Nontraditional jazz combo

One of the things about the Jazz Workshop is that you never know who's going to show up or what the instrumentation is going to be. Today we had a "nontraditional" combo of alto sax, three guitars, accordion, drums and vocalists. And the alto sax had to leave after about an hour, changing things to three guitars, accordion, drums and vocalists. Despite that we still played jazz and some of it sounded pretty good, too.

At the Workshop today were Ira (alto sax), Owen (accordion), Gene (drums) and guitarists Bob, Craig and Tim. Vocalists were Annie, Toria and Matt.

The set list included "Crystal Tears," "The More I See You," "Peri's Scope," "Someday My Prince Will Come," "There Will Never Be Another You," "You Took Advantage of Me," "Harlem Nocturne" (with each of the vocalists taking a stab at it), "Blue Room," "East of the Sun," "Lover Man," "Ain't Misbehavin'," ""Cheek to Cheek," "Day by Day," "Flintstones," "Satin Doll," "Moonlight In Vermont," "How Deep Is The Ocean," "Don't Go To Strangers," "As Time Goes By," "That Old Feeling," "Am I Blue" and "Makin' Whoopee."

The Jazz Workshop will be back next Saturday 4/24/10, at noon with the instrumentalists and from 1:00-3:45 with vocalists. The Saturday Workshops will be ending for the summer in May because the park building is not open on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We may be continuing on a weeknight from 6:00-9:00 during the summer, depending on interest and the availability of a room at the park. So, if you want to come out to one of the Saturday sessions, don't delay!

In the photos: at the top we have Annie (vocals and Jazz Workshop Coordinator) and Matt; next we have Bob with his beautiful flame-top Les Paul; below that are Craig and a former workshop attendee who dropped in for a visit (unfortunately I didn't catch his name); at at the bottom are Owen on accordion and Gene on drums.

Don't forget that Ira's Jazz Quartet with guest Steve Hillson will be playing on 4/24/10 at the Coffee Grounds in St. Paul. See the links below.