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Mayhem at the Artists Quarter!

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Sunday, 01 May 2005

May must be Minnesota Month at the Artists Quarter, with three of four weekends exclusively featuring home grown talent while a fourth weekend features a home-town legend in geographically diverse company. Additionally the weekends feature a live recording session and a CD release celebration, while the week nights highlight other local favorites.

Weekends in May

Some of the nation’s best jazz is in our own backyard. With first sets nonsmoking on Friday and Saturday nights, the fresh air will readily conduct hot vibes and cool grooves:

Photo by Andrea Canter

Laura Caviani Trio (May 6-7). One of the Twin Cities’ pre-eminent jazz pianists, composers, and educators, Caviani earned degrees from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and the University of Michigan; studied in Japan at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village; and received a grant to study with another highly inventive pianist, Joanne Brackeen. She has toured with Toots Theilemans, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, and Karrin Allyson, and has released four acclaimed recordings as well as appearing on a long list of CDs of local musicians. Known for her interpretations of Monk and her work with Soul Café, Departure Point, and Pete Whitman’s X-tet, Caviani is in the best of company with bassist Chris Bates and drummer Michael Pilhofer. Earlier in the week, Caviani will be busy at the Dakota, backing Karrin Allyson (May 1-2) and Judi Silvano (May 5).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Phil Hey Quartet (May 13-14). Given AQ owner Kenny Horst’s own talents as a drummer, it is no surprise that Phil Hey and his Quartet are a regular act at the AQ. Joining Hey are Dave Hagedorn (vibes), Phil Aaron (piano), and Tom Lewis (bass). A “no-nonsense, uncompromising band of local jazz greats” (Don Berryman, Jazz Police), the quartet’s repertoire includes the tunes of Kenny Wheeler, Bobby Hutcherson, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter. A former student of Ed Blackwell, Phil Hey is one of the busiest drummers in town and teaches jazz drum at Macalester College. Hey is often found on the bandstand backing touring and local vocalists and small ensembles; he also manages percussion duties for the Pete Whitman X-Tet, Departure Point, and Mulligan Stew. Vibist Dave Hagedorn “brings an integrated knowledge of complex harmony and rhythm that never fails to swing or to move anyone with ears” (Don Berryman, Jazz Police). Tom Lewis is another busy sideman throughout the Twin Cities, a “straight-ahead, hard bop, and bebop bassist and he swings like anything” (Don Berryman). Phil Aaron holds forth weekly at the Hotel Sofitel, drawing inspiration from Bill Evans, Cedar Walton, Tommy Flanagan, and Keith Jarrett, and “can swing hard or wax romantic at the keyboard" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Grismore Scea Group (May 20-21). From West virginia to Iowa to Minnesota, the Grismore Scea Group is one of the most innovative and avant garde ensembles in modern jazz. Echoes of Ornette Coleman are prevalent in the group’s electronically enhanced harmonies. Described by Tom Surowicz as “a free-thinking unit that’s avant and accessible, with a sheaf of great compositions,” GSG is lead by Iowa-based guitarist Steve Grismore and University of West Virginia professor, reedist Paul Scea. Featured performer is the Twin Cities’ own Anthony Cox on acoustic and electric bass. Equally at home in straight-ahead acoustic settings and avant garde electronic experiments, Cox has an international reputation as a versatile and creative artist. He spent his professionally formative years in New York and on the international touring circuit, playing and/or recording with Elvin Jones, James Newton, David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Arthur Blythe, Jon Faddis, Sam Rivers, Dewey Redman, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, and Geri Allen, among many others. Along with private instruction, Cox has taught at MusicTech and Anoka-Ramsey Community College in addition to a long list of local, national, and international residencies, public school projects, and workshops. His skills as a composer can be heard on his recordings, such as Dark Metals with Billy Higgins and Dewey Redman.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Irv Williams CD Release Party (May 27-28). Raised in Cincinnati and Little Rock, Irv 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. Still going strong at 85, “Mr. Smooth” released That’s All? less than a year ago to high acclaim. Now he turns around with another recording, Dedicated to You. 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. Joining Mr. Smooth this weekend to celebrate Dedicated to You will be his cohorts on his recent recordings—keyboard master Peter Schimke, first-call bassist Billy Peterson, and the AQ’s own drum machine, Kenny Horst.

Weeknight Jams

The AQ doesn’t save up its hot jazz for the weekend—you can stop in any night, Monday-Thursday, for the best music bargains in town.

Green/Open Poetry (every Monday night): From 7-9 pm, catch the sounds of Green. Featuring Rob Dewey (piano), Paul Kammeyer (bass) and Scotty Schultz (drums), Green has been the Monday night band at the AQ for the past two years. Following their sets, open mic poetry reading gets underway at 9 pm. No cover!

Billy Holloman and the Tuesday Night Band (every Tuesday night, 9 pm). 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. The regular Tuesday Night Band, featuring Holloman, 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!

Dean Granros Trio (May 4, 9 pm). Guitarist Dean Granros “blends the vocabulary of bebop, acid rock, and delta blues into a delightful and potent cocktail that may leave you shaken or stirred” (Don Berryman, Jazz Police). Granros worked with the band Curlew beginning in the late 1970s; more recent credits include FKG with Scott Fultz and Dave King (of Bad Plus and Happy Apple fame) and Siamese Fighting Fish with King and all-star bassist Anthony Cox.

Photo by Andrea Canter

The Five (May 5, 9 pm). 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/AQ 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 (see above) performs regularly with Apex, Phil Hey, and Phil Aaron. Pianist 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. Master of reeds and flute, Dave Karr (see above) rounds out this exciting quintet.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Red Planet (May 11, 9 pm). Dean Magraw has been wowing audiences with his fleet fingered plucking and creative compositions. Said Steve Tibbetts, "It's guitar, but it's so liquid, lyrical and effortless that it's like listening to a dancer." Starting out on bugle, St. Paul native Magraw studied classical guitar at the University of Minnesota and Berklee College of Music in Boston. For many years, Magraw was half of a popular partnership with mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko. Straddling jazz, folk and bluegrass, he has performed with and/or recorded with Ruth McKenzie, Claudia Schmidt and Greg Brown, among others; he has explored his Celtic heritage performing with Celtic accordionist John Williams. Magraw’s first solo recording, “Broken Silence, won the NAIRD 1994 Best Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year. A frequent performer at area festivals and jazz clubs, his group Red Planet--with bassist Chris Bates and drummer Jay Epstein--performed recently at the KBEM Winter Jazz Festival. Expect great tunes infused with Magraw’s impish humor.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Dave Karr Quartet (May 18, 9 pm). A native New Yorker, multi-reedist Dave Karr got hooked on jazz listening to some of the great jazz legends, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Moving to the Twin Cities in his twenties, Karr has been a fixture on the Twin Cities jazz scene for nearly 50 years, performing, composing and producing music for radio and TV. Karr has performed with name bands, symphony orchestras, and Broadway shows; he has played and recorded with many local artists, ranging from vocalists (Connie Evingson, Cookie Coleman, Lucia Newell, and Prudence Johnson) and small groups (The Five) to small bands (Pete Whitman’s X-Tet) and the JazzMN Big Band, as well as his Quartet and tribute band, Mulligan Stew. Dave blows a sweet horn and is always in the company of the best area musicians.

How Birds Work (May 25, 9 pm). One of the most popular regular attractions at the AQ, How Birds Work is the collaboration of four well-known area musicians—guitarist Dean Granros, bassist Billy Peterson, pianist Peter Schimke, and drummer Kenny Horst. Playing at least monthly at the AQ, the quartet recently made a live—and lively-- recording here. Guitarist Dean Granros (see above) is one of the most innovative guitarists around. “Bassist Billy Peterson grew up as a member of the legendary Peterson family of musicians, appeared on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, toured with the Steve Miller Band, and has arranged for Prince and David Sanborn. And drummer Kenny Horst is a “great hard-bop, soul jazz, and fusion chops and the sweetest guy you could meet” (Don Berryman). In his role with How Birds Work, pianist Peter Schimke also displays his skills as a composer and adds vocals to the mix. Sophisticated, often subtle, always working toward the edge from a firm foundation, How Birds Work offers multiple layers of challenge to the listener.

Pete Whitman’s X-tet (May 26, 9 pm). The X-Tet is one of several projects led by veteran sax performer, composer, and arranger Pete Whitman. His credits include performing with Randy Brecker, Jack McDuff, and the Woody Herman Orchestra, in addition to leading his X-Tet and Quintet in the Twin Cities and working regularly with the Jazz MN Big Band. A graduate of jazz studies at North Texas State University, Whitman heads the Woodwind and Brass Department at St. Paul’s Music Tech. The 10-piece X-Tet is a virtual Who’s Who in local jazz, with Whitman, Dave Karr, and Dave Milne (reeds), Steve Wagner and Dave Jensen (trumpets), Jeff Rinear (trombone), Dave Hagedorn (vibes), Gordy Johnson (bass), Phil Hey (drums), and Laura Caviani (piano).

Coming Soon!

If May brings Mayhem, stay tuned to the AQ’s June line-up. Paul Bollenback and Chris McNulty will be on stage June 10-11, and on June 17-18, the AQ salutes the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival with a rare appearance by saxophone legend Charles McPherson. To quote AQ master of ceremonies Davis Wilson, we’ll all be “pleased and flipped” to welcome these top-flight artists to the Artists Quarter!

The Artists Quarter is located in downtown St. Paul in the lower level of the Hamm Building at 7^th Place and St. Peter Street; visit www.mnjazz.com or call (651) 292-1359.

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