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Page 1 of 3  One of the annual highlights of jazz in the Twin Cities is the Jazz 88 Winter Jazz Festival, traditionally a March Sunday filled with jazz from before noon til…. whenever the last jam session ends. This year, the festival is a joint effort with the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, and will kick-off on Saturday night (March 12) with a gala fund raiser to benefit KBEM (Jazz 88 FM), the Twin Cities only jazz station and one of few full-time jazz stations in the nation. On this night, local clubs the Dakota, Artists Quarter and Times Bar and Café will donate a portion of their profits to KBEM as part of fund-raising efforts. Festival activities will again be held on multiple stages at the Millenium Hotel on Nicollet Mall. In addition to a long list of area musicians, the 2005 Winter Jazz Festival will present veteran trombonist/ bandleader Slide Hampton and vocalist Diane Witherspoon.
 Photo by Andrea Canter
In addition to a silent and live auction, music will be provided by Chris Lomheim, Butch Thompson, Irv Williams, Dan Kusz and more special guests.
A regular performer at the Artists Quarter and Dakota, Chris Lomheim started organ studies at age 7, moved on to piano and was into R&B in the 1980s. He was featured at the West Bank School of Music Composer’s Forum in 1991 and nominated as top pianist in the 1997 Minnesota Music Awards. 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.”
Master of ragtime, stride, and classic jazz piano, Butch Thompson has led a busy career over the past 40 years, touring the US and internationally, playing in solo, small group, New Orleans band, and symphony orchestra formats, and appearing regularly on Prairie Home Companion. A native Minnesotan, Thompson studied with the late George Russell and played at the famed Preservation Hall before returning to the Twin Cities. In addition to his performance, he writes for jazz publications and hosts Jazz Originals on KBEM.
Raised in Cincinnati and Little Rock, Irv Williams (aka “Mr. Smooth”) first performed in the Twin Cities as a clarinet and sax player with the Navy during Word War II. 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. 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.”
Young saxophonist Dan Kusz plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, mixing rock, pop, r&b, and jazz all in one to create an original sound. He’s launched a solo career but also works as a studio musician and instructor.
Sunday, March 13: Main Stage
1:30 to 3:00 pm-- The Artists' Quarter All Stars (The Five)
4:00 pm--Slide Hampton
6:00 pm-- Slide Hampton
7:30 pm-- Diane Witherspoon
A group formerly known in the 1990s as
M.A.C. Music V, The Five are devoted to promoting jazz
as modern American chamber music. Inspired by the Modern Jazz
Quartet, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and the early bands of
Herbie Hancock, The Five features original compositions (many by
drummer/Artist Quarter owner Kenny Horst). In addition to his
ownership and management of the Artists Quarter, Kenny Horst
is one of the most popular drummers in the area. He worked with Bobby
Lyle for three years at the Blue Note in New York, toured with Jimmy
McGriff,
briefly with Al Hirt, and locally has played with many of the
national artists booked at the AQ. A trumpeter who “favors
smoldering hard-bop inventiveness” (City Pages), Steve
Kenny is best known as a founding member of the Illicit
Sextet, one of the regions most popular bands of the 1990s. He’s
also played trumpet and flugelhorn for the Cedar Avenue Big Band.
Bassist Tom Lewis played in Eddie Berger’s last band,
The Jazz All-Stars, and is a regular member of the Phil Hey Quartet,
the Phil Aaron Trio, and APEX. Mikkel Romstad has
played and/or recorded with just about every jazz instrumentalist and
vocalist in the Twin Cities at one time or another, including Irv
Williams, George Avaloz, Christine Rosholt, and Lucia Newell. A
native New Yorker, multi-reedist Dave Karr has been a
fixture on the Twin Cities jazz scene for nearly 50 years,
performing, composing and producing music for radio and TV, and
gigging and recording with many local vocalists (Connie Evingson,
Cookie Coleman, Lucia Newell, and Prudence Johnson), small ensembles
(Chris Lomheim, Laura Caviani), small bands (Pete Whitman’s
Departure Point and X-Tet), and the JazzMN Big Band.
Now in his early 70s, Slide Hampton may be best known as a composer, arranger, band leader, and educator, from his work with Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones, and Mel Lewis, to his master classes, recordings, and recent work with his “World of Trombones.” He was recently featured with the JazzMN Big Band in their final concert of the 2004 season, tours with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, and his own bands.
As described by critic Scott Yanow, Diane Witherspoon is “a singer who can swing at any tempo, inspiring her sidemen to play at their best. Her voice is attractive and she improvises well, but it is the feeling of swing that is most impressive.” A Minneapolis native who launched her career as a youngster singing in the choir of her Baptist church, Witherspoon was genetically predisposed to jazz, as cousin to the late blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon and sister of local diva (and former Ellington vocalist) Shirley Witherspoon. Over her career she has sung with Billy Higgins, Cedar Walton, Bobby McFerrin, Woody Shaw, Frank Morgan, Pharoah Sanders, and many other highly regarded artists.
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Friday, 21 November 2008
