{"id":17008,"date":"2025-10-23T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=17008"},"modified":"2025-10-25T10:32:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:32:39","slug":"the-jazz-side-of-joni-mitchell-on-friday-tops-off-a-big-week-for-jazz-in-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=17008","title":{"rendered":"“The Jazz Side of Joni Mitchell” on Friday tops off a big week for jazz in Milwaukee"},"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 Waukesha nighclub Let it Be architecturally evokes the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles first made their name. Photos courtesy GMToday.com<\/em><\/p>\n

A Chair in the Sky: The Jazz Side of Joni Mitchell<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let it Be, 716 Clinton Street, Waukesha<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday, October 24. Doors open 4pm; Event is from 7:00 to 9:00PM
\n$15 Online | $20 at the door.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Website: Chair in the Sky<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0********<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I wish I had a river\/ I could skate away on\u2026I made my baby cry\u2026I\u2019m so hard to handle\/ I\u2019m selfish and I\u2019m sad\/ Now I\u2019ve gone and lost the best baby I ever had.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, that\u2019s vintage Joni Mitchell, her wistfully melancholy \u201cRiver\u201d from the classic album Blue,<\/em> among the songs Herbie Hancock commemorated musically on his extraordinary 2007 album River: The Joni Letters<\/em>, which won both album of the year and best jazz album Grammies.<\/p>\n

And coincidentally Hancock was the big-ticket jazz show in Milwaukee this week, and he\u2019s earned his high prices over the decades though they\u2019re now too steep for me, a freelance writer even with a career-long specialty in jazz. So it goes.<\/p>\n

Still, those in my riverboat (ice-encumbered) — or on my unsteady skates \u2013 might keep pressing on to Friday night — an alternative jazz experience that\u2019s far less expensive, being a round-the-fire gathering of gifted Milwaukee-area musicians, with an ingeniously ambitious concert concept, titled A Chair in the Sky: The Jazz Side of Joni Mitchell. <\/em><\/p>\n

Three of the musicians are known for singing: Father Sky (a.k.a. Anthony Deutsch) and Faith Hatch, both who also play keyboards, and guitarist Garrett Waite. A fourth vocalist, drummer Hannah Johnson, will likely add more harmony for some potentially rich vocal interpretations of jazz-oriented music of the sui generis<\/em> singer-songwriter Mitchell. I\u2019d argue Mitchell\u2019s music has had some jazzical kinship going back to that album Blue<\/em>, drenched in the blues, of sorts, as only Joni could.<\/p>\n

And the \u201cChair\u201d is a song title from Mitchell\u2019s much later self-consciously jazzy album Mingus,<\/em> so it\u2019s fair to surmise that the herculean jazz bassist-composer Charles Mingus resides in the celestial chair, though her song only references long-lost \u201cbeautiful lovers\u201d (including musical, no doubt) and the iconic bebop-and-beyond jazz club Birdland. She had collaborated with Mingus before he died in 1979. That song\u2019s lyrics tell a striking idiosyncratic tale, which suits the peculiarly shapely sense of harmonic charges which was fairly unique to her music and a challenge, even for many jazz musicians.<\/p>\n

So, this event could be revelatory or memory-refreshing for many listeners, unless you\u2019re recently immersed in the music of Mingus <\/em>and comparable Mitchell work. They\u2019ll also draw from Hancock\u2019s River: The Joni Letters<\/em> album to bring the week to an ice-sparked, pirouetting full circle, of sorts.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t yet mentioned much of the musicianship involved, or the fact this will be held in one of the Milwaukee area\u2019s most notable new music venues, now featuring a goodly amount of\u00a0 jazz and related musics, Let it Be, in Waukesha, not exactly a suburb known for jazz. *<\/p>\n

Yet the place\u2019s name defies jazz esoterica: as Let it Be<\/em> is, of course, among the most celebrated of late-era Beatles albums. At the same time, the space itself harkens to the fab four\u2019s earliest days, with physical layout somewhat mimicking the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the (pre-Ringo) \u201cmoptops\u201d played a lunchtime gig in 1961 and earned five whole pounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s some of the Beatles motif in Let It Be.<\/em><\/p>\n

The brainchild of owner Dave Meister, Let it Be’s walls include photos documenting the Beatles\u2019 extraordinary saga, along with a huge Union Jack flag. The club\u2019s witty physical stylings begin with a silhouetted blackbird perched atop the outdoor overhanging sign adorned with the club\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\"Let<\/p>\n

The entrance to Let It Be, at 716 Clinton Street, Wakesha.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Among the vocalists of the \u201cChair\u201d concept group, Father Sky sings with a depth as substantial as his epic beard\u2019s length, having developed a broodingly echoey folk-jazz vocal style most influenced by Nina Simone. He most recerntly collaborated with the hip-hop-jazz band KASE on a live album. Further he\u2019s one of the most ingenious pianists to emerge in the region in quite some time, with a quirky, sophisticated harmonic sense, sonic adventurousness and rhythmic attack that seem perfectly suited to do Mitchell\u2019s work justice. (And hmm — \u00a0Father Sky, did the event\u2019s nominal concept arise from this fellow?)<\/p>\n

\"Call<\/p>\n

Father Sky (Anthony Deutsch) will sing and play keyboards for “A Chair in the Sky: The Jazz Side of Joni Mitchell.” Courtesy bloglicense.com<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, he\u2019s a soulful singer, in his way, as is Hatch in hers, so the songs\u2019 emotional weight should carry plenty of requisite power. Guitarist-singer Waite is in the straight-ahead jazz tradition but with enough fusion overtones to capture that aspect of Mitchell\u2019s later work.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s saxophonist Aaron van Oudenallen (a.k.a. Aaron Gardner), of the group The Erotic Adventures of the Static Chicken, who can deliver fusion jazz with a deep background in post Coltrane jazz tradition. Bassist John Christensen is among the region\u2019s most versatile and in-demand bassists, who released a fusion album last year, Soft Rock<\/em>, which received a thumbs up review from Down Beat<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

\"Music<\/p>\n

Hannah Johnson. Courtesy Philip Engsberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Finally, drummer Hannah Johnson (above, best known with the group Heirloom) plays across the area jazz scene much as any drummer these days because she\u2019s also so versatile and drives a group with such rhythmic elan and swinging verve as to virtually \u201clift the bandstand\u201d as Thelonious Monk memorably put it, a dictum that his group achieve something that \u201clevitates\u201d the music.<\/p>\n

So, this adds up to a boatload of talent which prompted this preview as much as the concert concept.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019d hardly presume to suggest \u201cbe there or be square,\u201d but you could richly round out your recent musical experiences by finding a chair in this sky-seeking affair.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

* Thanks to my old friend, jazz pianist-composer Frank Stemper, who played at Let It Be a while ago, and alerted me to its special qualities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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