June ended with one of my favorite jazz events, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. And July began with another, the Iowa City Jazz Festival. Then came the rest of July, filled with outstanding and diverse music, and promises of another fine earful in August.
Epilogue: July Jazz
I heard a lot of terrific jazz last month, but most of this space will be devoted to just a few. Always at the top of my July list is the Iowa City Jazz Festival (July 5-7). No, it’s not really a Twin Cities event, but typically this fest draws fans from the Metro as it’s just a 4-5 hour drive and draws terrific musicians from far and wide. It’s user friendly with just one “main” stage and one side stage alternating the music—a lot like the Twin Cities fest if we were limited to Mears Park. This year the weather was as perfect as it gets for summer jazz fests (a few sprinkles during the opening tune on Sunday—otherwise sunny and 80 degrees), attendance appeared to be at least as good as usual, and the music was varied and engaging. Headline sets typically combine well-knowns like 2024’s Fareed Haque and Matt Wilson and the younger stars of tomorrow (recent fests boasted Immanuel Wilkins and Cory Wong). And In between every Main Stage set throughout the weekend, just a half block down the street, there was another set featuring area ensembles and a younger generation of jazzers.
Friday afternoon, guitar master Fareed Haque with his “Funk Brothers” made it more of a hypnotic East Meets West with the addition of harmonium and a blending of American funk and classical Indian rhythms. The crown jewel of Friday night was the set from the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra, led by guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen—the IWJO is filled with outstanding unknowns, and Jensen of course is a force of her own.
Day Two opened with two high school ensembles that have participated in the festival for many years, drawing on the best jazz students in Eastern Iowa, while prime time brought a couple of our Twin Cities jazz heroes to the main stage. Veteran vibes man (and recently retired director of jazz at St Olaf) Dave Hagedorn joined the Blake Shaw Biggish Band, led by bassist/vocalist Shaw and featuring some of Iowa’s finest; the Emiliano Lasansky Quartet featured Twin Cities native (now LA-based) pianist Javier Santiago. Bassist Lasansky and Javi met at the Herbie Hancock Jazz Institute (formerly the Monk Institute) graduate program at UCLA. Drummer and often comedian Wilson brought his new “Good Trouble” ensemble with veterans pianist/vocalist Dawn Clement and tenor saxman Jeff Lederer, rising star bassist Mimi Jones, and young up-and-comer Anissa Rush on alto. Good Trouble is well named,as they are truly good, and Wilson is always “trouble” with such antics as blowing (or was it kissing) on the snare. Saturday night’s grand finale featured acclaimed alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and her band, Phoenix, featuring the great EJ Strickland on drums. This is one of the most exciting ensembles I have seen/heard recently, and seeing the energy was as important as hearing it. Benjamin is simply an electrifying musician and first-class entertainer as well. She makes it a party but without sacrificing the serious and explosive sounds of the band. The City of Iowa City annual fireworks capped the evening adjacent to the festival grounds, but really, the evening’s best fireworks came from Phoenix.
Closing out the festival, Sunday featured popular Iowa City guitarist Steve Grismore and his Trio Grismore, followed by 10 of Soul, a Quad Cities ensemble featuring funky instrumentals and soulful vocals that closed down the festival with a dance party sound.. I’ve made it to most of the Iowa City Jazz Fests in the past 20 years and hope to make it to the next 20.
And there was certainly a lot of great jazz back in town, particularly noteworthy (to me) was a stunning solo set from pianist Benny Green (The Dakota, July 7) playing a wide range of covers that gave us a good snapshot of what makes Benny so engaging in solo format, from the most tender ballad to the most swinging standard. Yet another much younger pianist upstaged everyone this past month, as Kavyesh Kaviraj released his first recording, Fables, in an evening that would best be described as musical theater rather than jazz gig (The Dakota, July 12). Kavy himself is more than a pianist, but a composer, a bandleader, a teacher, choreographer, and cultural ambassador, and all of his skills were on display this evening. Starting off with a ceremonial introduction that included his parents (visiting from India) and younger sister (now also based in the Twin Cities), Kavy took us on a journey from his early years living in Oman to his efforts to combine the study of music and engineering in India to his emigration to American that landed him at McNally Smith in St Paul and Berklee in Boston and back to Minnesota. The spoken and visually illustrated commentary (plus some traditional Indian dance) introduced each of his “Fables”, adding even more dimension to his storytelling than the music alone—and the music alone is fabulous storytelling.
I will only mention one more night of music among a month of standouts: The new Next Generation project headed by Music Director Jennifer Grimm at Crooners, launching across three stages in one evening (July 21). Next Generation featured selected young musicians (under age 25) representing classical, jazz, and music theater. In this first triple header evening, the youngest musicians were only 15. Starting with classical music in the intimate Dunsmore Room, then the jazz artists on the main stage, and ending with the music theater voices in the Belvedere tent, the scheduling did not allow for any one listener to attend the full set of all three performances—and that is my only criticism and I think adjusting start times would make this possible. I did however hear most of the classical, all of the jazz, and the last part of the theater performances. The talents are overwhelming. Hopefully this will be repeated at least annually if not more often. A special note regarding the jazz performances—the musicians (pianist, trumpeter, vocalist and two saxophonists) ranged in age from 16-21 (I think), and each performed with a professional jazz trio of Tommy Barbarella on piano, Kevin Rowe on bass, and Jay Epstein on drums. The closing tune featured all of the young musicians with bass and drums, and my guess is that they had possibly one opportunity to rehearse this together. It was outstanding.
On to August.
Prologue—Upcoming Jazz in the Twin Cities in August
Although I am not aware of any jazz festivals this month, there are plenty of performances that should make jazz fans happy, and I am only citing a few here:
I have long been a fan of Take That Back, a double saxophone quintet led by two outstanding women, Joan Hutton (alto and bass clarinet) and Sue Orfield (tenor) and their equally outstanding supporting cast of Ted Godbout (piano), Kameron Markworth (bass) and Dave Schmalenberger (drums). They celebrate the release of their CD “Splash” in the Dunsmore Room at Crooners (August 3). I’ve been enjoying the CD and eager to hear it live. Also at Crooners (Main Stage) the following week (August 10) is a too-rare performance by the Steve Kenny Quintet, playing the music of Coltrane and featuring a perfect cast for this music—Kenny on trumpet, Dave Brattain on sax, Kavyesh Kaviraj on piano, Ted Olsen on bass, and Kevin Washington on drums.
Note a freebie this month with Patty Peterson’s Jazz Women All-Stars live in Loring Park (August 18), sponsored by the Minneapolis Woman’s Club, with Patty and Connie Evingson on vocalst, Mary Louise Knutson on keys, Joan Griffith on bass, Sheila Early in town on drums, and Sue Orfield on sax. 2 pm.
I will be out of town and miss it but young alto saxophonist Peter Goggin plays a “farewell” at Berlin on August 8 before heading to Indiana University and graduate studies. The Berlin gig is a chordless quartet with Omar Abdulkarim on trumpet, young bassist Sophia Kaufman, and veteran drummer Alden Ikeda..
NEA Jazz Master bassist Stanley Clark returns with the famed Stanley Clark Band , at The Dakota (August 29). This show had been postponed during Covid in 2020. Finally (not really, there’s a lot more this month), iconic pianist Ethan Iverson joins forces with local stars Anthony Cox and Kevin Washington for some mayhem at Crooners (August 31).
And then comes September…
