Jazz Police - Vicky Mountain Celebrates the First Anniversary of the Dakota County Music Café, October 19-20

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Vicky Mountain Celebrates the First Anniversary of the Dakota County Music Café, October 19-20

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Monday, 15 October 2007

Vicky Mountain©Andrea Canter

“Vicky Mountain doesn't just sing songs, she applies the appropriate vocal style for each one and has the ability to invoke a unique atmosphere for every composition she graces with her voice.” - Criterion Jazz Review

We had to wait more than a decade between Vicky Mountain’s first and second recordings, but fortunately her live gigs come closer together. This weekend, the popular Twin Cities’ songstress/educator will help mark the first year of the Dakota County Music Café in Burnsville, October 19-20. This is only appropriate since Vicky was the inaugural act on the stage within the Dakota County Steakhouse of the Burnsville Holiday Inn, just south of Minneapolis. With a diverse and reasonable menu and live jazz on weekends, the south metro venue has been a swinging addition to the Twin Cities music scene.

Vicky and Chris Lomheim©Andrea Canter

Vicky Mountain has had a wide-ranging career as a performer and educator. Raised in the Red River Valley of North Dakota among a family devoted to music, Vicky remembers hearing her mother singing around the house—she “would make up her own melodies – even sing the grocery list.” And among her ten siblings, all five sisters are singers. Vicky’s early music influences were quite diverse, from Gregorian Chants to the pop hits of the day—the Beatles, Led Zepplin, the Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin, to such soul stars as the Temptations and Smokey Robinson. But then she discovered jazz when she moved to the Twin Cities in the early 70s—Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Parker, Davis, Coltrane, and most importantly, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney, Betty Carter, and the other top vocalists.

Jocko MacNelly©Andrea Canter

Vicky came to the Twin Cities in the ‘70s to act in the Minneapolis Ensemble Theater, but soon was forming bands and working with experimental jazz projects. In 1987 she won the West Bank School of Music Jazz Composers Series award, and as her reputation grew, so did her repertoire. In 1990 she toured South American with the Lakewood Jazz Ensemble and appears on two of the group’s recordings. Over the past decade, Vicky has worked not only as a performer but as a lyricist and educator. “I’m always thrilled when the composer likes my lyrics. The melodies that capture and inspire me create the pictures that become my words,” she says. Vicky initially taught at the West Bank School of Music and has been on the faculty of the MacPhail Center for Music since 1986, specializing in jazz improvisation technique, vocal performance, theory, and private voice instruction.

Vicky recorded her debut CD, Birds of a Feather, in 1984. Don’t Go to Strangers was released in early 2005, featuring a playlist that is both comfortable and novel, eclectic and sophisticated. Although she does include some standards, they are complemented by seldom-heard and original tunes. Across the diverse tracks, Vicky’s theatrical background shines through as well as her ability to twist a lyric to tell a story in character. Overall, this is not the Great American Songbook but a set of more contemporary, yet accessible, arrangements. Throughout, Vicky’s contralto caresses your ears with a warm familiarity that belies the creative muse at work on every song. Noted Vicky, “I wanted this CD to be as eclectic as my performing career—the happy swing and scat, the beautiful ballads, the avant-garde, and a taste of the soulful R&B.”

Greg Schutte©Andrea Canter

This diverse description aptly reflects not only the content of Don’t Go to Strangers, but the wide ranging talents of Vicky Mountain. At the Dakota County Music Café, she will be joined by a stellar team of musicians including pianist Chris Lomheim, bassist Jocko MacNelly, and drummer Greg Schutte. (It’s billed as a “Grand Re-opening”—but it’s never been closed!)

“We need to keep on advancing the finer things inside us and music is one of the finer things in the human soul.” -- Vicky Mountain

The Dakota County Music Café is located within the Holiday Inn at 14201 Nicollet Ave. S., Burnsville (just off I-35 and Country Rd 42); 952-435 2100. Music 7:30-11:30 pm, no cover!

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