farther than Nicollet Mall and the Dakota Jazz Club, where the music is always hot, seven nights (and two very late nights) ever week. And it seems that more and more, the music extends beyond our Midwest, even American roots to encompass global flavors. This month, you can enjoy some of the best mainstream jazz in the nation, along with liberal touches of blues, rock, and pop, and tastes of New Orleans, Havana, Rio, Hawaii and Africa. And if you love your music via strings—be it guitar, bass or even ukulele, the April line-up will sing to you! 

National Touring Artists (Shows at 7 & 9:30 pm)

April 6-8, Nellie McKay (7 pm only). Her eclectic background might account for her eclectic and often outrageous career. Barely 26 (and that has been debated!), the London-born singer/songerwriter/actress/comedian spent much of her youth in New York, enrolling at the Manhattan School of Music before ultimately dropping out to do stand-up comedy in Greenwich Village. Her first recording (Get Away From Me) met wide acclaim, as did her Broadway debut in Three Penny Opera. Turmoil surrounded the release of her second recording (Pretty Little Head), and last fall her third (Obligatory Villagers) hit the streets with fewer bumps. Come hear why the LA Times refers to her as a “feminist firebrand, martini-cool chanteuse and resilient blithe spirit.”

Jim Rotondi©Andrea Canter

There’s lots of brass, a big dose of avant sass, and sublime keyboarding at the Artists Quarter in April, from trumpet monster Jim Rotondi and a salute to trumpet icon Lee Morgan, to the return of Happy Apple, and a Peterson Family Weekend led by matriarch Jeanne Arland Peterson. In between, it’s a virtual who’s who of diverse local jazz.

Weekends Gigs (9 pm)

April 4-5, Jim Rotondi Quartet, $15 (with Phil Aaron Friday, Bill Carrothers Saturday). One of the leading purveyors of modern trumpet on stage with two of Minnesota’s finest pianists? Jim Rotondi, a perennial popular performer at the AQ, returns from his New York base to share the bandstand with local star Phil Aaron (Friday night) and expatriate native son Bill Carrothers (Saturday night), a giant of keyboard improvisation who is more often on tour in Europe than in his home territory. And they will be supported by a pair of the Twin Cities most potent timekeepers, bassist Tom Lewis and drummer/AQ owner Kenny Horst. Jim will no doubt share a sampling from his latest recording, Four of a Kind. The confluence of these great artists makes for an unforgettable weekend of cutting edge jazz.

Yuganaut

"... in the spirit of such previous pathfinders as Sun Ra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Miles Davis in his ’60s and ’70s electric period. Stephen Rush, Tom Abbs, and Geoff Mann create genuinely unpredictable soundscapes throughout this highly diverse disc, but always with attention to organic development and flow... Yuganaut proves that their chosen style of musical expression can be the sound of something genuinely startling". - (Dave Lynch / All Music Guide)

Yuganaut will perform at the Kitty Cat Klub at 315 14th Ave in Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Thursday, April 3rd. Yuganaut is a collective of improvising virtuosos. Playing pre-written and structured compositions, they explore sonic spaces by listening deeply to each others’ articulation and interpretation of the score. The surprising dialogue that results from this process is like watching an extremely well-honed basketball team pass the ball. Well-oiled, communicating, intuitive, and almost ESP-like in it's performance. The group is comfortable in many styles/genres, so the music flows from funk to swing, open jazz, to avant-classical aesthetics. With training in diverse musics such as strict classical Western Music, jazz, rock, South Indian and electronica, Yuganaut pushes the notion of eclecticism swiftly out the window and proclaims loudly that the world is a place where all musics can find a happy home, together.

Aaron Keith Stewart photo provided Aaron Keith Stewart

Aaron Keith Stewart’s name may not be one of the most familiar when it comes to Twin Cities’ male vocalists. But it should be. His timing, phrasing, interpretation of lyric and melody all put him in a category occupied by only a handful of the area’s singing jazzmen. Aaron Keith’s relatively low profile might be due to the demands of a day job in research, or perhaps because he was slow to issue a full-length recording. But that has been remedied now with the release of Stewart’s Live! Friday Night at the G, recorded a few years ago during Gabbert’s dearly departed series of mostly vocal gigs at the Galleria in Edina. Live marks a stunning if delayed introduction to a multi-faceted vocal talent. 

Aaron Keith Stewart came to Minnesota from his native Parsons, Kansas when he enrolled at St. Johns’ University in Collegeville, earning a degree in Peace Studies. But he had always been surrounded by music, and his singing career has roots going back to the 1920s and 30s when his aunts and uncle toured as the Silver Voice Quartet. "Music has very much been a part of my life and my upbringing from my family, for sure," he said recently in an interview for his hometown newspaper. He began performing in elementary school when his music teacher gave him solo roles in school productions. His older brother first introduced him to jazz, but Stewart “thought it was stupid.”  At the time, his interests leaned toward punk and Motown. Meeting a jazz musician when he moved to Minnesota changed all that. “I just really fell in love with his style of playing,” Stewart said. And in his spare time, he became involved in the jazz scene surrounding the Twin Cities, became a lead singer in the traveling show band, Temporary Heroes, joined the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota, and recently joined a gospel group. He’s had some public solo gigs, including the Selby Avenue Jazz Festival and at clubs like Sophia’s, and has contributed tracks and arrangements for compilation albums.  

Jim Rotondi©Andrea Canter

How often do we get to enjoy one of the leading purveyors of modern trumpet on stage with two of Minnesota’s finest pianists? Jim Rotondi, one of the most popular performers at St. Paul’s Artists Quarter, returns to share the bandstand with local star Phil Aaron (Friday night) and expatriate native son Bill Carrothers (Saturday night), a giant of keyboard improvisation who is more often on tour in Europe than in his home territory. And they will be supported by a pair of the Twin Cities most potent timekeepers, bassist Tom Lewis and drummer/AQ owner Kenny Horst. Jim will no doubt share a sampling from his latest recording, Four of a Kind. The confluence of these great artists makes for an unforgettable weekend of cutting edge jazz,

Jim Rotondi grew up in Butte, MT where his mother (a piano teacher) introduced him to piano at age 8. The trumpet attracted his attention at age 12. Initially he enrolled at the University of Oregon but ended up spending his tuition money on records. Recognizing that music was his destiny, he switched to the jazz program at North Texas State Univeristy. But even before completing his undergraduate studies, Rotondi was making sonic waves, winning the International Trumpet Guild Competition in 1984. His first job after college was with the Ray Charles Orchestra; he was a featured soloist at the 1992 Chile International Jazz Festival in Santiago, along with saxophonist Joe Lovano and pianist Danilo Perez. Other touring credits include the Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akiyoshi orchestras. Citing as key influences the great trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and Clifford Brown, Rotondi’s mentors have included trumpeter Bill Hardman, and saxophonists Junior Cook and Cecil Payne; he has toured with Payne’s Sextet as well as with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, the Joe Farnsworth Quintet, Eric Alexander Group, Bill Mobley’s Space Time Big Band, and the Gregg August Group. He is a founding member of the ensemble One for All (with Eric Alexander and Steve Davis), co-leader of the electronic band Full House with David Hazeltine, and leads his own ensembles, including his Quartet, Quintet (featuring Eric Alexander or Joe Locke), and his Jim’s New Electric Band. In addition to Alexander, Farnsworth and Locke, his compatriots have often included David Hazeltine, Rick Germanson, John Webber, Steve Nelson and Bill Stewart.