Photo by Andrea Canter

Jazz is Now! is a nonprofit organization founded by Jeremy Walker and Marsha Palmer in 2003, whose first venture was the acclaimed but short-lived St. Paul club, Brilliant Corners. Through educational affiliation with Jazz at Lincoln Center, support from JLC Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and the launch of a high-energy band, Jazz Is Now! has re-emerged as an important force on the Twin Cities jazz scene. In addition to the orchestra, the JIN organization includes the Jazz Is Now! Composers’ Ensembles, ranging from trio to sextet.

Jazz Is Now! Orchestra

The nine-piece Jazz is Now! Orchestra, the brainchild of founder and Artistic Director Jeremy Walker, swings with the spirit of the historic territory bands of the 1930s and the creative intensity of the groups of Charles Mingus. Already recognized for their free and energetic sound, JIN is winning new fans of big bands. Todd Reynolds, renowned violinist with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and former concertmaster of Marcus Roberts’ Gershwin Orchestra, called his guest performance this January with Jazz is Now! as “one of the best nights of music in [my] life.” Recently the band was named recipient of a 2005 Jerome Foundation Centennial Grant for the commissioning of new works.

The JIN personnel include a Who’s Who among Twin Cities’ jazz artists, each with a solid reputation in his own right: Jeffrey Bailey (bass), Peter Schimke (piano), Kevin Washington (drums), Kelly Rossum (trumpet), Matt Darling (trombone), Scott Fultz (tenor saxophone), Chris Thomson (tenor and soprano saxophones, Music Director), and Jeremy Walker (alto saxophone, Artistic Director).

Peter Schimke is one of the busiest keyboard talents in the Twin Cities today, appearing frequently at the Artists Quarter, Dakota, and just about anywhere else that requires first class comping and soloing on piano or Fender Rhodes. Notes Don Berryman (Jazz Police), "When he is comping behind a soloist, he is engaged in a subtle dialogue, listening and responding with harmonies and rhythms that sometimes represent a suggestion or even a challenge to the soloist." And when he takes off in a leading role, Schimke blazes new trails and challenges others to keep up. In addition to JIN and his own ensembles, Schimke is a member of the edgy quartet, How Birds Work.

Scott Fultz is perhaps best known in the Twin Cities as the “F” of the FKG trio with drummer Dave King and bassist Adam Linz, a band formed ten years ago “over common interest in 20th century composition, delta blues and disdain for neo-traditionalist jazz.” Fultz has also performed with a wide range of artists, including Bill Carrothers, Anthony Cox, Bruce Henry, Hale Smith, Steve Barta, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, and The Cedar Avenue Big Band. He’s released a recording of original music titled Junket.

Chris Thomson leads Anamika and plays tenor and soprano sax regularly with the Kelly Rossum Quintet, Paul Renz Quartet, and other ensembles. He taught at the MacPhail Center of Music, is a former band director at Rosemount High School, and has been involved in the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth, teaching improvisation.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Special Guests, Wessell Anderson and Greg Paulus
Brooklyn native Wessell “Warm Daddy” Anderson has been a long-time member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis’ ensembles. Although initially studying piano, Anderson was encouraged to explore jazz by his drummer father, who introduced his son to the music of Charlie Parker. Soon Anderson had switched to saxophone, and by 14, was attending jam sessions at then-active Brooklyn and Queens jazz clubs like the Blue Coronet and Pumpkin’s. Studying at Harlem's famed Jazzmobile workshops with Frank Wess and Frank Foster, Anderson met Wynton and Branford Marsalis during their stint with Art Blakey. Branford encourage Anderson to leave New York to study with famed clarinetist Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. Five years later, Wynton Marsalis invited Anderson to tour with his Septet, and the young saxophonist was an integral part of the revival of jazz in the late 1980s and 1990s. He furthered his experiences playing with Sonny Stitt and with legendary vocalist and talent-promoter Betty Carter. Today, in addition to his own ensembles, Anderson continues as first chair alto saxist with Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and also plays soprano and sopranino sax. Anderson's 1994 debut album, Warmdaddy in the Garden of Swing (Atlantic), is a set of all original compositions with pianist Eric Reed and bassist Ben Wolfe. A second Atlantic release, The Ways of Warm Daddy, followed in 1995. On Live at the Village Vanguard (1998, Leaning House Jazz), Anderson was joined by a young lion line-up including trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, bassist Steve Kirby, pianist Xavier Davis, and drummer Jaz Sawyer. Wrote Jazziz, “An extraordinarily resourceful improvisor, the saxophonist never blows blather while trying to drum up the next set of ideas… his tart sound and natural sense of daring have all the intrigue and smarts of forebears such as Jackie McLean and Arthur Blythe.”

Young trumpeter Greg Paulus is barely out of his teens, but already is a veteran performer, having led a few gigs at St. Paul’s Artists Quarter with bandmates twice his age. Paulus comes by his musical chops honestly as the son of acclaimed St. Paul composer Stephen Paulus. Hooked on trumpet from fifth grade, by age 14, Greg was spending every possible weekend listening to jazz at the Artists Quarter and (old) Dakota in St. Paul. He boldly introduced himself to performers, and his assertiveness served him well when he moved to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music and started jamming at every opportunity. These days Paulus is more concerned with the freedom to improvise than music theory or reading charts, picking up sounds and ideas as he encounters them. "I'm just trying to play interesting things and still sound melodic. Hopefully, my own sound will come out of that," Paulus says. "I've put a ton of time into listening to Miles and Louis and Dizzy, and then there's Roy Hargrove and all the young trumpet players on the scene in New York. If I wind up sounding like Freddie Hubbard or Lee Morgan, that's not a bad thing at all." It’s spring break, and Greg Paulus is home on “vacation.” So what will he do? Jam of course, and join the Jazz Is Now! Orchestra on March 15^th.

Coming Soon!

Later this spring, JIN will feature tenor saxman Ted Nash at the Dakota (April 28), and with Nash and the Zenon Dance Company at the Illusion Theater (April 29 – 30). Join the excitement and catch these innovative artists as they embark on a hopefully long-lived journey through modern jazz.

March 15 (7:30 pm) and April 29-30 performances of the JIN Orchestra will be at the Illusion Theater, 528 Hennepin Avenue on the 8th floor of the Hennepin Center for the Arts in downtown Minneapolis; www.illusiontheater.org. April 28, catch the Orchestra at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, 1010 Nicollet Mall, www.dakotacooks.com. For updates on Jazz Is NOW!, visit the website at www.jazzisnow.org

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