A snowy day for jazz

That's Annie.

Despite the six inches of snow that fell on the Twin Cities overnight, nine people came out to McRae Park to play jazz, plus a couple of folks who came to listen! Today we had Gene (drums), Wes (sax), Annie (vocals), Vicki (vocals), Dick (vocals), Reno (a first-time vocalist at the workshop), Tim (guitar), another guitarist whose name has dribbled out of my memory before I got to the keyboard, and Jim (piano and clarinet). We were absent a bassist today; we made do, but jazz really needs that interaction between the bass and drums. The walking bass is the essence of jazz.

In the past four weeks participation has been up quite a bit, which we love to see. This workshop has been going on for 30 years and needs musicians to turn up to keep it alive and growing. We hope that some will become regulars- maybe you! I've been asking people how they found out about the workshop, and about half discovered it through the Craigslist ad I've been running once a week. So we'll keep that up! The rest either knew about it already (some were former participating stopping back to see old friends) or heard about it through one of the usual suspects. Spread the word!

My camera batteries were dead, doggone it, so no new pictures today- these are from Don Lehnhoff a few weeks ago. This is Wes:

The Jazz Report for 2/14/09

We had another great turnout with Gene (drums), Jim (piano and baritone sax), Wes, (tenor sax), Annie (vocals), Craig (guitar), Sam (bass and trumpet), Vicki (vocals), Tim (guitar), Dick (vocals), Robert (usually guitar but today sporting his spiffy new upright 3/4 bass). We also had another new vocalist but I have forgotten his name, much to my embarrassment. Sorry! We had three hours of fun with lots of laughs and Valentine's Day candy. The songs were often topical ("My Funny Valentine" taken at a rousing clip was the closer) and also "Pent-Up House," "Django," "Corcovado," "Ornithology," "Just Friends," and a bunch of others.

Hope you can join us next week!

The workshop featured on JazzPolice.com

The kind folks of the Jazz Police have posted a mention of us on their Web site.

Jazzin' it up in the park 2/7/09

Gene guards the groove

Eleven jazz musicians came out to McRae Park today- Norman (piano), Steve (trumpet and flugelhorn), Sam (bass), Annie (vocals), Jim (piano and clarinet), Vicki (vocals),Roger (tenor sax), Dick (vocals), Craig (guitar), Gene (drums) and Tim (guitar). From the laughs and smiles, a good time was had by all.



Craig joined us on guitar today and already knew a lot of the tunes.

Hope you can come out and join us next time!

Still undecided?

It's free. We're friendly. It's a lot of fun. Come on out and play some jazz with us, already!

More pictures of fun!

Here's a few more pictures of fun at the Jazz Workshop in the Park (courtesy of and copyright 2009 by Don Lehnhoff):




Hmm, D7b5, that must be "Take the 'A' Train."




Chip keeping the groove alive (that bass has an amazing warm tone)!




Vicki singing something dreamy and romantic.

Tons of fun on 1/31/09

This week we had a great turnout: thirteen musicians came out to play jazz at McRae Park!

We had two tenor saxes (Wes and Roger), two trumpets (Mary and Sam), three vocalists (Annie, Vicki and Dick), a bassist (Chip), a drummer (Gene), two keyboards (Norman and Jim) and two guitarists (Robert and Tim). Whew! Lots of enthusiasm and lots of fun. Several of the attendees today were returning regulars who hadn't been in for a while. We were also visited by Don, who will be working up a press kit for publicizing the Workshop.

Tunes played today included "Someday My Prince Will Come," "Take the 'A' Train," "Forest Flower," "St. Thomas," "Blue Room," "Corcovado," "I'll Remember April," "Pent Up House," "Moonlight in Vermont," and several others that I have forgotten. I should write the tunes down.

Anyway, we had a really good time playing jazz today! Hope you can join us next time!