Photo by Andrea Canter

Jazz Is Now! is a nonprofit organization founded by Jeremy Walker and Marsha Palmer (named City Pages’ “Best Local Impresarios”), whose first venture was the acclaimed but short-lived St. Paul club, Brilliant Corners. Through educational affiliation with Jazz at Lincoln Center and support from JLC Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, Jazz Is Now! today features several ensembles, with the nine-piece band at the heart of its program. Swinging with the spirit of the historic territory bands of the 1930s and the creative intensity of the groups of Charles Mingus, JIN received a 2005 Jerome Foundation Grant to commission new works, which will be performed throughout the year. Jazz Is Now! includes the full orchestra as well as Jazz Ensemble. In addition to performing the Ted Nash composition with Zenon, JIN will also play between dances throughout the production. Nash will perform with JIN and Zenon on opening night, April 29^th.

Photo by Andrea Canter

The Zenon Dance Company, under the leadership of founder and Artistic Director Linda Z. Andrews, first performed in 1983, and over the next two decades became one of the nation's premiere repertory dance companies. Zenon has brought its eclectic blend of modern and jazz dance to stages across the nation and the globe (including a tour to St. Petersburg, Russia), earning rave reviews from the New York Times, Village Voice, Dance Magazine, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, and City Pages. “The mission of Zenon Dance Company is to sustain an artistically excellent, professional dance company in the Twin Cities through performance, education and outreach. Zenon Dance Company commissions emerging and master modern and jazz choreographers and presents their work to diverse communities around the world” (Zenon press release).

Choreographer for this new production, Jeanine Durning, was dubbed by The New York Times as "clearly a choreographer to watch." Durning's choreography has been presented throughout venues in New York, as part of the Jacob's Pillow Festival's Inside/Out series, and has been recognized with commissions from the Jerome Foundation. She also is a recipient of the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation grant.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Zenon’s project with Jazz is NOW!—as a collaboration between established and up-and-coming organizations—exemplifies local partnerships that hope to attract new and expanded audiences for the arts. The bridge between the two companies is enhanced by their common denominator, Marsha Palmer, who serves as Managing Director for both organizations. Together, Zenon and Jazz Is Now! commissioned New York-based tenor saxophonist/composer Ted Nash to compose a work for dance and jazz ensemble, which will be the featured work of Zenon’s Spring Concert (April 29-May 8).

Ted Nash, guest artist/composer. New York native Ted Nash grew up surrounded by music, son of Dick and nephew of Ted Nash, accomplished jazz and studio musicians. Although he started out on piano, Nash switched to clarinet and then saxophone in his early teens. He was inspired by jazz from the beginning, the “aggressive Bebop stuff, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and my parents would always put on records and play me Art Pepper and Gerry Mulligan.” While still in his teens, Nash began playing with Lionel Hampton and the Quincy Jones band. A true multi-instrumentalist, today he plays tenor and alto saxophone as well as clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute, and percussion. In addition to his regular duties with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Nash performs with the Herbie Nichols Project, the Jazz Composers Collective, and his own groups (Odeon, Still Evolved, and Double Quartet). His newest recording, La Espada de la Noche, featuring his band Odeon, was released in March 2005 (Palmetto). Noted The Washington Post, "Nash fills his solos with ideas rather than rote lines ... and bulks up his melodic statements with controlled passion." [Click her to read an exclusive Jazz Police interview with Ted Nash.]

Although his compositions have been used in dance the past, this is the first time Nash has been commissioned to specifically compose a work for a choreographer. Similarly this was the first time choreographer Durning had worked with a jazz composer. To Nash, the collaboration of jazz and dance is very natural: “Historically, music has always been used to support dance, whether ceremonial, artistic, of just for fun,” he says. “ If you can’t move to the music, there is something missing.  For me, the opportunity to work with a choreographer and dancers just expands my experience as a composer.  It also brings me closer to the roots of what music is all about.”
  

Photo by Andrea Canter

Jazz Is Now! Musicians

Christopher Thomson (tenor saxophone) 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.

David Milne (lead alto saxophone) is an Associate Professor of Music (Saxophone/Jazz Studies) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. An active jazz and classical saxophonist, he is also a busy composer/arranger and artist-clinician for Selmer Saxophones. Among his other projects, he is a member of the JazzMN Big Band and leads the Jazz Ax Saxophone Quartet and the quintet APEX.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Jeremy Walker (alto saxophone), founder and Artistic Director of Jazz Is Now!, is a young saxophonist/entrepreneur with a deep commitment to educating the public, especially the younger generation, about jazz. In addition to running his short-lived gem, Brilliant Corners, his professional career has included work with some of the area’s best musicians; leading his own groups, performing at the Dakota, Café Luxx, Clown Lounge, and at the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival; and teaching jazz improvisation and saxophone as adjunct faculty at Bethel University.

Kelly Rossum (trumpet) teaches through the MacPhail Center for Music. Living in Minneapolis since 1996, Rossum performs both jazz and classical music, having worked with the Lyra Consort as well as with a wide range of local jazz artists. His second recording, Renovation, was nominated for four Minnesota Music Awards; was included in the top 20 local albums for 2004 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune; and was one of City Pages’ top 10 local albums of the year.

John Raymond (trumpet) is the youngest member of Jazz Is Now, filling the “student” chair. Raymond is a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he plays with the Jazz Ensemble I.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Matt Darling (trombone) is as eclectic as they come—playing trombone with the on-the-edge, Latin-tinged ensemble, Tambuca, a group of live musicians playing in tandem with DJs spinning turntables, as well as Yawo, an acclaimed ensemble of musicians dedicated to African music, and the blues bands, Big Bang and the Titanics He’s also a member of Kelly Rossum’s Exit 50 band, dedicated to original music.

Peter Schimke (piano) appears frequently at the Artists Quarter, Dakota, and just about anywhere else that requires mastery of 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." In addition to JIN and his own ensembles, Schimke is a member of the edgy quartet, How Birds Work.

Greg Schutte (drums with the Zenon performances) is all over the Twin Cities these days. Known as “The Machine,” Schutte played with a rock band in Colorado before enrolling in MusicTech in St. Paul. He’s played in a variety of bands including the Clay Moore Trio and the Afro-Cuban band Yawo, as well as backing vocalists such as Christine Rosholt, Debbie Duncan, and Vicky Mountain.

Kevin Washington (drums at the Dakota only) is a native of Detroit and son of saxophonist Donald and flautist Faye Washington. As a jazz student at the New School for Social Research in New York, he taught rhythm section fundamentals at the Harlem School of the Arts. Not yet thirty, has performed with Roscoe Mitchell, Antonio Hart, Chico Freeman, James Carter, Marcus Belgrave, David Murray Big Band, Fred Ho, Craig Taborn, and James Newton, among others. He has been an instructor with the Twin Cities Jazz Workshop and plays with a long list of leading Twin Cities’ musicians.

James Buckley (bass) is a recent addition to JIN, having worked with area rock bands such as Poor Line Condition and Shadow Box. He’s a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire jazz program and plays in bands with Chris Thomson and Michael Lewis at such venues as Bar Lurcat and Rossi’s.

JIN and Zenon Spring Performances

The smaller JIN Ensemble, performing with Zenon, April 29-May 8, will include Walker, Thomson, Darling, Schutte, and Buckley, with Nash replacing Thomson for opening night, April 29^th. The full Jazz Is Now! Orchestra and Ted Nash (with Kevin Washington on drums) will present an all-music program at the Dakota on April 28^th. This is a rare opportunity to hear Nash in the Twin Cities, and rarer still to hear him with a local band at a club venue. (No reservations; show starts at 7 pm, and as always, no smoking!)

Post Script

I attended the Zenon Spring Concert on April 30th and heartily recommend the entire show, which includes three world premieres including Ted Nash’s “Inter Ruption” as the commissioned work was titled. The staging itself is unusual, with the three horns situated at opposite corners of the dance floor, each contributing to the music before meandering across the stage as if dodging dancers along the way. Only the bass and drums remain anchored to the bandstand. On stage, the dancers move through several often humorous segments of leaps, rolls, coupling and uncoupling, freezing gestures, etc., initially in brightly appointed costumes, hats and feather boas, which are discarded early in favor of more basic monotone garb. Ted Nash’s score is alternatingly energetic and soulful with plenty of space for exemplary solos from each of the five musicians, most notably Jeremy Walker’s wailing alto sax. The JIN Composers Ensemble creates a big band sound within the tight chamber work, and Jeanine Durning has designed a combination of movement and gesture that perfectly fits the music and fills long pauses in the orchestration.

In an era of modern dance when too often (for my taste) the effort seems to be toward minimalist motion and droning “music,” Zenon is a welcome burst of swinging energy that complements a wide range of music. In addition to “Inter Ruption,” the company presents Wil Swanson’s cerebral “Lost Things,” Bill Young’s humorous “Wildlife/Shades of Rose,” and a simply jubilant and spectacular –visually and aurally—repeat of Myron Johnson’s 2004 hit, “No Turn On/Red.” In between dances, the Jazz Is Now Composers’ Ensemble performs short works that are long on engaging abstract swing.

For information about the Dakota performance of Jazz Is Now! with Ted Nash, visit www.dakotacooks.com or visit the JIN website at www.jazzisnow.org. The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Information and tickets for the JIN/Zenon Dance concerts (scheduled through May 8th) is available at www.zenondance.org. All performances will be held at the Illusion Theater, 528 Hennepin Av, in downtown Minneapolis. A special edition poster commemorating the JIN/Zenon event, autographed by Ted Nash, will be for sale ($40) at the Dakota and Illusion Theater performances.