“The Dakota Combo wasn't just about teaching or playing jazz (which I learned as well) but learning about the subtleties, etiquette, and life lessons that go into being a musician.”   -- Carson King-Fournier, trombone, The Juilliard School (Dakota Combo 2008-09) 

The Dakota Combo with Adam Linz©Andrea Canter

Saxophonist/educator Tia Fuller talks about the importance of “nurturing the gift as well as the talent... there are lots of people with the gift, but because it is not nurtured, it becomes null and void.” When it comes to young jazz musicians, one way to nurture the gift is to provide opportunities beyond what is normally available through school and private lessons. This is the mission of the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education, and particularly its major partnership project, the Dakota Combo. The 2009-2010 edition of the Dakota Combo will perform at the Dakota Jazz Club with guest artist Tia Fuller on December 5th.  Fuller will also lead a clinic and jam session for area students with the Combo on the following afternoon (December 6th) at the MacPhail Center for Music. 

The Dakota Combo Project

Danny Hupp©Andrea Canter

In addition to performances, the student musicians rehearse at MacPhail biweekly throughout the school year, where the emphasis has been on professionalism as much as improvisation and composition. Noted Rossum, the Combo program “provides the loftiest goal and final challenge to the state’s top high school jazz musicians. Plus, it inspires all student jazz musicians to pursue their own goals in music.” Graduates of the first three seasons have gone on to pursue these goals at such prestigious college programs at the Brubeck Institute, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, The Julliard School, Lawrence Conservatory and more. Each Combo pianist has also won the Performance Prize at the annual Schubert Club/Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education Jazz Piano Scholarship Competition.  

John Cushing©Andrea Canter

Meet the Dakota Combo

The 2009-10 Dakota Combo features senior Anna Buchholz, alto saxophone (Stillwater High School); junior Danny Hupp, alto/tenor saxophone (Minneapolis Southwest High School); junior John Cushing, trombone (Minnetonka High School); freshman Zosha Warpeha, violin (Princeton High School); sophomore Quentin Tschofen, piano (Lighthouse Program, Spring Lake Park ISD 16); junior Caitlin Keliher, acoustic bass (Minneapolis Southwest High School); and returning senior Cameron LeCrone, drums (Minnetonka Hign School).  

Anna Bucholz©Andrea Canter

Danny Hupp (alto/tenor sax) was introduced to jazz through his father’s vinyl recordings of Miles Davis, Art Pepper and particularly Stan Getz. Danny’s been busy with a variety of music projects, including three years with the Southwest High School band, wind ensemble, multiple combos, Shell Lake Jazz Camp ensembles and an indie rock band, We Valedictorians. 

Zosha Warpeha©Andrea Canter

Zosha Warpeha (violin) recalls that her interest in music and jazz started at home when she “begged my parents for 3 years to let me learn violin-- they gave in at the age of 7.” Although her first love is violin, Zosha also plays piano, bass and oboe in school bands; she plays violin in the Minnesota Youth Symphony, recently joined the St. Cloud Symphony, and plays “a mix of bluegrass, folk, rock, and jazz--all at the same time” in a band called The String Chickens. 

Caitlin Keliher©Andrea Canter

Caitlin Kelliher (bass) remembers an open house at MacPhail when she was six that introduced her to the bass and “immediately decided that I wanted to play it.” A Combo alternate last year,Caitlin’s experience now includes the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony, chamber, symphonic and jazz ensembles with the Southwest High School music program, Minnesota Youth Jazz Band, a jazz workshop at McNally Smith, classical camps, and the Birch Creek Jazz Camp. In addition to the Dakota Combo, she current plays with the Southwest orchestra and big band, GTCYS and MYJB. 

Cameron LeCrone©Andrea Canter

Tia Fuller, Guest Artist

Like the musicians of the Dakota Combo, Tia Fuller grew up surrounded by music—both parents taught music in the Denver Public Schools, and the family’s Fuller Sound band often rehearsed in the basement. Young Tia was also exposed to recordings of the jazz giants, including John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. But she first played piano, inspired by older sister Shamie, and then started flute studies at age nine, again following her old sister’s footsteps. By middle school, Tia had discovered the saxophone. In high school, she continued to play classical flute in the school band, saxophone in the marching and jazz bands, and by her sophomore year, had also joined the school Drum Line playing quads in the bass line. Tia continued her music studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she was part of the Spellman Jazz Ensemble, then earned a master’s degree in Jazz Pedagogy and Performance at the University of Colorado in Boulder before relocating to the New York area. 

Quentin Tschofen©Andrea Canter

Even as a young artist, Tia Fuller has dedicated time to jazz education, as director of the Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Harmony in Harlem Ensemble and as leader/instructor of numerous jazz camps, clinics and master classes for young children, public schools and college students. “Since I got my masters, I have been doing a lot of clinics and workshops in high schools and colleges, and fell in love with [teaching], seeing that light bulb turn on in a student.”  

December 5th Performance, December 6th Clinic

Tia Fuller

“This group is the reason I take jazz seriously...I have learned not only what it means to be a professional musician but it has also taught me what kind of person I want to be...These young men and women that I have played with have become not only my colleagues but also close friends and I would have to rank being in the Dakota Combo as one of the most important experiences in my musician career thus far.” – Jake Baldwin, trumpet, New England Conservatory of Music (Dakota Combo, 2007-08 and 2008-09) 
 

The Dakota Jazz Club is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis; www.dakotacooks.com. For further information about the Dakota Combo, visit www.dakotacombo.org. For information about the clinic or other Combo activities, contactd Adam Linz at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The Dakota Combo is funded through donations to the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education; please visit www.dfje.org for information about the Foundation and to make a donation.  

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