Soul Cafe with frequent guest Lucia Newell©Andrea Canter

“It’s sound-art, both word and song, performed in the moment, playful, moving and surprising.” –Steve Blons, Soul Café 

The imaginative collaboration of three stellar local artists--Laura Caviani (piano), Steve Blons (guitar), and Brad Holden (alto sax), Soul Café has brought jazz and poetry together for the past five years, usually in the Gallery of the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church. Nearly monthly Sunday evening performances have developed a theme or presented a pairing of poet and composer. On April 20th, Soul Café closes out its run of regularly scheduled dates, presenting the poems e.e. cummings with favorite jazz selections. Leader Steve Blons assures faithful followers that there will be some special reunions in the future. 

The merging of jazz with poetry and spiritual passions has an extensive history. From Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts to Coltrane’s Love Supreme to the many weekly jazz services at local churches, from the rich gospel heritage that spawned generations of great jazz artists from Nat King Cole to Cyrus Chestnut, jazz has been a natural medium of religious expression. And the merger of jazz and poetry has similarly been explored, from the presentations of the late Steve Lacy to Fred Hersch’s Leaves of Grass to Patricia Barber’s recent reinvention of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Mythologies), and locally from Prudence Johnson’s Millay Project to the weekly open poetry night at St. Paul’s Artists Quarter. And for the past five years in the Twin Cities, jazz, poetry and spirit have found a very successful partnership through Soul Café, a project originally funded by the Hennepin Foundation of the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.

Without bass or drum, the musical challenge for the trio has been to generate –or at least imply—the pulse. Sometimes the trio has featured a guest artist, but otherwise the three musicians have carried the groove, always seeking new territory to explore. Says Blons, “We began experimenting with two-part and three-part improvisation, with dropping out to leave just a duo or a solo voice.  We rehearse very little and play mostly new material each time, so our interpretations and choices are very fresh.  We enjoy the risk and adventure of this kind of music.”

Laura Caviani©Andrea Canter

The Musicians

Soul Café’s leader, Steve Blons (aka Dr. Jazz), grew up around jazz as the son of Twin Cities’ Dixieland musician Harry Blons. Gigging around town as a teenage guitarist, Blons pursued other career directions, and worked in higher education, adoption, and conference center management before turning to fulltime music about ten years ago. In addition to Soul Café, Blons recently joined forces with Michele (Jansen) MacKenzie for Jazz and the Spirit, airing on KBEM-FM (88.5) and simulcast on their website, Jazz88FM.com (every Sunday at 10am and again on Saturday at 8pm).  

Steve Blons ©Andrea Canter

Laura Caviani is one of the area’s busiest jazz performers, composers, and educators. Her formal education included degrees from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and the University of Michigan; study in Japan at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village; and a grant to study with another highly inventive pianist, Joanne Brackeen. She has toured with Toots Theilemans, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, and Karrin Allyson; has released four acclaimed recordings as well as appearing on a long list of CDs of local musicians; and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In addition to her work with her own ensembles, she appears regularly with the Pete Whitman X-Tet. Of her involvement in Soul Café, she says, “I’ve enjoyed focusing on a poem as we play a standard or a free piece…I love Steve and Brad's positive energy and their willingness to collaborate and especially their willingness to take risks.” 

Alto saxman and Fergus Falls, MN native Brad Holden first became interested in the saxophone after attending a junior high jazz band concert at age ten. Today he notes that “for the last twenty-eight years, the alto saxophone has been at times both my best friend and my worst enemy.”  Studying at the University of Minnesota where he played in jazz ensembles, Holden worked for a while playing on street corners of New Orleans. Returning to Minneapolis, he played professionally around town and studied with local legend Eddie Berger. His local gigs have ranged from solos on the rooftop of the old Loring Cafe to the Twin Cities Jazz Orchestra Big Band. His current projects include Lineup, which features the music of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, and Warne Marsh, and of course, Soul Café. Of his bandmates, Holden says “Their ears are always open and ready to follow or lead.” 

The Poetry of Jazz

Brad Holden©Andrae Canter

One of the underlying joys of an evening with Soul Café has been the involvement of musicians and their audience, whom Blons notes have been “our partners, whose listening created the space and whose readings created the Yin for our Yang.” If you are regular participants in Soul Café, be sure to be part of that Yin one more time. And if you have not yet had the opportunity, don’t miss this one. 

Soul Café performs at the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church on Sunday evening, April 20th at, 7 pm. The church is located at Lyndale and Groveland near the I-94 Lyndale exit off Loring Park in Minneapolis; information at 612-871-5303.  Click here for a more detailed article about Soul Café!