by Will Shapira

Plainsong: First, I want to thank each of you who has remained loyal to The Rag™ and to Leslie. As she explained last month, health reasons have forced her to scale back The Rag and change its format again. You can be sure, however, that all of us will continue to give it our very best. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Secondly, thanks yet again to Dick Parker, Minnesota journalist and banjoist exceptionale, for his several major contributions to the December and January RAGs. Without his writing and other input, I'd be SOL and events in the Heartland never would be fully covered.

Onward! Here's a great way for Minnesotans to observe February, Black History Month: According to Katryn Conlin, PR and Marketing Director since 1991 of VocalEssence, the Minneapolis, Minn.-based choral music group headed by Philip Brunelle, the group has made an annual tradition of focusing on the creative accomplishments of African-American composers in a concert called "Witness." This year, on Feb. 17, VocalEssence and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul will spotlight the music and impact of Duke Ellington. The "Witness" concert will feature a professional big band jazz orchestra, the 130-voice VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble and conductor Philip Brunelle, along with baritone soloist Dennis Spears and pianist Sanford Moore.

Brunelle says he always has wanted VocalEssence to feature Duke Ellington on a "Witness" program. "In the field of jazz music, he is Number One and his melodies are legendary," Brunelle says. "Although primarily he is thought of as an instrumental composer, he wrote a lot of vocal music and I want folks to know this side of him as well."

The first half of the concert will explore the "Ellington Effect," how Duke Ellington's adventurous and courageous spirit opened the way for the current generation of African-American composers such as former Minnesotan William Banfield and Stephen Newby.

Ellington's career was accelerated by his national radio appearances on the weekly Cotton Club broadcast, making his name a household word in America. Brunelle plans to use the radio show format as a vehicle for presenting Ellington's music in the second half of the concert.

Veteran Minnesota vocalist-teacher Vern Sutton "has written a script that will make the concert take on the essence of a radio show, just the way that Ellington first came to national fame in his day," Brunelle explains. "Sanford Moore will be our own Duke Ellington on the piano and as emcee." Tom Keith, sound effects guru of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion, will supply an aural landscape a radio audience would expect.

The focus of the radio program will be selections from Ellington's three "Sacred Concerts," a fusion of jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel and blues.

Conlin says the audience can expect unique, dramatic sounds from "Witness: The Duke Ellington Effect," including a first for VocalEssence: Ellington's choral music with percussion accompaniment supplied by a tap dancer who had yet to be selected at presstime.

The concert will be recorded for possible release as a CD. Meantime, info about VocalEssence's numerous excellent CDs may be obtained via (612) 547-1451. Tickets for the Ellington event are available from (651) 224-4222 or online via www.ordway.org. Twin Cities Jazz Society members and Minnesota jazz station KBEM Jazz 88 members are eligible for a $5 per ticket discount (not valid with other offers or on previously purchased tickets).

Congratulations to Minnesota's Zenon Dance Company on its 25th anniversary of presenting innovative programs featuring numerous jazz dance works, including a new one by much-missed former Minnesotan Danny Buraczeski and the music of Jelly Roll Morton.

Minnesota's MacPhail Center for Music and the McKnight Fellowships for Performing Musicians are accepting applications through Jan. 22, (612) 767-5310; prediger.matthew@macphail.org. MacPhail's new facility in downtown Minneapolis opened with a celebration Jan. 5-11 including several local jazzers.

The Spring catalogue of the St. Paul, Minn. Conservatory of Music includes classes for jazzers of all ages, www.thespcm.org.

Vocalist Charmin Michelle, saxophonist Doug Haining and several other Minnesota musicians put on a new jazzy Christmas show at several venues. Michelle says Cab Calloway was one of her inspirations but that the music was more in the styles of Basie and Ellington.

Minnesota banjoist/guitarist Reuben Ristrom did a holiday show with local radio stars Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson, whose famous bits include meetings of Stupsa, opposite of Mensa, and visits to the Scandinavian towns of Upsala and Downsala.

Another outstanding Minnesota vocalist, Maud Hixson, has a new CD out, Love's Refrain. Accompanied by pianist Rick Carlson, Hixson delivers 10 familiar and not-so-familiar songs by some of our greatest composers, www.maudhixson.com

Minnesota native trumpeter Charlie Caranicas continues to make a name for himself in New York. He and stride pianist Tom Roberts have just released a superb album of duets, Move Over, that was praised by none other than Dan Morgenstern. The 14 selections are by Blake, Morton, Waller, Armstrong, Strayhorn, Ellington, Johnny Dodds and Oscar Levant, among others, which means this CD probably will be to the liking of most RAG readers even if the trumpet-piano combo may be new to most of us. (I once had the extreme pleasure of hearing the great trumpeter Ruby Braff perform with the great pianist Dick Hyman.) Phil Schaap lists historic trumpet-piano duos in his excellent liner notes, and Caranicas-Roberts may well become so, based on this recording. Caranicas advises that the album may be obtained only via www.Charliejazz.com or www.CDbaby.com. He may be reached at c.caranicas@att.net; (718) 624-6120; (347) 432-1463.

The RAG Newshound: The January-February issue of Duet, newsletter of the Twin Cities (St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minn.) Musicians Union Local 30-73, AFM of U.S. and Canada, bemoans the decline of its music performance trust fund and delves into the union's problems getting local sports franchises to hire live musicians for their home games. There also are several "True Music Confessions" of strange gigs, real and fabricated, www.tcmu.com

The January-February issue of the Madison, Wis. Jazz Society's newsletter, The Force in Jazz, www.madisonjazz.com, announces the RAG's new format; previews the Chicago Footwarmers Jan 27, "Ladies Must Swing" big band Feb. 16, violinist Aaron Weinstein Feb. 24, the Tribute to Bix Fest March 13-16, MacGregor/Rubinstein New Orleans Jazz March 30 and the 20th annual Capitol City Jazz Fest April 25-27, among many other area events.

The January issue of Northeast Ohio's EarlyJas Rag raises some critical questions about criticism while the December issue examines the economics of playing traditional jazz and begins a series continued in January on the V-discs of WWII, www.earlyjas.org.

William Perry's essay on Duke Ellington and reviews of the Rich Johnson benefit and the Lake of the Ozarks Dixieland Jazz Festival highlight the latest issue of the Catfish Jazz Society (Iowa-Illinois) newsletter, catfish jazz@yahoo.com

The December-January issue of The Open Horn, newsletter of the LaCrosse, Wis. Jazz Society, www.lacrossejazz.com previews the Jan. 27 concert of Al Townsend's Wonderful World Jazz Band; Butch Thompson's Feb. 10 gig, Somethin' Jazz quintet March 9; Gypsy jazz with the Clearwater (Minn.) Hot Club April 15 and the 2008 LaCrosse Jazz Festival next summer, among other events.

The January edition Notes to You, newsletter of the Illiana (Illinois-Indiana) Club of Traditional Jazz, mourns the death of honorary director Eileen Margaret Topp, 68; celebrates the club's 35th year and previews its events and other area activity, recalls Matty Matlock and salutes veteran Rich Johnson, JazzEddy@aol.com.

The annual Bix Festival is set for July 24-27, Davenport, Iowa and the Fall issue of Bix Notes reports that Rich Johnson has won the first "Bix Lives" award. Part Three of the four-part "Music on the Mississippi" series spotlights outstanding musicians who emerged from the Quad Cities (Iowa-Illinois), and there's an abundance of youth news, too; www.bixsociety.org

R.I.P.: Bebop altoist Frank Morgan, 73, a Minnesota resident with an international reputation, died here Dec. 14 of colon cancer. After serving a long prison term for narcotics, he moved to Minnesota to live with relatives, rebuilding his life and career. A memorial was held Dec. 23 (when he would have turned 74) at the Artist's Quarter, St. Paul. Veteran tenor saxist Irv Williams led the list of locals who played.

Jack Smasal, leader/drummer/washboardist and "emperor" of the Emperors of Jazz dixieland band showboat cruises on the St. Croix River dividing Minnesota and Wisconsin, died Nov. 29 at 53.

One of the all-time Count Basie fans, William E. Olson of the Twin Cities area, died recently. I worked with him at 3M, St. Paul, Minn. for about 10 years. Each staff meeting began with several tracks from a Basie CD. The other attendeees were nonplussed, but Olson and I grooved. "Bootie's Blues" from the On the Road album (featuring trombonist Bootie Wood) was our favorite. Not your typical top-echelon corporate officer, to the say the least.

Please send me your news by the fifth of the month preceding publication: Will Shapira, 5644 Morgan Av. S, Minneapolis MN 55419; wshapira@aol.com, no attachments. Thanks, later.

January 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

P.O. Box 19068, Minneapolis, MN 55419.