Jazz Police - Minnesota Django: Sam Miltich and the Clearwater Hot Club Release "Just You, Just Me"

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Saturday, 20 March 2010

Minnesota Django: Sam Miltich and the Clearwater Hot Club Release "Just You, Just Me"

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Clearwater Hot Club with Dave Karr©Andrea Canter

If you’re a mere fifteen, living in the rural Northwoods of Minnesota, and want to study gypsy jazz guitar, what do you do? Well, if you’re Sam Miltich, you start with instructional videos. Once you master those, what next? Find the guy who made those videos, even if it means asking your dad to drive you to San Francisco for a lesson. With such a prodigious start, Miltich, now all of 23, finds himself well into a career as one of the most acclaimed hot club guitarists in the Midwest and beyond, and celebrating the release of his fourth recording, Just You, Just Me. He’s joined by long-standing partners, dad Matthew Miltich (bass and vocals), Mark Kreitzer (rhythm guitar), and frequent collaborator, Dave Karr (tenor sax).

The Musicians

Sam Miltich©Andrea Canter

Music, like the surrounding forests of Northern Minnesota, was just a normal part of family life for young Sam Miltich. Dad Matthew Miltich taught English at the area community college and played electric bass. At age 7, Sam discovered an Erroll Garner recording in the family collection and commandeered it, declaring Garner to be a “genius.” Soon he was learning to play piano, but a fire that destroyed the family home forced him to find another outlet. At age thirteen he picked up the guitar and taught himself to play. His life-defining moment came at fifteen, watching the Woody Allen film “Sweet and Lowdown” about the life and music of Django Reinhardt. The music for him was magic, “the fire and passion, the East European country sound....Everything I loved rolled into one,” he noted in an interview on National Public Radio. How can you learn more about the gypsy jazz style of Django living 20 miles from the nearest town in rural Minnesota? Sam ordered instructional videos by Paul Meiling and began intense study on his own, practicing eight hours per day. Seeking a playing partner, he convinced his father to switch to upright bass. And seeking more in-depth instruction, he convinced his father to drive cross country for a lesson with Meiling, who invited the teenager to sit in with the famed Hot Club of San Francisco. Sam founded the Clearwater Hot Club in 2003.

Sam cites influences beyond Django, including such diverse figures as Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Andres Segovia, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Maurice Ravel, Stevie Wonder, Stochelo Rosenberg, and Bireli Lagrene. He even plays a bit of blue grass, but mastering gypsy jazz is his mission. “It’s so hard...I have to practice and listen all the time... but it is my favorite music so it doesn’t bother me that I am doing that.” And his hard work has brought him to the attention of like-minded musicians from coast to coast as well as overseas. In addition to touring with the Hot Club of San Francisco, Sam has played in Holland, Germany and Japan; toured with David Grisman and the Stephane Wremble Trio; played at Lincoln Center in New York City in a concert honoring Django with international musicians; and has shared the stage and bill with the Ferre' Brothers, Angelo DeBarre, Dorado Schmitt, Fapy Lafertin, Ludovic Beier, Samson Schmitt, and Ken Pepolowski. He’s also recorded with the Hot Club of San Francisco, Connie Evingson and Patrick Harrison in addition to three previous releases with the Clearwater Hot Club.

Matthew Miltich himself grew up in a musical family surrounded by the swing sounds of Doc Evans, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, as well as the tamburitza music of his Croatian ancestors. In gypsy jazz, he found the ideal blend of stringed instruments, jazz rhythms and enduring melodies. A lifelong resident of northern Minnesota, he cites Ray Brown, Ron Carter and John Clayton as key influences. Just You, Just Me includes his first recordings as a vocalist.

Mark Kreitzer©Andrea Canter

Multi-instrumentalist and award-winning teacher and songwriter, Mark Kreitzer is an inductee of the Minnesota Rock and Country Music Hall of Fame, a member of the Middle Skunk Creek Boys and leader of the Mark Kreitzer Band. A four-decade veteran of bluegrass, folk and hot club ensembles, Mark teaches songwriting at Cretin-Durham Hall and is adjunct professor at Carleton College, where he teaches guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, Dobro and bass. He holds graduate degrees in German and French and has taught at universities here and abroad. Mark appears on numerous recordings including Connie Evingson’s Gypsy in My Soul and previous releases from the Clearwater Hot Club.

Dave Karr is one of the most popular jazz musicians in the Twin Cities, appearing regularly with the JazzMN Big Band, Pete Whitman X-Tet, and his own Mulligan Stew and Dave Karr Quartet. With over 50 years experience on just about every reed, he frequently performs with area vocalists Christine Rosholt, Lucia Newell, Prudence Johnson and Connie Evingson, and appears on numerous recordings. A native Englishman who emigrated to New York City as a youngster, Dave relocated to the Twin Cities in his twenties and has been blowing with just about everyone ever since. He was a 2007 recipient of a McKnight grant.

Just You, Just Me

Just You, Just Me is the fourth release for the Clearwater Hot Club and Sam Miltich, and reflects Sam’s eclectic influences as well as his reverence for the gypsy jazz tradition. Lester Young, Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and more are treated with joy and elegance from all corners.

Just You, Just Me

The title track is introduced by Sam’s sweet solo, followed by Sam and Dave in duet before the full quartet joins in at full if gentle swing. Sam and Dave trade leading roles, complementing each other perfectly, and setting expectations for all that follows. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” introduces the clear, soft voice of Matthew Miltich supported by Sam and Dave’s swinging lines. Dave takes a long impressive solo in counterpoint to Sam’s pulsating phrases. Next, Lester Young’s “Tickle Toe” offers a canvas for Dave Karr to paint over the steady chordal comping of the trio, creating a beautiful, slightly buzzy, Youngish sound that, save the clarity of the recording, could be lifted from a 30s performance. The blending of strings here is pure delight--you can hear the musicians smiling.

It’s with a more Ben Websterish tone that Karr introduces the lovely ballad, “You Don’t Know Me,” with the elder Miltich singing a gentle tale that immediately wraps around the heart and tugs. The mood shifts upward with “O Lady Be Good,” Karr again leading the way over swinging strings. Matthew comes back with another subtle, yet impassioned, performance of “I Love You For Sentimental Reasons,” again benefiting from the contrasting hornlines and gentle string accompaniment.

The set closes all too soon with “How Deep Is the Ocean,” a sweetly flowing tapestry of sound braided by Dave Karr’s agile tenor and Sam Miltich’s equally dexterous compound lines. Sam’s solo is a lesson in grace and restraint, and the two come back together to weave the most exquisite track of an elegant set.

Just You, Just Me, is rather short on time at just 35 minutes, but like a vintage vinyl recording, it makes its statement efficiently, and leaves us wanting more. A lot more is yet to come from Sam Miltich.

Ordering information at www.clearwaterhotclub.com

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