Hello, just dropping in to say hi on behalf of UW-Madison’s WSUM student radio. I do a free jazz program every week the title of the program is FREEFORALL. I believe there is another jazz program at WSUM as well which might interest you, if I recall his show is more focused on straight ahead type stuff. Mine is delving more into “obscure” post bop players and focusing on their sessionography as leaders and side-people. I recently acquired access to the university’s Mills Music Facility which has a very extensive catalogue of jazz spanning many era’s of jazz and at the moment due to this my program is now almost completely vinyl. My program is every Saturday at 4PM-6PM. More information can be found at www.wsum.org regarding our fall program schedule. I hope you’ll tune in this Saturday either on the radio here in madison at 91.7FM or on our live webstream which can be found at www.wsum.org
The Great River Jazz Fest is an annual event this time of year in La Crosse. Here’s a note from the folks at the Great River Jazz Fest:
Great River Jazz Fest
La Crosse, WI
Interstate I-90 Exits 3 & 4
Aug 14-16, 2009
On the Mississippi, 13 bands in 2 venues, all indoors, Fri, Sat, Sun. Bobby Lewis’ Cats ‘n Jammers, Wally’s Warehouse Waifs, jazz vocals with Lisa Roti Quartet, New York City pianist Dave Marck Quartet, Arne Fogel-Tanner Taylor Quartet, Mostly Blues Quartet, Optimism Sextet, Pianorama, Wonderful World Jazz Band, Dick Chaffee’s Stardust Big Band in our Avalon-style ballroom with dance floor and tables, The DC Five, The Phat Cats, West Salem Community Big Band, Coulee Region High School Jazz All-Stars, Meet the Musicians reception (advance ticket required), Mardi Gras-style Parade, jam sessions, Sunday jazz church service, CDs, raffle, merchandise. Main gate is at the La Crosse Center. Call (608) 791-1190 and log on to www.lacrossejazz.com
It’s beautiful outside and I have many things to do, but everything must wait. I feel compelled to write something after reading about Joe Andersen’s death in today’s Wisconsin State Journal. “Cadillac Joe,” as he liked to be called, was a well respected jazz and blues Hammond B3 organist for over 30 years in the Madison area. He played as a sideman for years until starting the Blind Wolf Blues Band, and later the Cadillac Joe Band, and the Joe Andersen Jazz Organ Group. Among other accomplishments his band originated the Monday night Hammond B3 Night that became a tradition at Cafe Montmartre, was the house band at Luther’s Blues during it’s heyday, played at Jazz at Five, and won the 2001 Isthmus Readers Poll as Madison’s best blues band.
Joe had been dealing with a rare cancer over the last 3 years, but it still comes as a shock. Last week a friend told me Joe had been admitted to the hospital with a bad infection, the result of a weakened immune system from all the cancer treatments. Now Joe’s gone.
I knew Joe through his brother Don, another sax player. Our sax quartet recorded a few times in his basement studio, and once played as a horn section behind The Blind Wolf Blues Band. I went to hear his bands play, and I ran into him occasionally around town.
The last time I saw him was a few years ago when the great jazz organist, Tony Monaco, played at Jazz At Five. Joe was very excited to hear Tony. He described frequent emails and conversations with Tony and referred to him as his mentor. At the time, Joe had just finished his first series of chemo treatments, but was focused on improving his playing and reforming a band. He needed a new guitar player since his son was now extremely busy with his own band, Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo.
I did not know Joe well but I know he was a dedicated musician, and a genuinely good guy. He will be missed by his family, friends, and the music community. You can read more about Joe at this site set up to promote a benefit for him last December, and in the excerpt below from the International Archives for the Jazz Organ site when he was chosen organist of the month.
According to the newspaper obituary, a memorial service will be held at 11 AM, Tuesday, August 4th at the Olson-Holzhuter-Cress Funeal Home in Deefield. The family will greet friends from 10 AM until the time of the service.
From the IAJO site:
Joe tells his story
how he came to the organ:
In the mid 60’s I bought a Farfisa organ and taught myself to play best I could by listening and playing along with records. I learned songs like 96 Tears, House of the Rising Sun and other “garage band tunes” of the day. I bought every record I could that had some organ on it. One of those records was a Spencer Davis Group album …
There was a tune called “Blues In F” on this album that totally knocked me out. In fact I can listen to that cut today and still be amazed by the incredible Hammond/Leslie sound on that cut. At the time I had no idea who the organist was or how he got that sound, but I literally wore out that track listening to it. It didn’t take long however to figure out that I couldn’t make my Farfisa sound like that. A trip to the local “hippie” music store revealed the truth to me. In a separate little room was what I thought was a church organ. Of course it was a B3. I was not initially impressed. At the time it looked like something that should be in my grandma’s parlor. They assured me this was the best, so they started it for me and I sat down to play a little. I don’t know how to really describe what happened next but when the store closed, they politely asked me to leave. Frankly I was still a kid and not much of a player yet, but this instrument brought out things in me I didn’t know existed. I think that may be the true beauty of the Hammond organ, if you have anything at all inside you, it will coax it out of you if you let it. That was 1969 and I’m of course still playing the Hammond. I’ve also played pianos and synthesizers over the years but have never gone with out a Hammond. I think most Hammond players probably feel the same, but when I sit down in front of the instrument, it’s like I’m home, everything is right and day to day hassles are gone, at least for the time I get to play. Gigs are great, some amount of notoriety is nice, but simply playing the instrument is my greatest musical pleasure.
The NY Times has a very positive review in this morning’s paper about Floriculture, a group led by former Madison pianist, Carl Maguire, relating to their Tuesday evening’s performance in Brooklyn. The group is celebrating their new CD, SIDED SILVER SOLID. The music on the CD has a decidedly avant guard flavor, but with Carl’s intelligently composed structures readily apparent throughout. It is very good! Let’s hope that Carl and his group can do a Madison performance soon!
Jazz at Five is a Madison institution much like Concerts on the Square. Every Wednesday in August for the last 16 years the top of State Street at the Capitol Square is blocked off so crowds can gather to enjoy jazz. The concerts are free and feature local and international performers you will not want to miss. This year’s performers are listed below, and the schedule is at the Jazz at Five website and listed at Special Events on this site.
Why is it that every concert I attend in Madison ends with a standing ovation? Am I amazingly good at selecting great concerts or is something else going on?
The David Sanchez concert last Saturday night at the Memorial Union was a good concert. I enjoyed myself, but when the concert ended and people started sprouting up around me I was caught off guard. I shouldn’t have been since this happens at all Madison concerts, but nonetheless I was. As I said, I thought it was a good concert, but aren’t standing ovations supposed to be reserved for great performances? Well, what to do. When this happens I sometimes stay seated and refuse to go along with the crowd, but the collective pressure can be great, and being in the fourth row where the musicians could clearly see me I stood up.
What happened next was interesting. The band came out front, bowed, and left the stage. The lights came on, there was no encore, and the crowd quickly filed out without protest, or apparent disappointment. Outside I ran into people I knew and we exchanged impressions of the concert. I heard others around me doing the same thing, and the next day I talked to more people who had been there. Here’s the odd thing: not one person thought it was a great concert.
I liked the concert more than the other people I talked to, but I still had some of the same issues with it. A concert over 90 minutes long that includes only six songs, seven at most, will test even the most focused listeners. The songs tended towards longish intros, abstract themes, solos that were rhythmically interesting but not especially melodic, and ending vamps that were longer than the body of the song. To be fair, I often found the ending vamps more interesting than the rest of the song because of the spontaneity and group interplay.
By far the most interesting member of the group was the drummer, Henry Cole. Everyone I talked to volunteered an opinion. Most thought he was great, a few thought he overpowered the group, and everyone agreed he was hard to watch. Personally, I thought he was great; he laid down a tremendous wave of propulsive energy for the rest of the group to ride over. That energy is what sustained me through the 20 minute tunes.
As for being hard to watch, this brings up the topic of odd musician mannerisms, you know, the Joe Cocker type stuff. There’s at least one local musician that I like to say has his jaw bone connected to his music bone because his mouth gapes open in strange ways when he plays. Everyone loves his playing but it takes getting used to watching him. Same thing with this drummer; he’d turn his head, look right into the audience, and make very odd faces. A few times he seemed to be looking right at me and I had to look away. I’m sure he wasn’t seeing anyone in particular, more likely he was in a music-induced altered state. Still, those faces were creepy and I’d rather they not be directed at me.
Overall, I’m glad I heard David Sanchez and his band Saturday night. The songs were long but the group interplay and rhythmic drive made it worthwhile. Regarding those mandatory Madison standing ovations, maybe I just need an attitude adjustment. We’ve got grade inflation, why not ovation inflation too? After all, what’s wrong with giving all performances an “A?” It makes everyone happy and it’s harmless. Right?
Now here’s a legitimate award. Dave is in the top tier of Madison jazz artists and has been active in the Madison jazz scene in many differerent settings for years. He currently plays weekly solo gigs at the Magnus, with the New Breed on Wednesdays, with the Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz band, the Madison Jazz Orchestra, periodically with his trio, and is first call for big name musicians traveling through needing a pianist. In addition, he has been active with the Madison Music Collective, serving previously as president and recently as a board member.
His award will be presented prior to the David Sanchez concert 8pm this Saturday at the Memorial Union Theater. Congratulations, Dave!
Well it’s been a lot longer than a week since I put up a new sample from a Madison jazz artist, but I started this series with that title and I’m going to stick with it. Patrick has been featured here before as a solo artist and with his New York Trio. This week we have Patrick with his new Madison based trio. They will be playing their first gig 9:30 tonight at Magnus, and following that up next Friday with a performance at the Isthmus Jazz Festival.
This is a Steve Lacy tune entitled, “The Bath.” The trio is:
Patrick Breiner – Tenor Saxophone
Michael Brenneis – Drums
John Christensen – Bass
Patrick has a bio and more tunes up on his website. If you want to get inside his head a bit you must read this previous blog post by him, a great piece of writing that reveals the drive behind Madison’s most exciting sax player.
The loss of Uncle Larry also means the loss of his Crazeology jazz calendar. His calendar is currently still useful, but unless someone takes it over soon it will be out of date. I’ve heard someone is thinking about it, but few people can manage years of driving Milwaukee to Madison every weekend for a volunteer midnight to 6 am gig, and I doubt few people can sustain the work of keeping up his calendar over the long haul.
With that in mind, I’ve set up a jazz calendar that I hope can serve the same function while sparing any one person from shouldering the whole load. The new Madison Jazz calendar allows everyone to add events themselves, and it’s success will depend on Madison jazz musicians listing their own gigs and fans helping out when they hear of a gig that isn’t listed. I may enter a few to get it off the ground.
After testing many calendars this one seemed the best. It is easy to use and offers the ability to add links and descriptive text. It is also searchable. I expect it will take time to catch on but ultimately I hope it serves the needs of the jazz community well.
I am initiating this as a community service but can’t promise meticulous maintainance of the calendar or troubleshooting. I will keep an eye on it to make sure it isn’t abused or spammed, but please don’t hold me responsible for any problems with the calendar.
On Thursday, April 23rd, Madison lost one of its favorite late-night jazz DJs from WORT Community Radio when Uncle Larry Hancock unexpectedly passed away. Hancock was known on-air, and since young adulthood to friends and family as well, as “Uncle Larry” or “Unk”. His unique radio program, Crazeology, aired overnight Fridays on WORT 89.9 FM from midnight-6 am and each week featured jazz recorded on that date in history.
On behalf of his family and his favorite radio station, the Madison Music Collective, Friends of Uncle Larry and Mother Fool’s Coffee House will sponsor a multi-player performance and jam session featuring some of Unk’s closest musical friends, including drummer Tom Hamer, reed player Tom Lachmund, vibraphonist & cellist Marianne Egerstrand, stick-player Arthur Durkee, drummer Tommy Thompson, saxophone player JoAnne Pow!ers, laptop improviser Gregory Taylor and many more, recalling the groups Zazu, the Zelda Hayze Unit, the Barbaric Yawps, and others that included Uncle Larry as bassist or vocalist.
The jam will be held Friday, May 22nd at Mother Fool’s Coffee House, beginning at 8 PM. Donations will be accepted at the door with proceeds going to the immediate family of Uncle Larry. For further information, call Marilyn Fisher at 233-1090 or Sybil Augustine, WORT Music Director at 256-2001. You may also donate by sending a check to the Madison Music Collective (PO Box 2096, Madison, WI 53701-2096) clearly marked as going toward the Uncle Larry Memorial Fund.
