Local saxophonist/educator Doug Little may be best known for his work with his quartet, but his new Cuban-influenced septet (Seven Steps to Havana) had an exciting debut at the Dakota last fall, and headlined a night of music on Peavey Plaza during the 2005 Hot Summer Jazz Festival. Playing tenor, alto, flute, and bass clarinet, he covers the full range of whatever horn, from lyrical to playful to aggressive, seamlessly sliding from comp to solo and back; his bass clarinet is elegantly mournful and haunting. Recently back from a tour of Italy, Doug Little is experimenting with smaller ensembles, and will reprise the debut of a new trio, Tres Mundo, at the French Press Jazz Café on Friday, January 13th. The trio features Seven Steps pianist Viviana Pintado and percussionist Eliezer Freitas Santos. It's a combination that will defy any superstitious about Friday the 13th!
For a guy in his mid 30s, Doug Little is already a busy veteran performer and composer. Transplanted from San Francisco, Little graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, founded the popular 1990s band, the Motion Poets, and became director of the Twin Cities Jazz Workshop. In recent years he has led his own quartet projects, performed at most local jazz venues (including gigs with Ticket to Brasil), toured Europe, and released a superlative recording, Subtle Differences (2000, Touché Jazz). This past summer, he performed with Italian pianist Giacomo Aula at the Dakota as part of the Hot Summer Jazz Festival and released a new quartet recording, The Phoenix (Tesca Records). The winner of a number of grants and scholarships, including support from the McKnight and Bush Foundations, Little has also found time to teach master classes and participate in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Artist in the School Program.
Given the breadth and depth of his experience, which includes studies at the National School of Arts in Havana, it was inevitable that Little would bring yet another new project to the stage, in the form of a septet devoted to Cuban themes and rhythms. Seven Steps to Havana debuted at the Dakota in the fall of 2004, and the result was nothing short of nuclear fission. Since then, Seven Steps has returned to the Dakota and appeared at the Artists Quarter as well as the Hot Summer Jazz Festival. Now it’s time to focus on a smaller subset of that dynamic ensemble.
Viviana Pintado may be familiar to patrons of Babalu in the Minneapolis warehouse district. Raised and trained in Havana, she was nominated for three Latin Grammys in the 1990s as a member of the band for salsa super star, Albita. Her vocals are rich and powerful, and her keyboard comping and soloing reveal a dynamic and emotional range often missing in the heavy percussive style of modern Cuban piano. Brazilian conguero/percussionist Eliezer Freitas Santos grew up in the Bahia region, the son of folkloric priests. After living in Buenos Aires for 14 years, he moved to Minneapolis where he wowed the crowds at the 2004 Hot Summer Jazz Festival with his fast hands and dynamic pacesetting.
Exploring the musical spectrum of the Americas, from Cuban son, rumba, cha-cha-cha, and choros to samba and mainstream jazz, Tres Mundos will take the chill out of the winter air and blow out an exhilarating tropical steam. Warm up at the French Press!
The French Press Jazz Café is located at 213 E. 4th Street in St. Paul’s Lowertown. Music begins at 9 pm on Friday, January 13th, $5 cover. For full calendar, see www.fpjazz.com.
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