Local jazz pianists Robin Connell and Steve Talaga recorded a duo jazz piano concert this week, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, sponsored by Aquinas College. And those needing a little “post-election” diversion can catch it tonight on Facebook.
The concert is set to be available for free at the college’s Facebook page, see here, on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. The concert may also be available later on YouTube.
“It was so fun to play duo piano with Steve,” Connell said to WKTV.
Both Connell and Talaga are no strangers to the local jazz scene.
Robin Connell (Supplied)
Originally from Detroit, according to her website, Connell is equally at home as a jazz pianist or jazz pianist/vocalist, performing regularly in clubs, concerts, and private parties as solo pianist, leader of her own trio/jazz quartet, or side woman with other musicians.
Pianist, composer and arranger, Talaga has been performing professionally for more than 40 years, according to his website. He was chosen as the West Michigan Jazz Society’s 2008 Jazz Musician of the Year, and has released eight compact discs under his own name. His most recent project is the band, Lifeline, featuring himself on keyboards, his son Stephen Talaga on guitar, Caleb Elzinga on sax, and Larry Ochiltree on drums. Their debut CD, “No Worries”, dropped in October 2019.
Jazz night at the Listening Room with members of the Robin Connell Trio, from January 2020. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)
By WKTV Staff ken@wktv.org
After an opening-night sellout of local jazz with the Robin Connell Trio at the Listening Room, one of Grand Rapids newest music venues, Quinn Mathews, general manager of the venue, reportedly said “It looks like the Listening Room will be booking more jazz.”
Sweet music to local jazz fans, indeed.
The next date with the Robin Connell Trio — this time with guest multi-instrumentalist Ivan Akansiima — at Listening Room, a 200-seat venue located at Studio Park at 123 Ionia Ave SW, will be Thursday, Feb. 6.
“I’ve enjoyed all the opportunities I’ve had to play music with this marvelous person/musician,” Connell said of Akansiima, in supplied material. The “night of music that will include original tunes, jazz standards, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, and African gems such as ‘Pata Pata’.”
Multi-instrumentalist Ivan Akansiima. (Supplied by the artist)
Akansiima, according to his website, is a mutt-instrumentalist, Christian faith worship leader, jazz musician, composer, arranger, producer, instructor, and researcher from Uganda East Africa. He holds a bachelors degree in music from Hope College and a masters degree in jazz studies from Western Michigan University. He has performed professionally for more than 15 years in 40 countries, but continues to actively play and participate in the local Michigan music scene.
My “music is rooted in Ugandan folk music traditions, Jazz, Gospel, classical, Caribbean, Afro fusion music, etc.,” he says in his website.
The jazz nights start at 7:30 p.m., with doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12, with open seating, drinks available for purchase, and a parking garage attached — “So no outdoor hassle (park on 2nd floor to walk right in),” we are told.
We are also told the January jazz night turned away people at the door, so buy your tickets early or at-least arrive early.
Connell’s “house trio” will usually include Rob Hartman on bass and Keith Hall on the drums. Future guest artists include vocalist Mary Rademacher on March 7, Carl Cafagna on woodwinds on April 1, and the Paul Brewer septet on May 31.
For more information on the jazz series and all concerts at The Listening Room, visit listeningroomGR.com or call 616-900-9500. For more information on the show, visit here. For more info on Ivan Akansiima, visit ivanskansiima.com. For more information on Robin Connell, visit robinconnell.com.
The Jazz in the Sanctuary concert series will conclude its sixth season at Fountain Street Church on Sunday, May 5th. The concerts, curated and hosted by West Michigan jazz mainstay Robin Connell, pair the spontaneous wonder of jazz with the acoustic and architectural beauty of the century-old, neo-Romanesque sanctuary in downtown Grand Rapids. As the church celebrates its 150-year Anniversary in 2019, Connell will welcome fellow Michigan musicians Elgin Vines on bass and Alain Sullivan on saxophone.
Vines has been described as one of the most sought-after jazz bassists in West Michigan. As a student at Norfolk State University, he paid his tuition by gigging along the Virginia Beach strip and was a member of the house trio on the daily Morty Nevins Television Show for three years. After graduating, he went on the road with The New Direction for eight years, and then in 1972 settled in Grand Rapids to play for the Bennie Carew Trio and work as a technologist for Amway. In 2005, the West Michigan Jazz Society named him their Musician of the Year.
Sullivan is a 19-year-old jazz saxophonist, bandleader, composer/arranger, and woodwind instrumentalist based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He currently attends the University of Michigan, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry toward pre-medicine, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in jazz studies under the tutelage of its esteemed faculty, including Andrew Bishop, Ellen Rowe, Dennis Wilson, Robert Hurst, and Benny Green. He has performed in a wide variety of musical settings, including jazz settings of all types and several pit orchestras for musicals, doubling on flute and clarinet. He has played frequently throughout Michigan, across the country, and in Germany and Denmark. In 2018, he was presented with a YoungArts award, which is given to just a handful of young artists in multiple disciplines.
Connell herself is a prolific jazz pianist, vocalist, and educator who received the 2017 Musician of the Year award from West Michigan Jazz Society for her widespread collaboration with other artists and her continuing work on the Jazz in the Sanctuary series. Whether solo or in a group, she performs regularly throughout the region.
General admission to Jazz in the Sanctuary is $15 online or at the door. College students may show ID for $5 admission. Tickets and additional information are available at fountainstreet.org/jazz.
Fountain Street Church is an independent house of worship with an open pulpit and a 150-year history of progressive action in the heart of West Michigan.
For more information about Fountain Street Church or the Jazz in the Sanctuary concert series, please contact Conor Bardallis, Events Manager, at cbardallis@fountainstreet.org or 616-459-8386 ext. 221 or Virginia Anzengruber, Content and Communications Manager at vanzengruber@fountainstreet.org.
The Robin Connell Trio will be playing trio jazz at Grand Rapid’s One Trick Pony Thursday, Dec. 6, from 8-11 p.m., with Kentwood bassist Charles Johnson sitting in.
Connell will be on keyboard and vocals, with Ian LeVine on drums.
There is no cover. One Trick Pony is located at 136 E. Fulton. For more information on music at One Trick Pony visit one-track.biz . For more information on gigs with Robin Connell visit robinconnell.com . For more jazz in West Michigan, visit wmichjazz.org .
St. Cecilia Music Center’s School of Music youth jazz program performance with Robin Connell conducting, from 2017. (Supplied/St. Cecilia Music Center)
Robin Connell, who wears many hats on the Grand Rapids music scene including director of the St. Cecilia Music Center’s youth jazz ensemble, has picked up another gig at St. Cecilia.
Connell was announced last month as the new conductor of the center’s adult Grand Band, and there is general agreement that means more “fun” for all.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled that Robin is conducting the St. Cecilia Music Center Grand Band,” Martha Cudipp Bundra, St. Cecilia education director, said to WKTV. “She has been teaching our Jazz Combo program for 4 years now and the students love her. Robin has extensive teaching experience and knowledge that will enhance the musical experience for our adult band members. She brings a unique style to her teaching and a great sense of fun.”
Rehearsals of the Grand Band have begun for the new season but new members are always welcome to inquire and no auditions are required. The band rehearses 9:30-11:30 a.m. Monday mornings.
“The adult band is so much fun,” Connell said to WKTV. “It has a lot of members who have been it for many years. But newbies come, too.”
For more information on the Grand Band for adults, visit here. St. Cecilia’s youth jazz ensembles, one of which Connell leads, will hold auditions on Tuesday, Oct. 16. For more information visit here.
St. Cecilia, Connell have history
“I’m thrilled and honored to be working at SCMC,” Connell said. “The various concerts and education programs offered are phenomenal and integral to downtown Grand Rapids.
Robin Connell
“We really appreciate SCMC hosting the youth jazz program (which started in 2014) and the amazing support we get financially and administratively. … Martha is great to work with as the director of education, but I also need to sing the praises of our administrative assistant, Rebecca Steinke. She assists Martha in various ways with all the ensembles and is there at night when we rehearse, too. And she plays flute in the Grand Band!”
Connell, according to a supplied biography, is a jazz pianist-vocalist with a doctorate of arts in music theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado. Her career as a performing musician, composer, and educator, is an alternating kaleidoscope of jazz and classical endeavors.
Her educator credits include teaching at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Community College, Long Island University, Garden City Community College, the Interlochen Center for the Arts (20 summers), the Aquinas Jazz Camp, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
In addition to teaching, Robin continues to lead her own jazz groups and perform as a “side woman” locally and afar, traveling extensively as performer, guest composer-conductor, and clinician/adjudicator. Since 2014, Robin also co-produces and hosts the “Jazz in the Sanctuary” concert series at Grand Rapids’ Fountain Street Church.
Two bands, two different experiences
As far as her expanding teaching load at St. Cecilia, Connell says there are similarities but also unique aspects to working with adults as opposed to youth.
“There is very little similarity between the youth jazz combo and the Grand Band adults, other than everyone’s shared love of playing music,” she said. “Most jazz band scores that are playable by younger students have simpler instrumentation than concert band music … My husband (Paul Brewer) directs the youth jazz big band. There is a bit more similarity between that band and a concert band in that all the music is written out, with very little improvised.
The St. Cecilia Grand Band in rehearsal at the music center’s Royce Auditorium, from 2016. (WKTV)
“The concert band music is completely written out and players must adhere to the written notes. The conductor’s job is to become immersed in the score, to internalize it, and ‘coach’ the ensemble as per the conductor’s interpretation.”
But Connell said she is getting into working with the adults.
“I am enjoying digging into completely different repertoire and having the chance to work on my conducting skills more,” she said. “There are also a lot of women in the band whereas the youth bands are almost all boys. I’m totally used to being the only woman, or in the minority, but I’m really also enjoying rehearsing a group with a lot of women — and men — who are totally geeked about instrumental music.”
Shameless plug for a great music series
The “Jazz in the Sanctuary” series begins its fifth season Nov. 4 with “Paul Brewer & Altin Sencalar in Tribute to J & K”, a concert featuring a jazz quintet, led by trombonists Brewer and Sencalar, performing the compositions and arrangements of J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding. More dates are scheduled in 2019. For more information visit fountainstreet.org/jazz.
From the time of Art Tatum, though the years Oscar Peterson led what some consider the perfect jazz trio (with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on the sticks), into the modern jazz era with the likes of Brad Mehldau, there are many different instrumentations used in “a jazz trio” but when people think of “the jazz trio” you know what they are talking about.
The piano-bass-drum jazz trio is, with little argument, the quintessential jazz group.
Back in 1996, pianist Mehldau released the first of a series of recordings titled “The Art of the Trio” — a recognition of the historic and continuing perfection of the piano-bass-drums jazz combo by a multi-Grammy nominated performer who’s career has never strayed far from the format.
And while a Nov. 30 visit to St. Cecilia Music Center’s Jazz Series by Mehldau’s latest trio may well be a must-see concert this year — a concert where he will undoubtedly continue to prove the adage — there are local jazz performers bouncing around Grand Rapids music scene that also offer proof just about every night of the week.
Steve Talaga, on keyboards, in trio at a local venue. (Supplied).
“Most of the great jazz pianists going back to the mid-1940s have performed and recorded in this format, so each succeeding generation of young musicians has been exposed to, and influenced by, these artifacts,” said Steve Talaga, a pianist with a long history in the area jazz scene and currently an adjunct professor of music at Hope College.
“This trio format is also a situation which offers a perfect blend of interaction and freedom. You have multiple musicians contributing musical ideas to the ‘stew,’ but not so many that things get muddled,” he said. “Once drums are paired with piano, the bass range can sound a little weak, so adding a string bass reinforces the low register, creating a perfect musical scenario.”
Robin Connell, also a local pianist and music instructor, likens the musical range of the piano jazz trio as being a “group discussion.”
Robin Connell, with bassist Chris Kjorness’ River North Trio, at The Old Goat in Grand Rapids. (Supplied)
“In terms jazz as an art form, the best jazz trios musically interact continuously so that their performance can be likened to listening to a group discussion,” she said. “Just as in listening to three people talking together, conversation can flow easily and equally and be heard by listeners. Larger groups rely either on more written music — less improvisation, taking turns improvising, or music that is simple harmonically.”
But jazz people will tell you that not only is the piano jazz trio a jazz club mainstay for musical reasons, there are also logistical and economic reasons as well.
Robin Connell
Economics “enter the picture, although not as much for established artists of international stature,” Connell said. “Very few places anywhere in the U.S. pay a living wage for live music unless the venue is booking ‘name’ artists. This is true for jazz as it is for all other live music. I imagine the history of the jazz trio includes that reality and certain combinations, such as piano/bass/drums, became standard.”
Talaga agrees, but knows economics has never overshadowed the music.
“Economics do play a role, of course. More so all the time,” Talaga said. “With this combination, you have a complete ensemble capable of creating the most exciting music, but the paycheck only has to be split three ways.”
But “for me, the piano/bass/drums format is the dream band, both in terms of listening and performing. If you get the right combination of inventive, sensitive, and capable musicians, it’s pure magic.”
And most local jazz lovers are expecting magic with Mehldau’s return visit to St. Cecilia Music Center as part of the center’s Encore Jazz Season, celebrating over ten years of some of the finest jazz musicians in the world playing the venue.
“The jazz trio format is the classic format for a jazz combo — but what’s so interesting about all jazz programming is that, even if the instruments are the same in two groups, two shows are usually never alike in the hands of consummate musicians,” said Cathy Holbrook, executive director of St. Cecilia Music Center.
Brad Mehldau, in trio format, will be coming to St. Cecilia Music Center NOv. 30. (Supplied)
“We’ve had the piano/bass/drum trio at St. Cecilia Music Center many times over the past ten years, but the musician leading the group can take it in many different directions,” she said. “When Brad Mehldau brings his trio, we will hear a night of improvisation vs. jazz standards — they may start out with a standard but it goes into their imagination and comes back out again.”
For those with only a casual relationship with the jazz trio, but looking for a deeper dive, an essential acquisition would be the Oscar Peterson Trio’s 1963 recording “Night Train”, the Ahmad Jamahl Trio’s 1958 recording “But Not For Me – At The Pershing” and/or Mehldau’s “The Art of the Trio” series, re-packaged and re-released as a 5-Disc box set by Nonesuch in 2011. And you probably have to look no farther than Grandville’s The Corner Record Shop for any of them.
For more information and tickets for Brad Mehldau, visit scmc-online.org
The Steve Talaga Roots of Jazz Trio, among other gigs, will play at the 18th Amendment in Muskegon, Dec. 23 from 8-11 p.m. Visit his website at stevetalaga.com .
Robin Connell, among other gigs, will be playing in trio format at One Trick Pony in Grand Rapids, Jan, 11 from 8-11p.m. Visit her website at robinconnell.com .
For more information on local jazz available, visit wmichjazz.org .
