Jazz Police - Festival Profiles: Sizzling 88s at the Hot Summer Jazz Festival

Festival Profiles: Sizzling 88s at the Hot Summer Jazz Festival

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Wednesday, 25 May 2005

Photo by Andrea Canter

Note: This is another article profiling artists on the roster of the 2005 Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival. Here we consider the pianists.

While pianists are not featured as prominently as last year, the 2005 Hot Summer Jazz Festival in the Twin Cities (June 12-26) nevertheless will boast some hot masters of the keyboard. The Italian ambassador Giacomo Aula and New York’s walking jazz encyclopedia Jon Weber both return, while another New York sensation Bruce Barth will be on stage at the Dakota with the Terrell Stafford Quartet; meanwhile, local pianists will be on hand in support of vocalists and other instrumentalists. But the most anticipated of piano gigs during the festival is certainly the Orchestra Hall performance of Chick Corea with his Latin band, Touchstone, and in tandem with our explosive Cuban transplant, Nachito Herrera.

Giacomo Aula and Doug Little (Dakota, June 17-18, 8 pm). One of the treats of the 2004 festival was the Twin Cities debut of Italian keyboard wizard Giacomo Aula. Aula performed at the Dakota with the Doug Little Quartet, with whom he enjoyed a brief tour of the Midwest; he also hit the Peavy Plaza stage and dazzled his Minnesota audience. Returning this year, Aula will again be on stage at the Dakota with local saxophone star Doug Little.

Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (Orchestra Hall, June 21, 7:30 pm) has enjoyed a fairy-tale career for over four decades. His home was filled with jazz—the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Lester Young and Horace Silver, as well as the inspirational music of Mozart and Beethoven. Cutting his teeth with Blue Mitchell in the mid-60s, he also fell under the Latin influences of Mongo Santamaria and Herbie Mann. After a year with Sarah Vaughn, Corea hit the mother lode playing electric piano on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way recordings, leading to his famous and highly influential band, Return to Forever. From the mid 80s, Corea found success on acoustic piano as well as synthesizer, in solo, duo, quintet, “Origin” and “Elektric Band” formats. Among his best known compositions is “Spain,” and with his new ensemble Touchstone, Corea returns to explorations of flamenco. With a core made up of members of Paco de Lucia’s band, Touchstone includes Carles Benavent (bass), Jorge Pardo (sax/flute), Rubem Dantas (percussion), and Tom Brechtlein (drums).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Joining Corea –separately and in duo—will be special guest Nachito Herrera. A child prodigy who studied classical music in Havana, Herrera went on to serve as music director for several bands before leading Cubanissmo! His travels to the US caught the eye of potential sponsors, including the Dakota’s Lowell Pickett, and with some wrangling with state department redtape, this amazing musician found himself in Minnesota. After his inaugural band Puro Cubano recorded Live at the Dakota, Herrera developed another great ensemble featuring Cuban musicians (The Cuban All-Stars), and together this ensemble released Bembe en mi Casa this past winter. Noted Michael Dumbrow (Urban Pioneer), “His hands move at a blinding pace over the keys, trilling not only with his dominant hand but with both, turning the piano keys into an extension of his very self.” The Orchestra Hall performance will be a rare opportunity to see and hear this keyboard monster outside of his usual Cuban band context. Where classical structures merge with native Cuban rhythms, where dexterity and fluidity merge with passion and joy, this is the intersection that is home to Nachito Herrera. (Tickets are available at www.minnesotaorchestra.org.)

Photo by Andrea Canter

Jon Weber (June 22, Hilde Performance Center, Plymouth, 5:30-8:00 pm; June 23-25, late night jam at the Millenium Hotel Stage, 10:45 pm -12:45 am). Jon Weber is no stranger to the Hot Summer Jazz Festival—in fact he is unofficially the house pianist at the Millennium Hotel every June and last summer brought his incendiary quintet to the Peavy Plaza stage. As a toddler in Milwaukee playing a toy organ, it was soon apparent that Weber had both perfect pitch and memory; by age 6 he had memorized 2,000 songs from his grandmother’s old piano rolls. Says his mother: "When he wasn't riding his bike, solving math problems, or memorizing things, he was in the breezeway replaying Dr. Suess and Bugs Bunny records…He'd invent a different arrangement each time he played a tune, improvising, quoting, shuffling the deck. It was always like a game for him." A self-taught musician, Weber took off two years from piano during his teens to develop counterpoint in his left hand by playing guitar. Returning to the piano, Weber and his quintet opened for Pat Metheny, Buddy Rich, Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine at major summer jazz festivals. Moving to Chicago in 1987, his career has since sent him around the world and into the recording studio.

In addition to his remarkable chops, Jon Weber is well known for his incredible music knowledge. He has been profiled by CNBC, Black Entertainment TV, Bravo/Arts, National Public Radio, and Voice of America. After wowing audiences as a guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, Warner Brothers commissioned Weber to transcribe "Portraits," a book containing 23 of McPartland’s improvised piano solo compositions. His most recent release “Simple/Complex” (Second Century Jazz, 2004) has received rave reviews, including comments from the Australian Age: "The tunes are mind-bendingly complex with overlapping time signatures, accent shifts, and rhythmic feels that swerve from Cuban montunos to Indian tabla patterns to straight-ahead jazz at the blink of an eye.”

Suburban jazz fans will get a chance to sample Weber’s many talents when he appears at the Hilde Performing Arts Center Ampitheater in Plymouth (June 22). In the heart of festival, see Weber and special guests each night for a late set, Thursday-Saturday (June 23-25 at 10:45 pm) in the lounge of the Millennium Hotel (no charge).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Bruce Barth with the Terrell Stafford Quintet (Dakota, June 13-15, 7 and 9 pm).Now in his mid-40s, pianist Bruce Barth was a young lion who continues to roar. A California native who moved to New York in his teens, Barth studied privately with Norman Simmons, Jaki Byard, and Fred Hersch at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in the early 1980s, and made his first recording, The African Game, with composer George Russell in 1983. Back in the New York area in the late 1980s, Barth worked with Nat Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, and Terrence Blanchard, recording his first CDs as a leader—In Focus and Morning Call (Enja); both were selected by the New York Times for their Top Ten lists. In addition to his numerous recording and performance duties, Barth has produced many of the Vocal Series releases for MaxJazz. Said Terence Blanchard, “Bruce is a great musician, a force to be reckoned with. He has a wide range of abilities—he can be very percussive and energetic or play with the subtleties of a Hank Jones or Herbie Hancock.” At the Dakota, the Terrell Stafford Quintet will be recording live for MaxJazz. Trumpeter Stafford brought this group into the Dakota to close the festival last year—now this hot ensemble will help jump start the festivities.

More Pianists!’

There’s no dearth of talent in the Twin Cities and there are many more outstanding keyboard players to hear during the festival:

Peterson Family matriarch Jeanne Arland Peterson is still going strong at 80-something, and will provide the piano when the Peterson Family takes the stage on Peavy Plaza on Thursday (June 23, 6-7 pm).

Chris Lomheim, one of the area’s most lyrical interpreters as well as a premier foil for vocalists, will appear at the Dakota with Patty Peterson (June 24-25).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Peter Schimke, another favorite of area vocalists, will likely be at the keyboard in support of sax queen Kathy Jensen and vocal sensation Bruce Henry, back to back on Peavy Plazy on Sunday, June 26^th (2 pm and 4:30 pm, respectively). The always engaging Laura Caviani will appear with Lucia Newell and Departure Point at Mears Park (June 18^th, 1:30 pm). And one of the last but hardly least performers, Lori Dokken will provide the keyboard and commentary with The Girls, on the RBC Dain Rauscher Stage on Sunday (June 26) at 3:15 pm.

Young Tanner Taylor may vie with Jon Weber for the title of Festival House Pianist after he appears with Dave Karr’s Mulligan Stew at the Wayzata Depot (June 15, 7 pm) and on the RBC Dain Rauscher Stage on Nicollet Mall (June 25, 1:45 -3 pm); his trio performs lunch hour concerts (June 20-23, 11:30 am- 1 pm) and “Jazz Night Out” (June 23, 8:30 pm-12:30 am), all at Copeland's downtown. Taylor also takes his familiar role supporting vocalists when he handles the keys for the Midwest Chapter of the Jazz Vocal Coalition, at the Millennium Hotel on Sunday, June 26^th, noon to 3:45 pm (with Lucia Newell, Rhonda Laurie, Connie Dussi, Lila Ammons, Sue Tucker, and Vicky Mountain). Veteran Rick Carlson takes over the piano at the Millennium for the remainder of the Vocal Coalition showecase, featuring Katie Gearty, Christine Rosholt, Maude Hixon, Connie Olson, Arne Fogel, and a jam with Bruce Henry (4- 8 pm).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Global influences abound at the Hot Summer Jazz Festival, including a return appearance by Shahin Novrasli (Peavy Plaza, Friday, June 24, 2:30 pm). The native of Azerbaijan wowed audiences last year with his merger of abstraction, melody, harmony and passion.

And just a reminder that the Hot Summer Jazz Festival has many opportunities for student musicians—catch the teen group The Eggz in their third festival appearance, with Dakota Foundation/Schubert Club Jazz Piano Scholarship winner Micah Fitch, on stage at the Millennium Hotel on Friday, June 24 (6:00-7:30 pm).

The jazz original himself, Butch Thompson opens Sunday (June 26) on Peavy Plaza (12:45-1:45), and hosts a MacPhail music stage clinic immediately after. Later that afternoon, catch jazz/blues sensationMichael “Hook” Deutsch—regularly seen at the Malt Shop a short step away on the Millennium Hotel stage at 2:30 pm.

It is a given that there will be even more pianists on hand when the Hot Summer Jazz Festival gets underway. Whether your tastes are more traditional, Latin, bop, or outside, whether you prefer your piano in a large ensemble or trio or just backing a vocalist, the festival will have something for everyone, on every stage, every day.

For a full schedule and more information, visit www.hotsummerjazz.com. For information and reservations regarding performances at the Dakota, visit www.dakotacooks.com.

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