Jazz series turns 40 in style

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jul 13, 2008 by Bill Blankenship

By Bill Blankenship

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Topeka Jazz Workshop Inc. will turn 40 with style, presenting a 10-show 2008-09 concert series featuring veteran jazz musicians, emerging stars in the genre and the best of local and regional talent.

Tickets are on sale for the new season, the concerts of which will all be at 3 p.m. Sundays at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th, in downtown Topeka.

A regular season ticket costs $100 and includes two guest coupons, each good for admission to one concert. Premium and student subscriptions also are available. No single concert tickets will be sold.

Marcene Grimes, TJW Inc. executive director, said the 2008-09 seaon will "introduce some new, upcoming young artists, bring back some old familiar faces, and offer a nice mix of big bands, small combos, Latin, a little bit of Dixieland and good ole swinging, straight-ahead jazz."

The new season will carry on a tradition started in 1969-70 when TJW Inc. presented trumpet virtuoso Clark Terry ("Mumbles") with the Topeka Jazz Workshop Band and three more shows featuring Kansas City and Topeka area groups and artists.

"Big bands were featured in the first 10 seasons at White Concert Hall on the Washburn campus," said Grimes, who also serves as TJW Inc.'s historian. "We brought to Topeka virtually every big jazz band in the nation with the exception of Ellington. That includes Basie, Kenton, Herman, Ferguson, Rich, you name it."

Grimes' late husband, Jim Grimes, served as the group's president for the first five seasons, followed by Pete North for three seasons, then Jim Monroe who helmed the series for 28 years until his death in 2005.

Other TJW Inc. founders include the late Mel Kime, drummer, director of the TJW Band and the original force behind the concert series; Jerry Goodell, who is the organization's current president; and Howard Abernathy, Fred Meinholdt, Buddy Brown, David Friend and Gary Stroud.

For the 1979-80 season, the series moved to Topeka Civic Theatre's Warehouse on the Levee until it was damaged by the floods in 1993. After relocating to different hotels, the series settled in at the Ramada in 1994-95.

For 2008-09, that tradition will be upheld with this lineup:

Aug. 24: Topeka Jazz Workshop Band, with guest trumpeter Jay Sollenberger. The TJW Band, which draws its membership from Topeka and the surrounding area, will couple its big band sound with Sollenberger, a free-lance Kansas City musician originally from McPherson, who has played lead trumpet with Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Buddy Rich.

Sept. 14: Stephanie Nakasian, vocals; Hod O'Brien, piano; and Harry Allen, tenor saxophone; with Tommy Ruskin on drums and Bob Bowman on bass. Jazz diva Nakasian, who has wowed audiences from coast to coast with her June Christy tributes, and her equally talented pianist husband O'Brien return to the series after a 2001 appearance. They suggested including saxman Allen, another TJW Inc. concert veteran, and with Topeka native Bowman and KC drummer Ruskin sharing the stage. Grimes said, "This will be a memorable swinger."

Oct. 19: Aaron Weinstein, jazz violin, with Rod Fleeman, guitar, and Gerald Spaits, bass. Named a "rising star violinist" by Downbeat Magazine, the 21-year-old Weinstein is quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest jazz violinists of his generation. As a featured soloist, he has performed at Lincoln Center, Wolftrap Center for the Performing Arts, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Iridium, Birdland, and Django Reinhardt festivals in France, Iceland and New York City. Weinstein will be backed by KC- area jazzmen Fleeman and Spaits.

Nov. 23: Tamir Hendelman, piano, with Tommy Ruskin, drums, and Bob Bowman, bass. Hendelman has impressed Topeka jazz audiences before as a member of the Jeff Hamilton Trio, but the Israel-born pianist, who also is a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, has recorded his first album as a jazz trio leader. "Playground," the Tamir Hendelman Trio's debut CD, is due late this summer, and his Topeka concert likely will include tracks from it with Ruskin and Bowman providing their support.

Dec. 7: Sara Gazarek, vocals, with Josh Nelson, piano; Tommy Ruskin, drums; and Bob Bowman, bass. Winner of the Downbeat Magazine Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Vocalist in 2003, Gazarek. 25, released her first album, "Yours," in 2005. It was both a critical and commercial success, with a Top 10 spot in Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart and a vote by JazzTimes readers as the No. 3 on its list of Best New Jazz Artists. Her 2007 sophomore release, "Return to You," also earned praise. Her musical director, Nelson, performed last year at a TJW concert with the Jim DeJulio Trio.

Jan. 4, 2009: Carlos Martinez and the Tropicalia Rhythm Band. Displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, Martinez settled in Topeka, where he has immersed himself in the local music scene. The Latin percussionist has performed with the TJW Band, Stan Kessler's Sons of Brasil and at Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival. For his first TJW concert as a band leader, Martinez has recruited fellow Katrina victim Loren Pickford on saxophone, Danny Embrey on guitar, Brian Hicks on bass and vocals, and Eduardo Tossato on piano.