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“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.” - Charlie Parker

Friday, 09 January 2009

Arne and Maud Open the Fred Astaire Songbook, February 3rd

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Friday, 26 January 2007

Maud Hixson and Arne Fogel © Andrea Canter

A dynamic duo in the tradition of Fred and Ginger, Arne Fogel and Maud Hixson celebrate the music of Fred Astaire at the new Dakota County Music Café in Burnsville on February 3^rd. One of the Twin Cities’ most popular jazz pairings, their acclaimed 2005 release, Let’s Not Be Sensible, reflects the inspiration of this cross-generational collaboration.

Bob Protzman (St Paul Pioneer Press) called Arne Fogel "...one of the Twin Cities' most interesting people -- a singer, musician, actor, composer, writer, producer, music-film-comedy and entertainment historian, collector and oral encyclopedia."

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Arne grew up in Minneapolis where he first gravitated to drawing and particularly cartooning. But as cartooning pervaded his other artistic efforts, Arne began to lose interest in art and by 14 found another passion. “I developed an almost spiritual interest in the ‘past’, as regards the popular arts,” recalls Arne. “I remember the moment I was watching ‘The Dupont Show of the Week,’ which was offering a documentary on Flo Ziegfeld, the legendary Broadway producer. The footage of all the old stars and music dazzled me, and my path was set. Thereafter, I divided my time between (a) chronicling the entertainment and music of the past in some way, and (b) being a performer myself.” The path to music was perhaps inevitable, as he constantly heard music “from that new-fangled “Stereo.” Although his family would watch “all the big-time ‘variety and comedy’ shows (rather than westerns or sitcoms), he was never pushed to perform or take lessons, only participating in his school orchestra as a trumpet student. Today Arne notes that of the five instruments he has played (also including voice, piano, drums and harmonica), the trumpet was the only one he studied formally and by far the one he played most poorly.

Arne Fogel © Andrea Canter

In high school “as a first-generation Beatles fan,” Arne played in several bands, and launched his recording career with “The Puddle” (later touring as The Batch) with Barry Goldberg, Gary Paulak and Jay Lee. Soon his talents as a studio vocalist were discovered, and over the years Arne has sung on over 1500 jingles as well as composing and producing his own music for jingles and industrial presentations. He also evolved as a popular radio personality, hosting programs for Minnesota Public Radio, KLBB and KBEM, and serving as music director of “The Golden Rock” (WWTC). On the air, Arne developed a reputation as “purveyor of vintage music and entertainment from an historical point of view.”

That historic viewpoint came into clear focus when Arne collaborated with Tom Lieberman and Turhan Bey in the eclectic jazz trio, “Lieberman, Fogel & Bey” on A Prairie Home Companion (MPR) in the early 80s. From this experience, Arne launched his jazz club career a few years later, starting on the Dakota’s “open stages” with Debbie Duncan and with further encouragement from local stars Patty Peterson, Don Stille, and the Wolverines’ Brett Forberg and Rick Carlson. He also launched a 14-year stint on MPR, hosting “Arne Fogel Presents,” a program that would have a profound impact on a young singer named Maud Hixson.

Particularly inspired by Bing Crosby (“the most important and influential pop-jazz singer of the 20th century”), Arne also cites as favorites a long list including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Peggy Lee, Fred Astaire, Rosemary Clooney, Margaret Whiting, Ethel Waters, and Mildred Bailey. He also notes the influence and inspiration of “baby-boom idols,” including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Who, The Stones, and his favorite comedians such as Jerry Lewis, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye.

From the late 1980s, in clubs throughout the Twin Cities, Arne channeled Sinatra and Crosby, became a regular at the Times and Rossi’s, and released two solo recordings--You Call It Madness on vinyl in 1989 and the acclaimed CD, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams in 2001. All before meeting Maud Hixson.

Growing up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Maud Hixson “always enjoyed singing… listening to everything around me and making up words to songs I already knew.” Seeing on television the musical films of the 30s and 40s introduced her to such stars as Judy Garland, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra. Eventually she fell in love with the music of the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. “I found records and biographies at the library, antique stores, garage sales and estate sales, raided my parents' record collection, and started finding some of it on the radio, too—I listened to KLBB around the clock in high school.” Although she did take a few formal voice lessons, Maud notes that “my education has mostly come from studying recordings and live performances.”

Arne Fogel and Maud Hixson © Andrea Canter

And Arne Fogel figured significantly in her self-education. “I first heard Arne on the radio,” she recalls. “When I was a teenager, I always listened to A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday nights. Immediately afterward was a program called Arne Fogel Presents. He would showcase Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, etc., and I was introduced to so much great music this way. I started recording the shows on my tape recorder and listening to them on my headphones on the walk home from school (Benilde-St. Margaret’s). Little did I know that Arne lived a stone's throw from my school and recorded the very same shows there!”

Arne Fogel recalls that Maud’s career path was a relatively slow and careful journey. “Rather than bursting into performing and the media field (as I did as a young adult), she waited until she was nearly thirty, then started shyly connecting with a few folks such as myself, Prudence [Johnson], etc.”

The “shy connecting” started seriously in spring 2001, when Maud attended Arne’s show at the Como Conservatory. “Afterward I asked him how he got charts to use for working with musicians. I was confused about keys and some other technical questions. He was gracious and helpful.” Maud “did some homework” and was soon sitting in during jazz nights at the Blue Nile in Minneapolis, then at other clubs. Attending another Arne Fogel show, this time at Café Luxx, Maud found herself just a few feet away as Arne began singing “Mood Indigo.”

Notes Maud, “On impulse, even though I didn't really know the song, I began singing it into his microphone, which was close by. He let me go on for a few more bars while I broke into a sweat and wondered what exactly I thought I was doing (I think I'd seen too many musicals).” Arne’s recollection is more revealing: “I heard her sing almost by accident; she and a girlfriend were at one of my gigs in 2001, and, as they were being very giggly and cute, I stuck my microphone in between their faces in the middle of a rendition of ‘Mood Indigo.’ To my astonishment, the gal on the right started singing the release so beautifully that I knew from that moment that I wanted to hear her sing again.”

Later, after a few months of e-mail exchanges, Maud notes that Arne “encouraged me to sit in at any of his gigs, and I asked for his feedback, which he spent much time and thought on, as well as videotaping once in a while, which helped me enormously.” Mentor and mentee were on the brink of a partnership.

Maud became an active artist on the Twin Cities Jazz scene. She met (and later married) Wolverines’ pianist Rick Carlson and was soon singing regularly with the Wolverines’ Big Band and small ensembles; she appeared at the KBEM Winter Jazz Festival and at area music venues including The Times, Rossi's Blue Star Room, Dixie's On Grand, Terlizzo's, and Sophia. In addition to her duo gigs with Arne Fogel, today Maud is a favorite solo performer with swing dance (and lindy) bands, at area jazz festivals, and at the top jazz venues of the Twin Cities, including the Dakota, Rossi’s and the Times. A recent highlight was participation in the 2006 Cabaret Conference at Yale University.

Arne recalls his first public collaboration with Maud: “At a Gabbert’s Galleria concert/[KBEM] broadcast in 2002, I brought her up to sing a song with me. I believe that was the first time we ever sang together in a public place that wasn't just ‘jamming’.” More formally, the duet gigs began when Arne invited Maud to be a guest on a Twin Cities Jazz Society’s “J to Z” concert in 2003, a show featuring Arne and Prudence Johnson. The pair was invited to perform one of those duets (a song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen) for a centennial celebration honoring Bing Crosby, hosted by Bing’s widow, Kathryn Crosby. Soon Arne and Maud were a weekly gig.

And the partnership continues to flourish, captured beautifully on their first duet release, Let’s Not Be Sensible (2005, Becca Records). Arne describes the recording as part tribute “to people like Crosby and Clooney, and their album, Fancy Meeting You Here, which is sort of an ‘icon’ for our partnership; one of the first songs we learned together is ‘Love Won't Let You Get Away’ from that record. ....I'd always been fascinated by the relationship between ‘Sensible’ and ‘Irresponsible’ by Cahn and Van Heusen, even before Maud was born! So, that juxtaposition was something that had been brewing for decades, and she really liked the idea.” Maud adds, “We picked the tunes based on the repertoire we had worked up for our live performances, which centered on songs that had been written as duets, which I never perform alone, and then added songs that we already enjoyed singing separately, but which had lyrics that lent themselves to being performed as duets.” [Click here for a Jazz Police review]

But it is the human as much as musical bond that cements this partnership, on record or live stage. Says Arne, “Ultimately, this whole concept would not survive if not for the fact that we have become very good friends, and I think that is essential for something like this to work; people have to sense that genuine bond between the performers, or it's phony.” Adds Maud, “As Arne and I have worked together, we've developed an ability to sense how the other one will approach a song, and can experiment quite a bit by running on instincts, which allows us to find many different ways through a tune.”

And Maud continues to appreciate the “on-the-job” education provided by her mentor, even as their partnership finds equillibrium. “Working with Arne teaches me how to be in the moment on stage… He also continually teaches me how to deal with the unexpected in a way that I think no one can do better than he does. He makes me want things to be a little bit off, just so I can see what he'll do! Oftentimes I've seen him inspire musicians to try to surprise him musically for the same reason…”

And Arne finds inspiration from his cohort as well. “I have gone from being ‘mentor’ to ‘fan.’ I am so knocked out by Maud's singing and so proud of what she's become, that it's always a great kick to work with her. I think that's part of what lifts it from just being a couple of swing-singers doing some duets to an actual collaboration—a team that relates to each other on a more instinctual level.”

That instinctive communication and mutual admiration are on full display whenever Arne Fogel and Maud Hixson take the stage together. On February 3^rd, the music of Fred Astaire—a long-time favorite of the duo—will be the subject, and Arne and Maud will be the collaborative verbs.

Hear Arne Fogel and Maud Hixson at the Dakota County Music Café (Dakota Steakhouse) in the Holiday Inn Burnsville, 14201 Nicollet Ave. South (I-35 and County Rd 42); reservations at (952) 435-6624; www.hiburnsville.com/all_that_jazz_cfm. Sets from 6:30-10:30 pm. For more information on the artists and CD orders, visit Arne at www.arnefogel.com and Maud at www.maudhixson.com