Carmen Lundy Vocal and Instrumental Workshops

I heard Carmen Lundy in Madison a few years ago during the Mary Lou Williams Centennial. She impressed me as a fantastic vocalist with many expressive vocal techniques at her command. She is also known to be an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. Here is an announcement from Madison Music Collective with details about two workshops she’ll conduct when she returns to Madison in June to headline the Isthmus Jazz Festival. 

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Madison Music Collective is teaming with Wisconsin Union Theater to co-produce the headline concert at the Isthmus Jazz Festival, and this year’s headliner is world-class vocalist Carmen Lundy.  In addition to her free evening concert at Old Music Hall on 6/22/13, Carmen will be conducting two outstanding workshops for vocal and instrumental musicians in our community (both amateur and professional).

To register for one or both workshops, complete the form (which appears at the end of each program announcement) and send it, with your fee (check payable to “Madison Music Collective”), to Laurie Lang, 3014 Dianne Drive, Middleton, WI 53562 or pay by PayPal by donating $25 at  http://madisonmusiccollective.org/support.shtml and attaching your registration form to an email directed to laurielang@tds.net.  Scholarships are available.  For info about them, contact Ms. Lang at 833-2200 or laurielang@tds.net.

April News Items

The following items were listed in the April newsletter of Madison’s newest jazz organization, “The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium.”

Madison Jazz Jam (MJJ), one of the Jazz Consortium’s founding member organizations, will hold its second annual Plant Sale fundraiser on Saturday, 5/4/13.  More details will be posted on the MJJ site later in April.

Sun Prairie High School’s Jazz Ensemble I has been chosen as one of the 15 national finalists out of over 100 competing bands in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2013 “Essentially Ellington”competition.  The finals will be held on May 11-12 in New York City, and will be broadcast live on the Internet at www.jalc.org.  The school will hold a benefit concert on Sunday, 5/5/13, to help raise the roughly $20,000 needed to send these terrific student musicians to New York. The concert will feature Jazz I and guest vocalist Kyle Ketelsen performing the music of Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.  For details on concert time and venue, visit www.spbb.org/jazz as the concert date draws near.  In the meantime, congratulations to jazz program director Steve Sveum and his students!

A New Jazz Venue: The Bourbon Street Grille

by guest author Mark Ramirez.

For quite some time, I’ve been wondering why Madison doesn’t have a larger jazz scene. Given the size of the city and the number of talented musicians in town, we still have a significant shortage of venues that support jazz. If you look in a given neighborhood, this music does not have much of a presence. I live on the east side of Madison. Where can I go to hear or play jazz in my neighborhood? Recently, I started exploring options from the point of view of a patron who is looking for a local club, restaurant or tavern that supports live jazz performance.

The Bourbon St Grille deck overlooking the Yahara River is a great place to hang out in summer.

Over the last few months, I’ve been talking with the management at Bourbon Street Grille in Monona about establishing a jazz venue at that location. I’m pleased to report that they have agreed to open up Wednesday evenings for jazz starting this next month. If things go well, there is also a potential to add more performance options on the weekend. I will help to organize the musicians and bands for the evenings. For now, we’ll start with one band in April. As the audience base becomes more established, I would like the venue to feature a variety of performers from trios to big bands. 

Kevin Mahogany to perform at Jazz at Five Fundraiser

Jazz vocalist Kevin Mahogany will perform April 10th from 5 – 8 pm at the Brink Lounge as part of Jazz at Five’s annual fundraiser. Tickets are $12 advance / $15 day of show and are available online at www.jazzatfive.org and www.thebrinklounge.com.

I enjoyed hearing Kevin in concert a few years back. He has a charming stage personality, loves to swing, and can go from a breathy whisper to a huge deep baritone in an instant. It was a great concert and I’m sure this will be, too, even more so because Kevin will be backed by the Johannes Wallmann trio. Johannes’  trio has been honing their chops most Saturday nights at The Fountain and they sound terrific.

Here’s a sample of Kevin and below that is more information about him.

Doctet: a new jazz octet

Madison has many big bands, including the new Fountain Big Band that debuted last month, but not much in the way of mid-sized groups. The Tim Whalen Nonet was very popular and is sorely missed. Here is an announcement by Chris Van Hof about a new group that could possibly fill that void.  

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I would like to announce a new jazz octet in Madison. The band is operating under the name “Doctet.” The personel is a collection of some of the top players in the region, and I am the band’s leader. Here is the list:

Free workshop by The Bad Plus

The Bad Plus are coming to Madison for a free performance at the Sett (Union South) this Sunday at 8:00 pm. Now, a free workshop for jazz students and community members has been added for the following day.

WORKSHOP / Q&A with The Bad Plus
Monday, March 4, 11:00 am to noon
Morphy Recital Hall
UW School of Music
455 N Park Street, 2nd floor, Madison, WI 53706
Free & unticketed

While the concert on Sunday evening is directed towards a general jazz audience (and really anyone who enjoys good music), the workshop on Monday will be geared towards musicians / music students.