Calling Madison Area Musicians: Registration Closes This Week for Carmen Lundy’s Vocal and Instrumental Workshops

Local vocalists and instrumentalists of all ages have a rare chance to enhance their skills craft learn from a world-class vocalist and talented multi-instrumentalist: Carmen Lundy, the headline performer at the 2013 Isthmus Jazz Festival. But you must sign up this week.

Ms. Lundy teams with Madison’s Leotha and Tamera Stanley for her “All-Star Jazz & Gospel Festival Choir Workshop” for vocalists with some performance experience. Using Ms. Lundy’s arrangement of her composition “Better Days,” participants will learn to craft a jazz vocal sound by refining color, shape, groove, and mood. They will also learn techniques of gospel singing using one of Mr. Stanley’s compositions. Rehearsal is on June 13th (6:30-9:00 PM), with the workshop on June 20th (6:30-9:30 PM), and a culminating performance at the Festival on June 21st at 6:00 PM.

The second program, “Madison Forward Jazz Workshop and Showcase” on the afternoon of June 21st, adapts the Kennedy Center’s “Betty Carter Jazz Ahead” program for which Ms. Lundy serves as a clinician. In the first segment, each soloist, duo or trio will perform a Lundy composition using their own approach and arrangement and receives feedback from Ms. Lundy and her pianist, Anthony Wonsey. In the second segment, under guidance by Ms. Lundy and Mr. Wonsey, participants will work in various combinations, experimenting with style, mood, sound, arrangement ideas, color, and wherever else the spirit takes them.

Registration deadlines are this Thursday, 6/6/13, for the vocal workshop and Friday, 6/7/13, for “Madison Forward Jazz.” For registration information and applications, visit http://www.madisonmusiccollective.org or contact Laurie Lang, (608) 833-2200 or laurielang@tds.net.

Both programs are a production of Madison Music Collective, with support from Dane Arts, the John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation, Janus Galleries, Ward-Brodt Music, MGE Foundation, and dozens of other friends and members of the Collective.

Speak Up for Jazz: Take the Greater Madison Jazz Community Survey

The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is in the midst of crafting a first-ever action plan that speaks to our local jazz community as a whole. A compelling plan that’s grounded in the realities of the current scene and the wishes of jazz musicians, educators, venue owners, and fans will help point the way to a more vibrant and sustainable local scene and help the Consortium secure the resources needed to begin implementing the plan’s new initiatives.

To this end, the Consortium has been conducting a series of interviews with a few dozen key stakeholders, and is now inviting all other members of the jazz community to express their views through an online survey. To take the survey, simply go to http://www.greatermadisonjazzconsortium.org and click on the category (jazz musician, music educator, or fan) that fits you. (You are welcome to self-identify into multiple categories, and take the survey once in each category that fits you.)

The estimated time to complete the survey is 10-15 minutes, and your responses are anonymous and confidential, i.e., the only data to be released publicly will be aggregate data.

The survey will be “live” through day’s end Monday, May 27th, and the results will be compiled immediately thereafter for the Jazz Consortium Steering Committee’s planning retreat on June 2nd. Please help make this jazz community action plan the best it can be by completing this survey.

Thanks much for your time and your concern for the future of jazz in our community.

Howard Landsman, Convener
Cathy Sullivan, Project Coordinator
Greater Madison Jazz Consortium
Email: greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net

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The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is a partnership of nonprofit jazz presenters (Madison Jazz Society, Madison Music Collective, Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival, and Wisconsin Union Theater), educational institutions and programs (Madison Jazz Jam, Madison Metropolitan School District Fine Arts Department, and UW School of Music), and supportive media (WORT-FM), with additional support from Isthmus, the Capital City Hues, and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Its work is made possible by a generous grant from the John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation.

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.

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.

Dex @ 90: Program Schedule Set for Maxine Gordon’s Visit to Greater Madison, March 11-14

The program schedule is now set for Maxine Gordon’s visit to Greater Madison, part of her 2013 world-wide tour to celebrate the life and music of the late great jazz saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Under sponsorship of the new Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, Maxine will conduct the following programs during a four-day residency (3/11-3/14/13) in our community. (Note: Program schedule is subject to change. Check this site as the event dates draw near to verify the schedule, or email us at greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net.)

• MONDAY, 3/11/13, 7:30-9:30 PM: “AN EVENING WITH MAXINE GORDON AND THE UW BLUE NOTE ENSEMBLE” (Location: Morphy Recital Hall, in the UW Humanities Building). One of the three student ensembles directed by UW Jazz Studies Professor Johannes Wallmann – the Blue Note Ensemble – will be learning Dexter’s music during the Spring semester. This evening, they will give a mini-concert of his music, interspersed with live on-stage interviews of Maxine by WORT-FM jazz hosts Steve Braunginn and Jane Reynolds and an audience Q&A. The audience will include members of all of Professor Wallmann’s student ensembles (Blue Note Ensemble, Contemporary Jazz Ensemble, and UW Jazz Orchestra) and students from Richard Davis’ Black Music Ensemble. Free and open to the public. http://www.music.wisc.edu/extensions/eventdetails.jsp?event_id=2496

• TUESDAY, 3/12/13, 6:30–10:00 PM: “ROUND MIDNIGHT” (Location: Chazen Museum of Art). Dexter had the lead role in Bertrand Tavernier’s 1986 film, “Round Midnight,” the fictional story of an expatriate American jazz musician in Paris loosely based on the lives of jazz greats Lester Young and Bud Powell. He also won a Grammy for the film’s soundtrack, while Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Maxine Gordon will introduce the movie with her presentation, “The Making of Round Midnight,” and conduct a Q& A following the film showing. This program is free and open to the public.

Maxine Gordon’s “Dex @ 90″ World-Wide Tour Coming to Madison: March 11-14

Paris, Copenhagen, Sweden, Philadelphia, New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center … and Madison, Wisconsin! Yes, Madison will be a stop on Maxine Gordon’s 2013 world-wide tour to celebrate the life and music of the late great jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

One of the unsung heroes of modern jazz, Maxine Gordon was Dexter’s wife and long-time manager, and shepherds his legacy through the nonprofit Dexter Gordon Society, Dex Music LLC (publishing and licensing company), his upcoming biography, and much more. Check out her presentation to the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4888 and her insightful All About Jazz interviews at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41600.

Under sponsorship of the new Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, Maxine will conduct a four-day residency (3/11-3/14/13) in our community. Her programs will include two free showings of the feature film “Round Midnight” (in which Dexter starred, receiving a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and for which Herbie Hancock won the Oscar for Best Original Score), on Tuesday evening, 3/12/13, at the Chazen Museum of Art, and on Wednesday evening, 3/13/13, at the Urban League of Greater Madison at 2222 South Park Street. Each showing will include Maxine’s presentation about the making of the film, along with a post-movie Q&A with the audience.