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Jazz Is Now Will Generate Some Heat at the Minnesota Opera Center, January 17

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“All I know is that there are four beats to a bar and there are a million ways to phrase a tune.” –Anita O’Day (undated Down Beat, circa 1938-39)

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Thursday, 18 March 2010

Jazz Is Now Will Generate Some Heat at the Minnesota Opera Center, January 17

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Friday, 16 January 2009

Jeremy Walker©Andrea Canter

“My day begins and ends with Duke Ellington,” says Jeremy Walker, composer and leader of the Jazz Is Now! Nownet. And in the spirit of Ellington, the Nownet continues its tradition of presenting and commissioning original music with two performances this winter. On January 17th, the band will debut Walker’s latest compositions in a single-set “Winter Warmer” in the intimate Jones Hall of the Minnesota Opera Center in Minneapolis’ downtown warehouse district. On February 12th, the Nownet will feature special guest trumpeter Ron Miles as part of the Jazz Thursdays series at the MacPhail Center for Music, in the downtown “Mill District.”

Formerly the Jazz Is Now! Orchestra, this hard-swinging, flexible ensemble, directed by founder/pianist Jeremy Walker, takes inspiration from the Charles Mingus’ Jazz Workshop and the Midwest territory bands of the 1930s, with a mission of “performing adventurous original music that advances the rich history and culture of jazz.” Members of the NOWnet (ranging from six to nine members) include some of the most acclaimed Twin Cities musicians, varying in total number as compositions and performance schedules dictate. Core members, who all compose for the band, include Jeremy Walker (bandleader, piano); Kelly Rossum (trumpet); Chris Thomson (saxophones); Scott Fultz (saxophones); Anthony Cox (bass);and Kevin Washington (drums).

Chris Thompson©Andrea Canter

The nonprofit Jazz Is Now! organization was initiated at Walker’s short-lived St. Paul club, Brilliant Corners, in 2003. Since then, Jazz Is Now! has received grants from the Jerome Foundation, partnered nationally with Jazz at Lincoln Center and Palmetto Records, and locally has collaborated with the Illusion Theater, Zenon Dance Company, MacPhail Center for Music and other organizations. Additionally, Jazz is NOW! has hosted guest artists Wynton Marsalis, Wessell Anderson, David Berkman, Ted Nash, Stanley Crouch, Todd Reynolds and Matt Wilson. Jazz Is Now! released a demo recording in 2005 and plans to release a full-length CD early in 2009 reflecting the best performances of 2008. JIN has opened its rehearsals to the public and provides free downloads of music from its website.

Part of the reorganization of Jazz Is Now! in the past year reflects Jeremy Walker’s efforts to deal with nerve and joint problems that sidelined him from playing saxophone. Over the past two years, he has studied piano, including recent work with David Berkman and Frank Kimbrough via a Jerome Foundation Grant. He’s also been honing his chops as a composer. And there looms Ellington, whom Walker views as his key influence since his teens.

“You can’t avoid Ellington.” He also admires Andrew Hill and Thelonious Monk. “I gravitate toward toe composing side of things.” Improvising and composing are the yin and yang, “they need each other desperately,” notes Walker. The January 17th “Warm Up” will be about 50% new music, about half blues and what Walker describes as tunes that are “not overtly blues but really are blues.” Some pieces have been played before, but in Walker’s trio with bassist Jeff Brueske and drummer Tim Zhorne. There’s a blues suite that Walker describes as “varying ideas of America.” The first section, “Blues for New Americans” is a tribute to the vitality of immigrant people. The middle section concerns those “who have been here for a while and are cynical, called ‘If I Were a Cowboy I would Ride the Hell Out of Here.’” The finale, “You and Me Free” finds “the voices of despair finding a way to play together.”

Part of Walker’s enthusiasm for Jazz Is Now! is the broad spectrum of jazz talent in the Twin Cities. Despite being a relatively small market, there’s a “lot of the freer stuff” here, and opportunities to hear a long list of bands. Here, notes Jeremy, even “when it’s 20 below zero, it’s worth going out five, six, seven nights per week.” And the caliber of the musicians for whom he writes is further inspiration. “I don’t write out chords,” said of his arrangements. “I just write ‘Kelly’ [Rossum] or ‘CT’ [Chris Thomson].”

How all this comes together will be evident when the Jazz Is Now! Nownet warms up a cold winter night on January 17th with music hot off the pen of leader Jeremy Walker, turned to sizzle and steam by his band of composers and improvisers, yin and yang couched in the blues and more.

Jazz Is Now Nownet performs on January 17th at 8pm in Jones Hall of the Minnesota Opera Center at 620 N. First Street in downtown Minneapolis. FFI, www.jazzisnow.net

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