Dakota Combo © Andrea Canter

The Twin Cities’ pre-eminent ensemble of high school jazz musicians, the Dakota Combo, will perform on May 16^th (8 pm) at the Nomad World Pub in Minneapolis. Directed by noted trumpeter/educator Kelly Rossum, the Combo was initiated in fall 2006, sponsored by the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education and the MacPhail Center for Music.

Following auditions in September, the seven selected young musicians began a rigorous series of rehearsals with Rossum, culminating in a final rehearsal and performance on the Dakota Jazz Club stage with guest artists, saxophonist Bobby Watson on December 1st. Since that time, the Combo has performed for the Dakota Foundation benefit in January, was the subject of a KARE-11profile, and is scheduled to perform on the Foundation’s Student Stage as part of the Twin Cities Summer Jazz Festival in late June. This will be the last performance of this inaugural Combo as the seven musicians all graduate this spring.

Dakota COmbo with Bobby Watson © Andrea Canter

A number of organizations have lent their support to the Dakota Combo, including IAJE – Minnesota, the Jazz Police, JazzINK and the Twin Cities Jazz Society, in addition to primary sponsors, the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education and MacPhail Center for Music. The Foundation has provided each student musician’s tuition for MacPhail instruction.

The Combo

Student musicians enrolled in grades 9-12 were eligible to audition before a panel of area musicians/educators in mid-September. The 2006-07 Dakota Combo is a three-horn septet representing programs from Twin Cities’ high schools:

Amber Woodhouse © Andera Canter

• Owen Nelson, Alto Saxophone, Edina High School

• Amber Woodhouse, Tenor Saxophone, St. Paul Central High School

• Ben Link, Trombone, St. Paul Central High School

• Jack Davis, Guitar, Minneapolis South High School

• Javier Santiago, Piano, Watershed High School (Minneapolis)

• Daniel Duke, Bass, St. Paul Central High School

• Nathan Whitley, Drums, St. Paul Central High School

Kelly Rossum

Kelly Rossum © Andrea Canter

Rossum described the process of taking the seven students from the first rehearsal to the Dakota club performance over the course of two months of rehearsal: “First, the students have to get to know each other so they become comfortable and get over the unconscious posturing and trying to be cool—the social components. That took us through the first two rehearsals. Musically, I introduced the standards and gave them CDs to listen to and practice with—the actual recordings of the original artists—Clifford Brown playing Clifford Brown, Wayne Shorter playing Wayne Shorter. Then later, when they were comfortable with the standards, we introduced their originals. Each student would run the rehearsal when dealing with their own music. It’s part of the learning process, for them to help other students read their charts and make it happen. I let them present their own material to the band because this is what they will have to do in college and in the real world. That took another couple weeks to get the originals sounding good. Once that happened, their confidence went way up. We did a lot of blowing at the first rehearsal, while working on forms and heads. We focused on soloing at the last rehearsal. That’s how professional musicians work—we don’t constantly practice improvising—we save that for the show!”

Among the many benefits of the program, Rossum notes that the emphasis on improvisation sets the Combo apart from the many other jazz programs offered in the Twin Cities, an emphasis that is more difficult to implement with the more typical big band approach. The smaller ensemble “refocuses student participation and instruction on improvisation instead of on big band music. Jazz is truly about improvisation, and we needed a premier group of student improvisers as a healthy jazz community.”

You don’t need to be a doctor to evaluate the health of the local jazz community—just come down to the Nomad Wednesday night and take the pulse of the Dakota Combo!

The Nomad World Pub is located at 501 Cedar Avenue adjacent to the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus. Following the Combo set at 8 pm, Kelly Rossum and his quartet will perform with sets starting at 9 pm (visit www.nomadpub.com). For more information about the Dakota Combo, including news of the next round of auditions, contact Kelly Rossum at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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