{"id":16978,"date":"2025-10-07T10:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=16978"},"modified":"2025-10-07T10:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:16:55","slug":"jazz-is-back-full-fledged-at-the-estate-milwaukees-oldest-jazz-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=16978","title":{"rendered":"Jazz is back full-fledged at The Estate, Milwaukee’s oldest jazz club"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fb-Button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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The Milwaukee jazz quartet Heirloom performed an album release concert at The Estate recently. Photo by Kevin Lynch<\/em><\/p>\n

For a jazz club to survive since 1977, especially in Milwaukee, you’d
\nhave to think it just might be haunted by cats, as in a place of nine lives,
\nwhere a tail may sway or wiggle, but typically swings and sometimes
\neven forms an S curve, akin to Miles Davis’s famous posture while
\nsoloing.<\/p>\n

The Estate (a.k.a The Jazz Estate) has never been blessed with Miles
\nin person. But jazz, America’s indigenous art form, is now a long, strong
\ninternational language spoken by many practitioners, including such
\nfamous Estate performers as Joe Henderson, Tom Harrell, The Bad
\nPlus, Harry Connick Jr., Cedar Walton, Eddie Gomez and Little Jimmy
\nScott, and Milwaukee-bred stars like Brian Lynch, Lynne Arriale, and
\nDavid Hazeltine, among others.<\/p>\n

Cat ‘tails are a serious theme here, as current owner John Dye has
\ntransformed the joint into one the city’s most sophisticated cocktail
\nhangouts, befitting hip culture, jazz or no jazz.
\nSo the music has faded into the club’s ether several times over the
\nyears. But give this city some props for helping to revive venue’s music.
\nThere are reasons why local jazz singer Jerry Grillo has made
\nMilwaukee his own in a celebrated recorded anthem titled “My
\nHometown, Milwaukee” just as he’s made The Estate his artistic and
\ncocktailed home away from home. The song won a 2023 WAMI Award
\nfor “Most Unique Song” and a mayoral proclamation for “Milwaukee
\nDay” in May of 2022. The mayor helped cement the venue’s reputation
\nin Milwaukee lore, at least obliquely, like the proverbial cat standing slyly
\nin the bandstand shadows. Grillo’s song is colorfully celebratory and
\nself-deprecating, again, pure Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jazz singer Jerry Grillo adds drama to one of his many performances over the years at his “home” club, The Estate.\u00a0The singer will perform a Christmas show at The Estate on December 5.<\/em> Photo courtesy jerrygrillo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, this town has a still-underapprecated modern legacy of
\njazz performance and radio. Think of the indomitable and peripatetic dejay Ron Cuzner, WHAD’s Michael Hanson, or WMSE’s Jim
\nGlynn and Dr. Sushi, or Howard Austin and WYMS programming in the
\n1980s and ’90s. They all helped sustain jazz consciousness and
\nlifebood for the sake of live events, which Cuzner frequently emceed
\nduring his many years as the city’s pied piper of airwaves jazz. The
\ncommunity of jazz that has sustained the local culture over those years
\nhas included, along with The Estate, The Wisconsin Conservatory of
\nMusic, The Milwaukee Jazz Gallery and its offspring, the JGCA, The
\nPfister Hotel’s Blu nightclub and Mason Street Grill, Caroline’s Jazz Club, Bar Centro, Transfer Pizzeria Cafe and The Milwaukee Jazz Institute, an exemplary recent education and concertizing organization.<\/p>\n

This is all to put one uber-cozy and eccentrically-configured East Side
\nclub in its rightful historical context. The Estate endured nearly
\ndevastating losses during COVID. A small miracle of persistence?
\nThe intimacy and modest size has seemingly put it beyond the
\nperceived employment of many regional jazz artists who might have
\nostensibly outgrown such neighborhood venues, such as renowed
\ncutting-edge Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark, as Dave Cornils
\nexpained recently in an east side coffeeshop. “He told me a lot of
\nvenues don’t invite us,” Cornil relates.<\/p>\n

Who’s Dave Cornils? A new cat in town? He’s a 40-ish gatekeeper of
\nthe music, the latest Estate manager and music booker. He’s actually
\nbeen a Dye right-hand man, a barkeeper par excellence who had to
\nmemorize the five-to-six hundred drink recipes Dye requires for
\nByrant’s, his showcase cocktail lounge. There’s no menu there, so
\nCornils had to ask a customer what she likes, read her response and
\nwhirl up a wizard’s brew. Doubtless his improbable acumen at this
\nweighty task helped Dye decide Cornils had the chops to book good
\njazz and related music.<\/p>\n

Those duties might actually be easier than all the esoteric mixology, with
\nsome artist website assistance. “It’s been fun, a challenge for a nerdy,
\nencyclopedic brain,” he says with measured self-regard. How did he get
\ninto jazz? “My parents were not a jazz family. So this was an offshoot of
\nrebellion. Whatever they didn’t like must be cool. I learned from records
\nand listening to WMSE, which was like going down a rabbit’s hole. Jazz
\nthere is a bottomless pit, but it also keeps you humble.” Jazz guitarist
\nAndrew Trim enhanced Cornil’s education when he became a fellow
\nbartender.<\/p>\n

The manager’s formal education and professional background is in
\ngraphic design. “I’ve built up the club’s calender with a rotation of local
\nperformers, a young crop of comers with drive,” he says. Those include
\nthe sparkling quartet Heirloom, which just played the Estate for a
\nrelease event for their excellent debut album Familiar Beginnings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Others include The Erotic Adventures of the Static Chicken and vocalist-
\npianist Faith Hatch. Maybe the essence of the place’s straight-ahead<\/p>\n

jazz legacy is exemplified currently by virtuoso Milwaukee trumpeter
\nEric Jacobson, who performed “Joyspring”: The Music of Clifford Brown”
\nin early October, inflaming the the historic post-bop fire for the present.<\/p>\n

Among compelling out-of-towners on deck include Chicagoans guitarist
\nand Blue Note recording artist Fareed Haque who returns October 18,<\/p>\n

and cornetist Josh Berman on October 10, then acclaimed East Coast saxophonist-
\ncomposer Caroline Davis on November 7.<\/p>\n

“Berman is aways interesting including the way he moves his body to his music. You can be deaf and know what he’s playing,” Cornils quips.<\/p>\n

A stylistic wild card will be Victor DeLorenzo and Friends, on October 25. Milwaukeean DeLorenzo is best known as the original drummer for the renowned jazz-influenced folk-punk band The Violent Femmes.<\/p>\n

Even local artists are getting their financial due. A new policy has each
\nset being a separate show and cover charge. “It’s the only way to to
\nmake enough money for the musicians, given that the place seats 60
\nmaximum.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Estate stage and some of its distinctive seating layout.<\/em><\/p>\n

About a dozen choice seats are ultra-intimate with the stage
\n— a couple feet away. The majority of audience seating extends in two long wings on each side of the stage, one including the bar. Right behind the close-up seats is a narrow walkway and wall shelf for drinks of standing listeners, and then the
\nrestrooms. So, improbable as it seems, a seat on one of these two
\nenclosed thrones can provide some of the best music acoustics you’ll
\nfind in town.<\/p>\n

If such musical and mixological magic can happen at the Estate, may it
\nlive on forever.<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

The Estate website, including detailed information on all upcoming music performances, is here:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.estatemke.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in The Shepherd Express<\/em>:\u00a0https:\/\/shepherdexpress.com\/music\/local-music\/jazz-is-back-at-the-estate\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Milwaukee jazz quartet Heirloom performed an album release concert at The Estate recently. Photo by Kevin Lynch For a jazz club to survive since 1977, especially in Milwaukee, you’d have to think it just might be haunted by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1619,2728,2734,2736,160,2729,2727,653,1833,308,2730,2732,2722,2151,421,1153,832,118,1840,2733,2724,420,244,2731,2327,232,2735,1832,2264,2723,2725,2726],"class_list":["post-16978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com","tag-bar-centro","tag-bryants","tag-caroline-davis","tag-carolines-jazz-club","tag-cedar-walton","tag-clifford-brown","tag-dave-cornils","tag-dr-sushi","tag-eddie-gomez","tag-eric-jacobson","tag-faith-hatch","tag-fareed-haque","tag-harry-connick-jr","tag-heirloom","tag-howard-austin","tag-jerry-grillo","tag-jim-glynn","tag-joe-henderson","tag-john-dye","tag-josh-berman","tag-michael-hanson","tag-ron-cuzner","tag-the-bad-plus","tag-the-erotic-adventures-of-static-the-chicken","tag-the-estate","tag-the-jazz-estate","tag-the-violent-femes","tag-tom-harrell","tag-victor-delorenzo","tag-whad","tag-wmse","tag-wyms"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-4pQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16978"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16993,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions\/16993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}