Dean Granros © Andrea Canter

Peter Schimke © Andrea Canter

Each of these artists has established his reputation through many diverse routes: Dean Granros’s 30-year career encompasses an ecletic range of genres and projects, including several well-known to AQ audiences—FKG with Scott Fultz and Dave King, Siamese Fighting Fish with King and Anthony Cox, and his long-running duo with Brad Bellows. In 2003, he recorded Mercury with the rock/jazz fusion band Curlew, featuring saxist George Cartwright, generating accolades from Jazz Times critic Stuart Nicholson who noted that “Granros’raw guitar explores the tensions between jazz and rock.” Jazz Police administrator Don Berryman adds, “Granros blends the vocabulary of bebop, acid rock, and delta blues into a delightful and potent cocktail that may leave you shaken or stirred.”

Peter Schimke is one of the busiest keyboard virtuosos in the Twin Cities today, appearing frequently at the AQ, Dakota, and just about anywhere else that requires first class comping and soloing on piano or Fender Rhodes. In addition to HBW, Schimke is a mainstay of Bruce Henry’s Sextet, leader of his own trio, frequently collaborator with saxophonist Irv Williams, and a favorite keyboardist of many local and national artists. With How Birds Work, Schimke also displays his skills as a composer and adds vocals to the mix. Notes Don Berryman (Jazz Police), “When he is comping behind a soloist, he is engaged in a subtle dialog, 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.

Chris Bates © Andrea Canter

Chris Bates, with his brother, drummer JT, grew up with jazz, sons of trumpeter/bandleader Don Bates. Chris began bass lessons in 4^th grade and progressed to jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire before returning to the Twin Cities to study with Anthony Cox. A member of the original Motion Poets, Chris has focused more on composing (he was a 1999 McKnight Composer Fellow) and playing regularly with Low Blow, the Kelly Rossum Quartet, and the guitar trios, Framework and Red Planet, in addition to HBW. He’s also a busy performer during the annual Minnesota Sur Seine Festival..

Kenny Horst © Andrea Canter

Kenny Horst isn’t busy enough running the Artists’ Quarter, he also tends the drum kit with many of the AQ’s visiting and local artists, and still manages to perform now and then at other venues with groups such as The Five and Dean Granros Trio. Says Don Berryman (Jazz Police), “Great hard-bop, soul jazz, and fusion chops and the sweetest guy you could meet.” He served double duty on the HBW recording as both drummer and producer

So what happens when this veteran foursome joins forces? Sophisticated, often subtle, always working toward the edge from a firm foundation, How Birds Work offers multiple layers of challenge to the listener. Live at the AQ is an ambitious recording, with tough covers for a first outing, including well-known classics of master composers, Coltrane’s “Equinox,” Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage,” and Shorter’s “Footprints.” These have been performed many times by legendary artists—with the bar set so high, this could be a dangerous play list, but these guys are up to the challenge, and throw in three originals to boot. And according to CD Baby, “It's jazz. Some of it is out there, some if isn't. Some of it has a little bit of a rock tinge. A lot of it doesn't.” I agree, and I would also add “it is simultaneously accessible and challenging” for the listener.

How Birds Work follows in some large “footprints” of modern jazz, often teetering toward the outer limits but nevertheless within reach. Catch their inventive musings when they take over the stage on Wednesday, December 26th.

The Artists Quarter is located in the lower level of the Hamm Building at St. Peter and 7^th Place in downtown St. Paul. See www.artistsquarter.com or call (651) 292-1359. More information about the band and CD is available at cdbaby.com/cd/howbirdswork. See the feature on HBW in the January 2007 issue of Minneapolis/St Paul Magazine.

How Birds Work live vdeo from 2005:

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