September 19, 2015

At noon on Saturday, proclamations from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul were read in Minnehaha Park declaring the day Freedom Jazz Festival Day, and "the best little jazz festival in the Twin Cities" began with a set from the members of our Workshop.

We began our set with an instrumental original by yours truly, "Bean's Blues," named not for the other Bean, Coleman Hawkins, but my granddaughter. (Any resemblance between her and Mr. Hawkins is purely coincidental.) Solos all around. Annie introduced us, and then sang "I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You," with a smooth tenor solo by Wes. Next up, Dick took a turn on "Out Of Nowhere," with  Steve M. taking an alto chorus as well. Next we took on Sonny Rollins' "Doxy," with horns and guitar soloing. Carl's trombone led the horns on John Lewis' blues, "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West." Next up, Dick returned to offer a bouncy rendition of "All Of Me"; both Serdar and Steve M. added solos on guitar and alto, respectively. Annie came back for some sweet singing on Dr. Ronnell Bright's "Sweet Pumpkin," while I added 16 bars of solo. We finished up with "Yardbird Suite," though our time ran out and we had to stop at the end of Steve M's tasty solo.

All in all, a fun half hour, and we were honored to kick off this year's Freedom Jazz Fest. We hope we can do it again next year.

The Workshop returns to its usual time (Saturday's, 11-3) and format on September 26.

--SJH