{"id":762,"date":"2012-09-02T15:22:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T15:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=762"},"modified":"2012-09-02T15:52:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T15:52:22","slug":"the-new-milwaukee-jazz-gallery-a-beacon-for-creative-freedom-burns-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=762","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee’s Revived Jazz Gallery: A Beacon for Creative Freedom Burns Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>The Marquis Hill Blacktet playing recently at The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts in\u00a0Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The original Milwaukee Jazz Gallery transmitted a far-reaching beacon, a creative-freedom vibe even the Statue of Liberty might\u2019ve caught, and tapped her toe to. America\u2019s art of improvised musical expression thrived in arguably the greatest jazz club in Milwaukee history, with a reputation that radiated throughout the nation\u2019s jazz-musician community.<\/p>\n

Today the same address, 932 E. Center St., houses The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, a venue for performances and jam sessions and art exhibits. This honors and reinvents the tradition of the original.<\/p>\n

After the club\u2019s glorious but difficult run, from September 1978 to the fall of 1984, founder and owner Chuck LaPaglia\u00a0moved on — to propose and then book live jazz at Yoshi’s in Oakland, today one of the premier jazz clubs in the world. \u201cBut many musicians still talk about how special the Milwaukee Jazz Gallery was,\u201d LaPaglia recalls.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a review of the piano titan McCoy Tyner, at the height of his powers at the Jazz Gallery on June 12, 1981: \u201cAs he unleashes a solo, his left hand rears high above the keyboard delivering lightning bolts of bass. His right wrist appears to be pouring fingers all over the keyboard.<\/p>\n

What you hear is music that swings, soars and erupts, often at once. In the intimacy of the Gallery Friday, you could feel it as well, such is the power of Tyner’s quintet\u2026 with ascending plateaus and sweeping arcs\u2026\u201d*<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>McCoy Tyner in 1996, still playing with the power and fire he displayed at the Jazz Gallery in 1981.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And today?<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole generation of Americans has no idea what serious jazz is,\u201d laments Mark Lawson, president of the Riverwest Artists Association, which owns the facility.<\/p>\n

The original Jazz Gallery also staged Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Dave Holland, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and many more, a living jazz history.<\/p>\n

You could catch world-class blues acts like Koko Taylor and Albert Collins, and local theater groups like Theater X — as it built a national reputation. The Jazz Gallery also nurtured local musicians who now have national stature, including Brian Lynch, David Hazeltine\u00a0and Lynn Arriale, and even notable non-jazzers\u00a0like the Violent\u00a0Femmes and Paul Cebar.<\/p>\n

Among other top-flight local musicians the venue staged were Melvin Rhyne, Manty\u00a0Ellis, Berkeley Fudge, and What On Earth? and its lyrical brand of avant-garde. Renowned pianist-vibist Buddy Montgomery, then residing in Milwaukee, used the space for meetings of The Milwaukee Jazz Alliance, helping to define LaPaglia\u2019s vision for it as a community resource.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Brian Lynch Quartet (l-r, Lynch, Sam Belton, Manty Ellis and Jeff Hamman) at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

That legacy drives Lawson. \u201cWe are passionate about the mission to combat the commercialism that has swallowed up America’s original art form,\u201d he says, noting the music\u2019s paltry presence on local radio and in press coverage. African World Festival\u2019s jazz is mostly the smooth variety. Even the huge umbrella of Summerfest has long since forsaken jazz, although several local groups made inroads on the Potawatomi stage this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Jazz Gallery presents local and a few touring groups, including\u00a0the Brooklyn-based trio Chives on Friday, Aug. 31. The Jazz Gallery CFA\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0managing partner is Milwaukee Jazz Vision, a musician-run organization that\u00a0stages concerts and promotes the whole Milwaukee jazz scene with an\u00a0impressive, cutting edge-quality website.For example, an MJV stage will debut\u00a0\u00a0at Center Street Days on September 8 with the Milwaukee Jazz Vision Quintet\u00a0\u00a0and other groups playing from 4 to 8 p.m.In May, the Jazz Gallery CFA participated in a national network event, involving \u00a0 venues in various cities, The<\/em> Undead Festival — Night of the DIY<\/em>, with \u00a0 top local bands including the Extra Crispy Brass Band, a rollicking and \u00a0 popular neo-New Orleans-style ensemble.The new gallery presents visual \u00a0 art just as resourcefully.Recent art exhibits have ranged from handmade Navajo \u00a0 rugs to a vibrantly varied group show from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and \u00a0 Design, where Lawson has curated exhibits for several decades.\"\"<\/a>An art opening at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts<\/em><\/p>\n

Another Jazz Gallery CFA partner \u00a0 is the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.\u201cThis collaboration is in its \u00a0 infancy in finding ways to work with kids across disciplines,\u201d says Jeno\u00a0Somlai, \u00a0 jazz studies director at MYSO. \u201cI do see a renaissance beginning, and hopefully \u00a0 a groundswell of activity will bring recognition to Milwaukee culture.\u201dThe opportunity to pursue \u00a0 one\u2019s creativity \u201cchanges a person\u2019s life, whether it\u2019s jazz, poetry, art or\u00a0dance,\u201d Lawson says.<\/p>\n

Such intimate, informal venues remain the lifeblood of \u00a0 the improviser\u2019s art. The gallery hopes for more partners. MJV\u00a0and MYSO have \u00a0 given the grassroots facility citywide outreach and worldwide presence.<\/p>\n

For information on Jazz \u00a0 Gallery events and hours, visit www.jazzgallerymke.com<\/a> . <\/span>The \u00a0 MJV site is www.milwaukeejazzvision.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*LaPaglia\u2019s collection of the \u00a0 Tyner review and numerous articles about the club are documented in Milwaukee Jazz Gallery<\/em>, an\u00a0 8 x 11″ ring-bound anthology ($20), available \u00a0 at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0post was first published in an edited version in the Aug. 30th issue of The Shepherd Express. <\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Marquis Hill Blacktet playing recently at The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts in\u00a0Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.\u00a0 The original Milwaukee Jazz Gallery transmitted a far-reaching beacon, a creative-freedom vibe even the Statue of Liberty might\u2019ve caught, and tapped her toe … 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":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-ci","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","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=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}