I returned from a long October weekend of jazz in the Big Apple with a greater appreciation for the venues in the Twin Cities. The Blue Note was packed and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Band was legendary, but the seating was cramped, the waitstaff indifferent at best, and the audience less than attentive. Jazz Standard was classier, and Fred Hersch and Kenny Barron sublime, but every time the kitchen door opened, they were nearly drowned out by the clatter and chatter. The Village Vanguard was the best listening environment, hands down, and our front row seats afforded both visual and aural perfection as Geoff Keezer and Jim Hall performed. The Vanguard will never win accolades for atmosphere and comfort, and no one cares. It's all about jazz and nothing else. But back home at the Dakota and Artists Quarter, I appreciate our local efforts to create serious listening environments while also providing comfortable seating and earnest service, along with that dose of Minnesota Nice. In downtown St. Paul, the Artists Quarter, like the Vanguard, is a no-frills, basement level setting where jazz is the single attraction; the décor and seating are a few cuts (and decades) above the Vanguard, however; you are always greeted at the door with a smile; and even on a busy weekend, you can maneuver around the room. If St. Paul would just ban smoking, the AQ would surely challenge the best of New York (and its Twin Cities sister, the Dakota) for the most jazz-friendly club in the nation.

December continues the AQ's tradition of top local musicians six nights per week, with a sprinkling of national acts and an occasional Sunday show. Be sure to include the AQ in your holiday plans!

There are some long-standing acts that give the AQ its crowd of regulars and provide newcomers with predictable options. On Mondays (no cover), you'll find Green, formerly the SKJ Trio (7-9 pm), followed by Open Poetry readings, 9 pm-1 am. Then of course there's B-3 Organ Night with Billy Holloman (every Tuesday night): For nine years, organ master Billy Holloman has been the center of a standing gig at the AQ and "a genius at manipulating the sweet sound of the B3," according to Don Berryman (Jazz Police). The regular Tuesday Night Band, featuring Holloman, AQ owner/drummer Kenny Horst, and multi-saxist Gary Berg recently released its first recording, This is Organ Night. Notes Don Berryman, "Under Holloman's control, [the organ's] sound can be sweet and thick as molasses, or it can cut through the room like sharks' teeth." If you're lucky, Holloman might add some vocals!

National Talent

You can count on Kenny Horst to book at least one or two national touring artists each month. The special treats for December:

Pianist David Hazeltine (December 10-12) is no stranger to the Twin Cities or the AQ, having spent his childhood and early career in the midwest. A native of Milwaukee, Hazeltine fell in love with jazz when his mother gave him a Jimmy Smith recording. He played his first professional gig (on organ) at age 13, switching to piano at 15. Still in college, he became the house pianist at Milwaukee's Jazz Gallery, where he played with such legends as Charles McPherson, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Pepper Adams and Chet Baker. In the 1980s he expanded his horizons, moving briefly to New York and playing venues in Chicago and the Twin Cities as well as Milwaukee. Settling permanently in New York City in the early 1990s, Hazeltine played with Freddie Hubbard, James Moody, Louis Hayes, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and Marlena Shaw, for whom he also serves as arranger and musical director; he also toured with John Hendricks.

Today, Hazeltine has 15 recordings as leader to his credit, and six with the collaborative ensemble, One for All, which includes sax giant Eric Alexander. Hazeltine's most recent recordings (Manhattan Autumn, Sharp Nine, 2003; Close to You, Criss Cross, 2004) show off his penchant for adventurous harmonies and rhythms, with echoes of Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Cedar Walton, straddling the worlds of hard bop and 21^st century invention. Also heavily involved in jazz education through the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music, Hazeltine was a recent guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Noted Aaron Steinberg in Jazz Times, "A player and writer with great respect for the melody, Hazeltine can be surprisingly inventive with the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities in a tune. Unobtrusive yet frequently exciting, Hazeltine always sounds as if he is digging what he's playing, and his approach makes well-known tunes sound fresh."

New York pianist Rick Germanson (also transplanted from Milwaukee) returns to the Twin Cities following sizzling performances at the AQ in October and at the Dakota last month (with Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Legacy Band). And what better way to close out 2004 (December 31^st New Year's Eve Party with Carole Martin and Irv Williams) and usher in 2005 (January 1, trio with Terry Burns and Kenny Horst)? Germanson "performs with delicate grace...using just the right touch to evoke a variety of textures" (Mark F. Turner, All About Jazz). Winner of the Grand Prize in the American Pianist Association Jazz Piano Competition in 1996, Germanson has performed and toured with a long list jazz greats, including Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Slide Hampton, the Mingus Big Band, and vocalists Kevin Mahogany and Carla Cook. In 2003, Germanson released his first recording as leader (Heights, Fresh Sound New Talent), prompting Bill Donaldson (Cadence) to note, "Germanson has grown into an artist who is as comfortable accompanying a lead musician as he is performing his own music with clarity and grace." On New Year's Day, Germanson will be joined by local heavy hitters, Terry Burns on bass and Kenny Horst on drums.

Special Holiday Shows

A Christmas Night tradition at the AQ, multi-instrumentalist Dave Karr and his quartet can help you recover from an overdose of relatives, egg nog, and holiday shopping. Most often heard locally on tenor, flute, and clarinet, Karr also breaks out the baritone for his Gerry Mulligan tribute band, Mulligan Stew. A native New Yorker, Karr has been a fixture on the Twin Cities jazz scene for nearly 50 years, and has appeared on multiple recordings with local artists, ranging from vocalists (Connie Evingson) to small bands (Pete Whitman's X-Tet). Dave blows a sweet horn and is always in the company of the best area musicians.

Photo by Howard A. Gitelson
Carole Martin & the Irv Williams Quartet has been the AQ's New Year's Eve tradition for nearly a decade. Notes Matt Peiken (St. Paul Pioneer Press), "Veteran saxophonist Irv Williams has always been about sweetness not power, and he's still gigging strong" at 85. Raised in Cincinnati and Little Rock, Williams first performed in the Twin Cities as a clarinet and sax player with the Navy during Word War II. Turning down invitations to play with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, he made the Twin Cities home and by now, has played every conceivable local venue. Throughout his sixty-year career, Williams has focused on the Great American Songbook and the tenor sax as a solo vehicle. His knowledge of the idiom is legendary and fellow musicians marvel at his ability to play any song in any key. "Mr. Smooth" recently released a new recording, That's All? and appears during Happy Hour every Friday night at the Dakota. A special addition to Williams' quartet this New Year's Eve will be New York pianist Rick Germanson (see above).