Mears Park, St. Paul

We Minneapolitans need to get out more to see our sister city. Right in the middle of Lowertown St Paul is a really nice setting for outdoor music, Mears Park. With a new stream running through trees and a cool permanent pavilion stage, this park square was an attractive venue for the first appearance of the Hot Summer Jazz Festival in St Paul, on Saturday, June 19^th. Early sets by groups of jazz students—from middle school to high school—offer proof that jazz will be alive and well for years to come in the Twin Cities.

The mid-afternoon set by Nachito Herrera and Puro Cubano (in a somewhat different configuration with a Cuban sax player in place of the Israeli percussionist Shai Hyo) was lively and swinging, as one has come to expect from this monster of the piano. As she did last summer, Nachito's teen daughter sang one tune with the poise and vocal control of a much older performer. With Terry Burns on electric bass and Gordy Knudtson on drums, and without the usual congas, this edition of Puro Cubano leaned a bit more post bop, a bit less tropical, but every bit as sonically exciting as previous incarnations.

Twin Cities native Pat Mallinger, now one of the hottest sax players in Chicago, followed Herrera with a swinging set of his own (backed by Peter Schimke, Tom Lewis, and Kenny Horst), mixing standards and original tunes with plenty of spunk. It's easy to see why Mallinger has regular gigs at the Artists Quarter, and I intend to catch him next time he's in town. With the same rhythm section, Lew Tabackin, the heralded heir of Sonny Rollins and Don Byas, gave the Mears Park crowd a preview of his Artists Quarter show. Let's hope this opens the door to more “jazz in the park.”

Artists' Quarter

St. Paul's gem of jazz clubs, the Artists' Quarter, maintained its usual heavy schedule throughout the festival, while owner/drummer Kenny Horst split timekeeping duties between his own stage and Peavy Plaza. Back indoors a couple hours after his Mears Park performance, Lew Tabackin's silky tenor and songful flute again joined forces with bassist Tom Lewis and Horst (and without piano) for the second night of his essentially annual show at the AQ. His “Desert Lady” was an original, evocative tour de force for flute, reflecting what the Jazz Corner has described as “virtuosic, primordial, cross-cultural, and passionate.” Other standouts included his takes on “But Not for Me” and several tunes in tribute to the centennial year of Coleman Hawkins.

Later on the festival calendar, the AQ hosted pianist Billy Carrothers—always a treat—and multi-instrumental virtuoso Ira Sullivan. Although competing schedules didn't allow me to catch these sets, both artists joined together for the final afternoon on Peavy Plaza in Minneapolis (see below). It's a tribute to the organizers of the festival that one could miss an artist at one venue and often catch him or her again at another.

The Millenium Hotel

The lobby lounge of the Millenium Hotel on the south end of Nicollet Mall has seen its share of jazz festivals, hosting many small groups and jam sessions at both the Hot Summer Jazz Festival and Twin Cities Jazz Society's winter festival. Not an ideal listening environment—the bar is often noisy and inattentive; the high tables along the wall offer a great view but the annoying interruptions of passing conventioneers. Nevertheless, great jazz foments at the Millenium at festival time. This year the hotel offered serious jazz fans the best of Jazz Night Out, the “club crawl” event that helps support the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. A great idea—for one $25 donation, you have an evening pass to a dozen or more clubs with live music, connected by trolley. The drawback is that it can take longer to get from one point to another by trolley than it takes for a band to play a set. Although this year's venues seemed to emphasize R&B and salsa, the Millenium offered both convenience to the heart of downtown and the upper crust of mostly local jazz artistry: