JoAnn Funk in the Lobby Bar

When does a hotel piano bar become a jazz venue? When the talent belongs to musicians who not only soothe bar patrons with refined artistry, but at the same time can engage jazz cognescenti with their interpretive skills and serious repertoire. Pianist/vocalist JoAnn Funk effectively crosses that line every weekend in the Lobby Bar of the venerable St Paul Hotel in downtown St. Paul, usually in the company of bassist Jeff Brueske, and sometimes with the added pulse of drummer Nathan Norman. Now the trio brings their combination of sultry and sublime out of bar and into the living room, or wherever one prefers to unwind, with the release of Pick Yourself Up, to be celebrated—where else? – in the Lobby Bar of the St Paul Hotel on Saturday, April 2nd.

Long familiar to Twin Cities happy hour and weekend audiences, JoAnn Funk melds her classical training (degree from UW-Madison) and jazz studies (with David Hazeltine and Joan Wildman) to the keyboard and microphone. She toured as a staff musician on the SS Norway after college graduation, then relocated to St. Paul where she has performed in solo, duo and trio formats, with long-term gigs at Orion Room, Dakota, Radisson Hotels (St Paul and University), Wayzata Country Club, and Zander Café in addition to the St Paul Hotel’s Lobby Bar.  She’s also in demand as a performer for corporate and private events, casinos, concerts and festivals. Always a pianist, JoAnn began adding vocals to her performances about ten years ago, recognizing the charms of mixing piano and voice. Drawing influences from the likes of Blossom Dearie, Diana Krall and Norah Jones, JoAnn has evolved her own vocal style, to which she adds her own arrangements and a growing repertoire of beloved and less familiar, often quirky songs from the diverse books of Dearie, Krall, Jones, Nat King Cole, Otis Redding, Bob Dorough, Tony Bennett, Patsy Cline, Leonard Cohen and Boz Scaggs.

Jeff Brueske©Andrea Canter

Washington, DC native Nathan Norman earned a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and studied with the Percussion Group Cincinnati at the University of Cincinnati. After teaching at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts back in Washington, he relocated to the Twin Cities in 1988 where he has performed extensively with area artists, including vocalists Debbie Duncan, Connie Evingson and Charmin Michelle. He’s also played and recorded with Bill Banfield, Nancy Bierma, Robert Huntley and more.

Trumpeter Greg Lewis has played with the Cedar Avenue Big Band, Alloy Brass and many other ensembles over his 30-year career. He's recorded with Fog on trumpet and French horn, and sometimes pulls out the pocket trumpet. An active jazz educator in the Twin Cities, Greg recently performed in Antonello Hall with two of the MacPhail ensembles celebrating the works of Charles Mingus. 

Pick Yourself Up

Pick Yourself Up

The title track provides an enticing opening, one of several Nat King Cole hits included in the CD. JoAnn’s choice of somewhat dissonant voicings provides keyboard character, and the assertive percussion accentuates the stutter-stop rhythm, giving it plenty of “pop.” It’s also a perfect introduction to JoAnn Funk, vocalist, who brings a sultry girlish charm to the lyrics.  Her light-as-air interpretation breezes through another Cole favorite, “When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” although the instrumental component really shines here, particularly Jeff Brueske’s swinging bass. And it’s Brueske’s solo intro and accompaniment that gild the duet track, “If I Had You,” with JoAnn vocally at her most coquettish, instrumentally at her most delicate.  

Nathan Norman©Andrea Canter

Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” is a centerpiece, featuring a marvelous duel between JoAnn and Jeff, dark and sinewy accents from Greg Lewis’s swampy trumpet, and the rhythmic, clicky sways of Nathan Norman. It’s definitely not a piano bar arrangement! (A hit for Madeleine Peyroux a few years back, this version has a lot more bite. )

It would not be a JoAnn Funk gig without some Blossom Dearie, and the choice here is surely one of the most delightful—“There Ought to Be a Moonlight Savings Time,” full of swing all around, some particularly catchy breaks from Norman, and JoAnn’s sweet and playful vocals. It’s a voice that easily slides into sultry reverie to close the set with Hoagy Carmichael’s “Two Sleepy People.”

It’s a fine “good night.” 
 

JoAnn Funk and Jeff Brueske are in the Lobby Bar of the St. Paul Hotel (350 Market Street in downtown St. Paul) most weekends, and with Nathan Norman celebrate the release of Pick Yourself Up on April 2nd, 7-9 pm (no cover). The CD will be available at the gig, locally at the Electric Fetus, online at CD Baby and I-Tunes.

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