Now entering its 28th year, Music in the Mountains has been expanding the types of music it offers for several years, and now the organization is adding a jazz series to the mix.
On April 30, the series held its first outing, A Bite of Jazz, at the Durango Unitarian Universalist Fellowship complex near Needham Elementary School.
Before Jonathan Latta, Chad MacCluskey and Ryan McCurry took the “stage” in the sanctuary, the 100 or so guests gathered in Bowman Hall enjoyed a comfort food dinner with a chicken and penne dish and Caesar salad. Nancy Fisher prepared and donated the chicken dish, and a number of the High Notes members prepared the rest.
The meal ended with what had to be the most diverse selection of brownies ever – fudgy or cakey, some with nuts, some with chocolate chips, some with nuts and chocolate chips, you name a version, and it was on offer. What was a brownie aficionado to do?
The Wine Merchant generously provided the beer and wine.
Latta and Fisher started talking about creating the jazz series before Christmas, and the spirited bidding on a performance by Latta’s jazz ensemble at Music in the Mountains’ Kickstarter Party at the end of March consolidated the idea after they saw how popular it was with the festival’s supporters.
“We agreed there’s not enough jazz in Durango,” Latta said.
Latta and the group structured this outing as bit of a jazz history lesson. (As the director of Percussion Studies at Fort Lewis College, not to mention teaching a jazz history class, he’s always a teacher first.)
The three men also like to take a well-known jazz standard and present it with a twist, so they played “Bésame Mucho” with a tango arrangement and Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” with a waltz tempo.
“The history of jazz is experimental.” Latta said, “It’s taking something old and making it new.” The master of that was Miles Davis, “who always knew where the music needed to go next.”
Other highlights included the two biggest selling jazz pieces of all time: Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train” and “Take Five,” the best selling jazz single of all time, by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Hmm, apparently if you put “take” in the title, you increase your odds of having a hit. Pianist McCurry played a beautiful solo on “Take Five,” with his part in four/four time while the main piece is in five. Tricky.
As someone who has a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time, I find watching Latta mesmerizing, where every hand and foot is doing something different.
The evening also included standards by Charlie Parker, one of the founders of bebop, with “All the Things You Are,” “A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie, the other main founder of bebop, and Thelonius Monk’s “Round Midnight.”
Some fun trivia: Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. What makes that more impressive is that Ellington composed more than 1,000 pieces, while Monk wrote about 70.
MacCluskey had some serious fun on his bass when the trio played the Beatles’ “Come Together” jazz-style.
Here’s my only complaint. It felt like we should be in a dark club, cocktails in hand, with those little round tables and a haze of smoke hovering near the ceiling, instead of sitting formally in a place of worship. I’m not a smoker, and it’s illegal to smoke in public buildings in Colorado anyway, but maybe some dry ice? Although that might just make it spooky.
Bowman Hall was packed from side-to-side with diners, but the sanctuary was only two-thirds full, so the June 12 concert, when dining will be al fresco on the lawn, will allow Music in the Mountains to sell more tickets. (And this has got to be one of the most comfortable churches in Durango. The Unitarians have replaced pews with really nice chairs.)
They should sell out because tickets were a very reasonable $25, which included dinner, beer and wine as well as the concert. It was a screamin’ deal.
A lovely couple from Toronto sat at my table. They had just been walking down Main Avenue when they saw the sign and grabbed the last two tickets. They seemed to feel as amazingly lucky as the rest of us.
The June concert will feature jazz favorites from the movies, and the musicians will be a slightly different group, Latta, Jack Maynes on piano, MacCluskey and double bassist Elizabeth Riordan.
The concert was a “high note” all the way, but this week started on a sad note for Music in the Mountains supporters. Arkady Fomin, the founder of Conservatory at Music in the Mountains, died Monday night in Dallas. He had been ill for some time.
Fomin created an intensive educational experience that brought young musicians from around the country and around the world to Durango every summer. He had just stepped down from the position as Conservatory Artistic Director, but his passion for teaching and his own wonderful artistry as a musician with the Clavier Trio will be much missed.
HHH
Now that we’re past May Day and Cinco de Mayo, these folks’ birthdays will be the hottest parties in town – Rollie Roth, Rinda Slack, Ann Norris, Jane Marentette, Jack Llewellyn, Diana Longwell, Winston Marugg, Greg Sparks, Mark Dickmann, David Kidd, McKenzie James, Nicholas Ukovskoy, Meaghan Anderson, Cooper Williamson, James Zink, Makayla Safran and Kristin Smith.
Special greetings go to the woman who keeps me stylin’, Diane Welle.
HHH
If you’re a north City Market shopper, then you know Clarence Abeyta. He’s retiring this week after 37 years, and his customers hope he knows that his friendly service and going the extra mile will be missed.
Julie Shimada will remember his devotion to the Denver Broncos, his wonderful tamales ... and the lovely way he always gave her daughter, Elisabeth Leake, a penny for the mechanical horse that stood at the front door for so long.
Leake, who earned her doctorate in history from Cambridge University in England, is all grown up now, but Abeyta still checks in with her mom to see how she’s doing.
When Shimada interviewed for her job at Maria’s Bookshop with owner Peter Schertz, he asked her for an example of “good customer service,” and she didn’t even have to think about it.
“I said Clarence from north City Market was the man,” she said in an email. “I mean, The Man.”
In these days where customer service often means “Press 1 for billing” or “We’ll respond to your request within 24 hours,” Abeyta has exemplified the kind of service, and heck, just plain friendliness, that makes people loyal customers for life.
Make sure you stop by, even if you don’t need groceries, to wish him well in his new adventures.
HHH
Don’t forget the fundraiser for 5-month-old Liam Blake Maddox and his family will be held from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Friday in the Secret Garden at the Rochester Hotel. The event will feature Sugar Creek, which performs alternative folk, pop and bluegrass music.
Liam had a heart transplant at Seattle Children’s Hospital on April 20, and he and his young parents, Paul Maddox and Jaci Wright, will need to stay in Seattle for some time and are confronting the countless medical bills that come with this kind of major surgery.
Helping our friends and neighbors at times like these is where Durango shines. Let’s do it again for Liam.
HHH
It’s balmy days ahead for the anniversaries of Paul and Monica Broderick, Tom and Karla Sluis, Vance and Carrie Thurman, Harry and Lynn Bell, Ben and Claudia Root and Jim and Ann Ruetschle.
