Googling Mia Nicholson doesn’t give you much. Her Facebook. Her Album: Something to Live For released in 2005. Her appearance at the Portland Jazz Festival in 2003. Her show at the Chinese Gardens in 2009. That’s about it.
“I’ve had a lighter schedule for the last few years, due to my new son,” says Nicholson. “Wanting to be a good mom and a singer is a challenge. He’s a musical boy, and I want to capitalize on that. Singing requires going out at night for gigs.”
Nicholson is ramping back up to a fuller schedule with a mix of Jazz and Country Western. Yep – stopped me for a minute too. Fusion Jazz usually doesn’t mean fusing with Hank Williams. Unless you’re Nora Jones or Willie Nelson.
But fuse she will. “Torch and Twang” made an appearance at Tony Starlight’s last month. Not your usual band of hokums, Nicholson has put together a top flight group of musicians: Steve Christofferson, piano and harmony vocals, Paul Brainard, pedal steel and dobro & Dave Captein, bass.
“Torch and Twang is a side project,” mentions Nicholson. “Bob Wills did it before, but I love mixing different genres.”
Photo: John Rudoff, M. D.
Saturday night, at the Brasserie, Nicholson was singing Jazz Standards. But not the standards you’ve heard before – I recognized a few of them, but a lot of them were lesser known – thank god. It’s good to hear someone stretching out into uncharted territories, even if it’s “standards” territories. Nicholson delivers with a clear voice and enthusiasm, avoiding cute mannerisms that some vocalists seem to mistake for “torch” authenticity. Her backup tonight includes Steve Christofferson and serendipitiously, Lee Wuthenow.
“I prefer not to be a calculated singer. I use my instincts with music – even if the song is very different for me, I like it, and trust it,” says Nicholson. “I started singing when I was 30, I went to a fiddle festival as a journalist, it feels like I was holding my breath all my life – I was missing out on this great thing that makes me feel alive.”
Thankfully, Google is not the sole arbiter of talent. Nicholson has plenty of time, talent, and the inclination to beef up her list of appearances.
“This will be the first time I have played for the Silverton Wine and Jazz Festival. In fact, I haven’t performed in Oregon in over 10 years,” says Paul Unger, Principal Bass for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. “Last summer when I was visiting Oregon, a few of my friends were telling me how great the Silverton Wine and Jazz Festival was and they were surprised that (since I was raised in Silverton) I hadn’t played for it. It’s hard to believe that the town of Silverton has grown from the sleepy little place I grew up in, and into this jewel of a community for the arts.”
Unger is somewhat unique among bassists, in that his bass is tuned in fifths, rather than the normal fourths.
“For Jazz, fifths tuning has been exciting. The range of the instrument is expanded and the ability to play chords and large intervals becomes possible,” says Unger. “With fifths tuning I can cover a two octave range in one position! I can play melodies and solos in a higher, more audible, range. It has opened up an entire range of tone colors, chords and intervals to me that previously were only open to the guitar.”
Unger’s recorded work ranges from Jazz to movie soundtracks. The following video is of a Miles Davis tribute band.
Steve Christofferson should play an instrument he could stand up with. Sitting at his piano doesn’t mean sitting still. His feet dance, his upper body swings, his head beats out the time. From where I’m sitting at Arrivederci, it’s hard to see his hands–but I suspect they’re bouncing as well. That only leaves one part of his anatomy out of action, and gravity requires that it remain in contact with the piano bench, lest the laws of physics change his orientation to the keyboard.
OMN’s coverage of this year’s Silverton Wine and Jazz Festival begins on Monday. The Festival is noon to midnight on Saturday, May 8. Read previews of the bands, profiles of the players and a special Q&A with Oregon’s most valuable natural resource, Nancy King, on Tuesday. There will be new profiles up all week. We’ll have three OMN reporters in Silverton and give you full reports of the music (and the hang).
Silver Falls Vineyards 3:00 – 4:30 pm PSU Jazz Band and Combos
5:00 – 7:00 pm Ray Rom Quartet
9:00 – Midnight Peter Piazza, Gut Feelings with Dan Balmer, Al Criado, Danny Seidenberg, Eddie Parente, Renalto Caranto, Bobby Torres, Carlton Jackson, Guy Tyler, George Mitchell,
Lisa’s On Water Street
1:30 – 4:00 pm Ed Bennett & Hank Hirsh
Seven Brides Brewery 5:00 – 7:30 pm Bill Beach and Brazil Beat
Sometimes you’re minding your own business, then the unexpected comes to your table and buys you a beer. Or presents you with a Jazz trio. One with a stunning a French Jazz vocalist. Sometimes it all comes together. Oh yes.
Kevin Dietz isn't just some stuffy music professor
Steve Christofferson's Melodica adds a Paris atmosphere
Arrivederci was swinging on tax night (April 15th). Steve Christofferson on sideman, Kevin Dietz taking care of the bottom four strings, and Steve Hanneman playing sax while the Hobart was cycling dishes. And let us not forget Heather Keizur, fronting the gig as the French-singing Jazz Heroine.
Keizur is worth the trip out to Milwaukee/Arrivederci. (yes – it is a bit of a drive from central PDX to Milwaukee, where Arrivederci is located – but worth your trouble.) Keizur has been in Portland since 1987, but hails from British Columbia. Since 2nd grade, she’s been pretending she could speak French, and finally made it formal with a French Major from PSU. Her singing started when she was 11 years old, toyed with jazz when she was 17, and then got serious about it with vocal coach Laura Cunard. Tom Grant heard the French numbers she was working on, and there we are.
“French lyrics are so much more beautiful,” says Keizur. “Not just the words, but the passion. They don’t translate the same into english.”
Here’s Heather singing “Que Reste-t-il de Nos Amours?”
“It’s hard to find French songs. Sometimes all you can find is the recording – then you wind up transcribing it.”
Likewise, it’s going to be hard to find a recording of Keizur. “I’ve got to pay for some dental work for my daughters. They come first. Then maybe if I win the lottery, I can afford to make a CD.” Keizur gestures in a French sort of way.
Yep – sometimes it all comes together. Live music – gotta love it.
Ron Steen at Clyde's Prime Rib (photo by John Nastos)
In the Portland jazz scene, the name Ron Steen is practically synonymous with “Jam Session.” Steen is the leader of the famous Monday-night jam at Produce Row, a Sunday-night jam at Clyde’s Prime Rib, and now a new Thursday-night jam session at the recently-opened Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen. He’s been leading sessions like this for decades and shows no signs relinquishing his role as King of the Jam Session in Portland any time soon.
Early life
Steen grew up in North Portland, in a house just across the street from the Cotton Club on Vancouver Avenue. Although not as famous as New York City’s Cotton Club, Portland’s version was still a big name in the Northwest, attracting acts like Cab Calloway and Sammy Davis Jr. As a teenager, Steen would go to the session on Sunday afternoons, sitting in with other local musicians, learning the tunes, and learning the etiquette of being on the bandstand.
At the time, faces like Bobby Bradford, Cleve Williams, and Evan Porter were the established heavy-hitters on the scene, but young players were showing up at the sessions as well. “Guys like Mel Brown were playing there at the time,” explains Steen. “He was like the first really really good drummer locally that I heard. Mel was playing extremely well. He was about five or six years older than me, but he had the chops that he has right now back when he was 21 or 22. Phenomenal. I had never seen anything like that.”
Steen explains that venues and jam sessions were always opening and closing just as they are today. But, he says, “back then, getting into places wasn’t as hard if you’re underage as it is now.”
The first session
Ron Steen at Clyde's (photo by John Nastos)
It didn’t take long before Steen was playing all over the city, even leading his own gigs. Despite not having had a drum lesson and having to borrow others’ drums for gigs, Steen managed to become an accomplished enough musician to get the call to become a bandleader at age 19. The call came from Chet’s, a club in downtown Portland, owned by the only black club owner in Portland. “The club owner asked if I could get a band together. As a matter of fact, I think it was just piano and drums. There was a lot of that back then. If you had a trio back in those days, it wouldn’t be piano, bass, and drums. It might be piano, sax, and drums. At that time, basses really weren’t amplified…you’d get more bang for your buck with piano, sax, and drums.”
Steen ended up hiring Lester MacFarlane to play the club’s organ in a duo with the drums. MacFarlane would kick bass on the organ, giving the group a full sound despite just being a duet. “This cat was really into James Brown,” says Steen about MacFarlane. “We would put some funk in there because that was really happening back in the day.”
Often, the duo would be joined by other musicians who would drop by to sit in. “I was letting people sit in — that was my frame of reference,” explained Steen, since he had grown up playing in the jam sessions around town. Unfortunately, having people sit in on the gig quickly backfired.
“The other club owners downtown…reported us to the union. They said it was unfair competition because these guys were paying for three or four pieces and Chet was only paying for two but he was getting an effect because I was letting people sit in, not even realizing that it was technically illegal. The union threatened to picket Chet’s.” Of course, other clubs had musicians sitting in as well but were not getting hassled, leading Steen to believe that the union action was politically driven by the white downtown club owners who were always working to try to oust the only black club owner. “What it really was was just racism. The club owners downtown all got together — they were trying to do whatever they could to get [Chet] out of there. They were just using that as an excuse.”
Steen eventually lost the gig to Danny Wilson, a keyboard player he had hired for the gig. Wilson, being an older player on the scene, convinced Chet that he would be better for the gig and for the club. “Next thing I know, it was his gig and I was out of there,” laughs Steen. “It was a learning experience — I was 19.”
More sessions, more players
After the gig at Chet’s, Steen’s career was off and running. He played with countless musicians, both as a sideman and a leader, including national artists like Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, as well as local luminaries such as Jim Pepper and Nancy King. He’s almost always had at least one jam session running and his sessions are always the go-to hang for players around town.
Over the years, a number of great players have come through the sessions. Perhaps the best known is Chris Botti, who now tours internationally as a bandleader and has spent time on the road as a sideman with Sting. He first sat in with Steen on a gig down in Corvallis, where Botti’s aunt and uncle asked if their nephew could sit in. Steen agreed to let the youngster sit in, not too excited about the prospects of the player from his appearance. A couple of choruses into It’s You or No One, though, and “he could already play. I was just shocked. There was such a disconnect between the way he looked and what I thought he was going to sound like.”
When Botti moved to Portland, Ron immediately started offering him gigs and connecting him with other musicians — just the result every player hopes for when he or she sits in at the sessions. Of course, only the best get that sort of treatment from Steen, who always has high standards.
“I want people to do their best,” says Steen. “I look at the person sitting in as a guest. I don’t approach it like the old sessions where they try to make people sound bad, calling tunes in weird keys, playing real fast.” However, the likelihood that a musician sitting in at one of the sessions will get a call from Steen for a gig is pretty low unless he or she is a complete professional.
Tom Grant and Phil Baker at Clyde's (photo by John Nastos)
Pink Martini bassist Phil Baker was one of the young players to come through Steen’s jam sessions and get a call afterward for a gig. “Phil was a thoroughly complete musician at [21] — I kid you not…he was ridiculous,” says Steen.
More recently, Steen has been a mentor to Kate Davis, a young bass player who ended up playing a weekly gig at Wilf’s with Steen’s band for two years while she was still in high school. Davis does not take the lessons that she learned on that bandstand lightly. When asked about what she learned while playing with Ron, Davis responded “Ron taught me bandstand etiquette, what not to play, and most importantly, how to treat not only band-mates, but the audience. I try to remember everything I learned from that experience, and I hope to keep them a part of my playing and performing for the rest of my life.”
Since graduating from high school, Davis has moved to Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with some of New York’s top players. Whenever she returns, though, you can count on her being on the bandstand with Ron.
The rhythm section, yeah, we’re ready — what do you guys got?
Besides getting great players to sit in, Steen consistently hires some of Portland’s finest rhythm section players — guys who know the jazz songbook backwards and forwards. “You’re not going to call a tune that they don’t know. Phil Goldberg — you’re not going to stump him. You’re not going to stump George Mitchell, Steve Christofferson, Tony Pacini. The bass players — you’re not going to stump Phil Baker, Dennis Caiazza, Dave Captein, Scott Steed or Ed Bennett. The rhythm section, yeah, we’re ready — what do you guys got?” he challenges.
Today’s sessions
Today, you can find Steen leading three weekly jam sessions around town. At his longest-running session at Produce Row, there’s always a packed house on Monday nights. Since jazz musicians don’t often have gigs on Monday nights, great local players like Dave Captein and Dick Berk are often found sitting in, even if they aren’t in the house band. Also, ex-Portlanders always know to find their way back to Produce Row when they are in town for Ron Steen’s sessions. John Wiitala or Dan Faehnle may walk through the door at any moment.
Tom Grant, Phil Baker, Dan Faehnle (photo by John Nastos)
The session at Clyde’s Prime Rib, although it hasn’t been going on as long, is now a strong session as well. Although Clyde’s is a blues club during the week, the Sunday-night sessions are generally straight-ahead jazz, more often than not with a vocalist fronting the group and getting the crowd engaged. Clyde’s has developed an extremely loyal following on Sunday nights — people who show up nearly every week of the year to cheer on musicians.
And, just recently, Steen announced that he’ll be hosting an “invitational” jam session at the new NE Portland venue Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen on Fremont on Thursday nights. This month, Phil Goldberg will hold down the piano chair for that session, with Dennis Caiazza and Ed Bennett trading weeks on bass duty there. With that lineup and Steen calling the shots, it’s sure to become another great session.
To keep up with all of Ron Steen’s gigs around town, visit his website where he posts all of the jam sessions, including the lineups for the house rhythm sections.
Saxophonist Devin Phillips played the late (11:30pm) set at the Brasserie Montmartre on Saturday night, and, yes, there were plenty of folks in the place at 1:45am when he and his band finished.
Playing with sophistication, intellectual dexterity and emotional strength, Phillips was joined by Eric Gruber on bass, who has been collaborating with him for four years. Replacing Ramsey Embick (on this gig), who has been playing piano with him, was Steve Christofferson. This was a very interesting choice. Christofferson is known mostly for his intimate playing with singers. He was immediately called on to provide pianistic heft on Coltrane’s My Favorite Things. I was next to singer Shelly Rudolph and we nearly simultaneously said, “I’ve never heard Steve play that loud.”
It worked.
Later on Rudolph, fellow singer Michaelangela and guitarist Chance Hayden (who books the music) joined the band.
Phillips played mostly jazz standards with sly verve, effortlessly dropping in contemporary comments and punctuation. Only once did the band let its hair down and play some funky blues. Given the late hour, and the fact that most of the people in the place were there to hear him, I could have used a little more funk and a little less standards.
There is ongoing discussion about what form the late shows at the Bra will take, but they’re a great idea. Earlier in the evening, the Bobby Torres Trio played from 8-11. If you’re a late-nighter, the prospect of the end of one fine band and the beginning of another is very attractive.
At the end of the night at The Brasserie Montmartre last night, Nancy King was holding court, talking about her 12 cats, playing a concert in Italy…and generally cutting up, regaling everyone. She stopped and said, “Did you hear how different it was tonight?” There was agreement at the table (which included John Stowell, just back from the Far East and the east coast of the U.S.).
Why was that, Nancy?
She said it was because Steve Christofferson was playing an upright piano instead of a grand, and she was able to stand next to him, and communicate in a way they were not used to. They heard each other differently and had a lot of eye contact.
This is news.
Nancy King in her usual stage configuration is brilliant enough. There is no doubt that she is one of the world’s greatest jazz singers…something we’ve known in Oregon for decades. To have her discover a new way of playing with Christofferson after over thirty years of collaboration is remarkable.
Hopefully she’ll be returning to The Brasserie next month and now that her friends know something even more wonderful is happening with her and Christofferson, they’ll flock to hear her.
She will be going into the hospital for hip surgery in January and will be out of business for at least a month. She has been doing a monthly gig at Tony Starlight’s also and continues her Saturday concerts at Portland Center Stage.
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