BlueStem Jazz

02/11/2024

The Essay by Martin Luther King, Jr. That Lives Large In Jazz

In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned an essay concerning the significance of jazz. The essay was written at the request of the organizers of the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival. While one of Dr. King’s lesser known speeches, it remains as one of the most profound essays about jazz in modern times.

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God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.

28/10/2024

AVA MENDOZA SOLO 11/1

AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Best known for her solo guitar and vocal performances, and as the leader of the experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, she has received critical acclaim for her guitar work’s compelling combination of technical virtuosity and visceral impact. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music.

27/10/2024

master mixologists dan and angelina at the iconic north street cabaret have given birth to... THE
BLUE STEM — a lil sweet - a lil spicey and definitely beautifully refreshing! only at the cab!

[pairs well with hot music]

27/10/2024

11/16 Madison (8pm)

Back in the Midwest this fall, The Bridge brings together innovative jazz musicians from France and the U.S. for an electrifying series of performances across Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee. This transatlantic initiative continues to foster unique musical collaborations that push the boundaries of jazz and creative improvisation.

This tour unites Chicago’s alto saxophonist Greg Ward and drummer Isaiah Spencer with French musicians Hélène Labarrière on double bass and Nicolas Peoc’h on alto saxophone.

24/10/2024

Next episode is up and rarin’ to go at bluestemjazz.org/sidebar. This one’s in (good) conversation with

23/10/2024

Charlie Cronk speaks to Ava Mendoza on this podcast episode of SideBar. Listen in at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts. See her solo show November 1 at Audio for the Arts.

Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, composer, songwriter, Ava Mendoza speaks about her expressive, energetic, wide sonic ranged approach to the music she plays. Her impeccable technique, wizardry with the array of "stomp pedals" she deploys for her sound and the unique voice she has created on her ins...

21/10/2024

R.I.P. Ralph Cross - 2024

over the years i recognized that if steve and ralph were at a show then i knew i was where the cool kids were and it was going to be an outstanding show, they were my unbeknownst bellwether pals, it wasn’t till years later i approached ralph at the iowa city jazz festival, letting him know our one-sided relationship, in 2016 i started bluestem jazz and found ralph attending many of my more adventurous bookings, again the bellwether, we became friends commiserating over the state of booking edgy experimental music and the detroit tigers [both of us being ex-michiganers], he never stopped being curious, he never stopped being one of the cool kids

with love from bluestem

16/10/2024

THREE KILLER SHOWS, INCLUDING A LIVE ALBUM RECORDING AND THE DEBUT OF A NEW DAVE REMPIS PROJECT!! COME BE PART OF THE ACTION!!

15/10/2024

Friday, November 1 at 8 PM, Audio for the Arts, 7 South Blair Street #1 Madison, WI.

BlueStem Jazz presents Ava Mendoza, a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Her guitar work has received acclaim for its technique and viscerality. She is best known as leader of experimental rock band UNNATURAL WAYS and as a solo performer on guitar/voice. Performing/recording credits include work with Carla Bozulich, Fred Frith, Malcolm Mooney, mike watt, Nels Cline, John Zorn, and Negativland.

Tickets are here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bluestem-jazz-featuring-ava-mendoza-tickets-1042345963837

This is a solo performance.

Presented by BlueStem Jazz:

https://bluestemjazz.org/

and Audio for the Arts:

https://audioforthearts.com/

This event is BYOB

12/10/2024

On Friday, October 19th at 8 pm, a brand new quartet will make their debut in Madison, WI. The band features pianist Dave Rempis on saxophones, Mabel Kwan on piano, bassist Jakob Heinemann, and drummer Bill Harris. We hope you can join us!!

07/10/2024

PUNK JAZZ . . . NO WAVE . . . COME GET YOUR MIND BLOWN THIS SATURDAY BY TWO GREAT ACTS!!!

A Love Electric is a critically acclaimed power trio born out of Mexico City’s jazz scene. In ten years of tireless touring and creative output, Todd Clouser and his group have released seven records on labels in the United States, Mexico, and Europe, touring the world creating music on their own terms, performing more than a thousand shows on four continents. Power psych, punk jazz, post-genre, and freak rock are terms critics have used in an attempt to describe ALE’s sound.

Brandon Seabrook is a NYC-based guitarist and banjoist. His music fuses a wide range of traditions: punk rock, jazz, pop, and metal. As a guitarist, his work feeds off tactile sensations: rapid picking, contorted clusters, and extreme physicality. The New York Times has called him “a man apparently hellbent on being the world’s least rustic banjo player.”

07/10/2024

the pedal rabbit hole is eternal - wills mckenna

30/09/2024

STELLAR QUINTET THIS FRIDAY!!! DON’T MISS HANSEN/LYLES/CORTINAS/BLACK/SHAPIRO!!!

Drew Hansen is a Chicago trumpet player and educator making a name for himself as a thoughtful composer and adventurous improviser. Drew is also the Director of Jazz at Midwest Young Artists Conservatory in Highwood, Illinois, a program that takes a holistic approach to jazz education. He is the leader of Room Full of Chairs, an ensemble inspired by the haiku of Chicago poet John O’Connor. He also leads his own quintet, which draws inspiration from the jazz masters of the past and present. Both groups can be heard on Drew’s debut album, Stone Forest/Sun Shower.

23/09/2024

MASSIVE JAZZ WEEKEND! SCHEEN JAZZORKESTER FROM NORWAY, PLUS THE TOM GULLION QUINTET IS BACK!

10/09/2024

Check out the next episode of SideBar by Charlie Cronk on bluestemjazz.org/sidebar and hear and discuss the latest incarnation of The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra before their show at the Bur Oak on September 20th. Link in bio!

08/09/2024

BLUESTEM JAZZ RETURNS: FAREED HAQUE’S CHICAGO IMMIGRANT ORCHESTRA ON SEPTEMBER 20!

05/09/2024

we’re a lil preoccupied at the moment...

05/09/2024

Oud player Wanees Zarour and guitar player Fareed Haque discuss the reformed Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, which represents a wide range of Chicago's immigrant community. The Orchestra feature musicians from the Far East, Western Europe, Africa and the Americas. The ensemble weaves all of the diverse musical traditions from the wide-spread homelands into warm, rich, ever-so-beautiful textures of newness and familiarity. Listen to the podcast, Charlie Cronk interviewing, here: https://bluestemjazz.org/2024/09/04/the-chicago-immigrant-orchestra-fareed-haque-and-wanees-zarour-episode-5/ and be sure to see the show at The Bur Oak Friday, September 20

24/08/2024

“WHOOO—EEE! THAT NEW MUSIC MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I’M GONNA JASM!”

i know very little about punk, but what i do know is bob suren sure got it right! punk and jazz crossover on so many levels and i never really thought about that, as bob reflects - “jazz is weird music that goes on forever!” and punk...well...it’s just f*cking weird

little disappointed the book does not dig deeper into the avant garde scene where this crossover is so obvious with the likes of brotzman, threadgill, braxton, kondo... but let’s hope that maybe bob’s squirreling away in his mom’s basement working on the sequel!

03/08/2024

UNDER THE BRIDGE with You of all People - our month long artist in residency begins for the month of august, wednesdays 7:30-9pm

guest musicians TBD

13/07/2024

bluestem returns sept 20th with a formidable 14 piece band - chicago immigrant orchestra