© Andrea Canter
Steve Kenny’s All Originals jazz season continues Friday, September 1, with the Joan Hutton Jazz Project, performing all original compositions from multi-reed player, composer and educator Joan Hutton. She’s joined by fellow saxophonists David Milne, pianist Jesse Mueller, bassist Joan Griffith, and drummer Jendeen Forberg.
Joan Hutton is an educator, performer, and composer originally from Toronto, Canada. She has been a member of the Ancia Saxophone Quartet since 1996, playing tenor and alto saxophones and bass clarinet; she also performs with the jazz-funk sextet Rare Medium, and composes many of their tunes. Her Joan Hutton Jazz Project was formed early in 2017 to feature her original compositions. Other performance activities over the years have included solo recitals, pit orchestra work at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and other various theaters, orchestral playing, big band and small jazz combos, and R&B/rock/blues bands.
Joan received her degrees from the Eastman School of Music (M.M.) and Ithaca College (B.M.). In addition to teaching at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Joan has a large studio of private sax and clarinet students. In her teaching, she encourages students to explore as broad a range of styles as desired while developing a solid foundation on the saxophone through the study of standard repertoire, etudes, and scales.
David Milne is Professor and past Chair of the Music Department at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he teaches applied saxophone, jazz improvisation, saxophone ensemble, jazz ensemble, and directs the RADD Jazz Series. A native of Rochester, NY, he holds BA and MM degrees in music from Indiana University and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music. In the Twin Cities, Dave is an active jazz and classical saxophonist, guest artist/clinician, and composer/arranger who has appeared with the JazzMN Orchestra, the Out to Lunch Quintet (Eric Dolphy tribute band), Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pete Whitman X-Tet, Phil Woods, Doc Severinsen, Ray Charles, Jack McDuff, Smokey Robinson, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. With vibraphonist Dave Hagedorn, he launched the Spiral Visions ensemble in 2012, paying tribute to the music of Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land.
Dave has received awards, grants and commissions for performances of new works from the American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, THE Commission Project, Twin Cities Jazz Society, and Downbeat jazz journal. He has also fostered, commissioned, premiered, and recorded new works for chamber music ensembles with the ANCIA Saxophone Quartet, JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet, and Zeitgeist. Dave leads the “jazz meets classical” One World Consort. His compositions and arrangements for saxophone ensembles have been performed at the North American Saxophone Alliance and World Saxophone Congress conventions.
Jesse Mueller is a versatile young keyboardist from Minneapolis who plays with the fire of the funk/jazz masters. Busy with more than a dozen bands, Jesse is well versed in jazz, fusion, funk, rock, country, gospel, blues, r&b, Latin jazz, and hip hop. He performed at the Lucerne Blues Festival with Willie Walker & We R as well as appearing in Brazil in 2016. He was a member of Steve Kenny and the Bastids during the band’s weekly run at the Artists Quarter. Currently Jesse performs with the Dee Miller Band, Karl B & the Soul Surgeons, In2ition, Snak Attack, No Limits- The B Side, Willie Walker & We R, Sonic Jones, Fergus Plinko, The Shados, Manguito, and more.
A noted teacher, composer and performer, Joan Griffith has toured and recorded as a classical and jazz guitarist, bassist, and mandolinist. A classical guitar major in college, she picked up the bass in order to form a rock band, switching from electric to upright later when living in Kansas City in order to participate more fully in the area jazz scene. Now head of the Jazz Studies Department at the University of St. Thomas, Joan is also a guitar and bass instructor at St. Catherine’s University, director of the MacJazz Workshop at Macalester College, and a roster artist in jazz for COMPAS, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Young Audiences. She also appears frequently with the Minnesota Orchestra as a classical mandolinist. Joan is particularly known for performing and composing Brazilian style music, an area that has fascinated her since she first heard “The Girl From Ipanema” as a teen in Nebraska. Over the years she has developed her personal fusion of the African, European and Amerindian traditions that define the soul of Brazilian music. In addition to recording with Lucia Newell and Laura Caviani, Joan has recently worked with Patty Peterson’s Jazz Women All Stars and performed in a two-guitar duo with Chris Olson.
Drummer Jendeen Forberg is a founding member and leader of the Wolverines Big Band, often heard these days as the Wolverines Trio backing such artist as Arne Fogel and Maud Hixson with a monthly gig at Hell’s Kitchen. She started drum lessons with Elliot Fine and began gigging with her father (a local horn player) when she was 11. In addition to her four decades with the Wolverines, Jendeen has played in metal bands All the Pretty Horses and Harsh Reality. She’s currently performing with Patty Peterson’s Jazz Women All Stars. When not behind the trapset, Jendeen works with at-risk and homeless youth through Streetworks.
The Joan Hutton Jazz Project’s first engagement was an hour-long interview and in-studio performance on Joan Griffith’s “Talking About Jazz” program on 88.5 KBEM FM. Click on Listen to hear excerpts from that show.
All Originals Jazz takes place at Studio Z, 275 E 4th Street in St. Paul’s Lowertown. Doors at 7:30 pm, concert at 8 pm. Tickets $10 at the door or at http://www.originaljazz.org/.
