Andrea Canter, Steve Sharp

Jazz Central: “For the Cats, By the Cats”

By Andrea Canter

This past October marked a very special anniversary on the Twin Cities Jazz Scene. Jazz Central celebrated its first year of jams, gigs, lessons and recordings under the stewardship of Tanner Taylor and Mac Santiago. Tucked into the lower level of a multi-use building near the corner of 4^th Street NE and Central Ave in Minneapolis, the space that once housed a recording studio has already lived up to its mission – “for the cats, by the cats.” On any given Monday night, and sometimes other dates during the week, Jazz Central hosts one of the area’s most free-wheeling, sophisticated performance-and-jam sessions for serious jazz artists and listeners. And there’s no set cover, just donations to pay the musicians and the rent. It’s our slice of a New York jazz scene that isn’t all that easy to find these days, even in New York.

The Birth of Jazz Central

The October 2010 issue of Jazz Times included an article about the proliferation of “underground” jazz venues – small, often private spaces where both accomplished and developing talents gather to perform without the usual limitations of for-profit clubs where the bottom often drives the roster and repertoire. Some of these settings are house parties in private residences, others are small musician-run cooperative clubs with both private and public performances. In northeast Minneapolis, pianist Taylor and drummer Santiago transformed an old recording studio into a haven for musicians, students and serious fans, dubbed Jazz Central. The notion for Jazz Central grew out of a proposal Mac had written a few years ago for a community jazz center, one on the order of what became the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA. Ultimately, he teamed with Tanner to lease the old Glacier Studio space on Central Avenue, promoting the venue as “a non-public, invite only, performance space.”

Originally intended as a teaching and rehearsing space for local musicians, the performance potential of the space grew, and soon Jazz Central boasted weekly performances followed by an open jam. “The Monday ‘Featured Artist’ sessions are what we felt would be the starting point to get the local jazz community involved and aware of our existence,” says Mac. So far there has been no cover charge for the Monday night sessions (with seating for about 50), but donations are cheerfully accepted! “We do book performances on other nights,” notes Tanner, “and the room is available for rental as a private performance space. It has also been used to introduce young jazz artists and new cats in town.” Over the past year, Jazz Central has presented veterans like Dave Graf, Dave Brattain and Michael Nelson, as well as young upstarts like Javier Santiago, Trevor Haining, and Miguel Hurtado. Recently, Minnesota native, New York-based trumpeter John Raymond held a CD “Preview” at Jazz Central.

A Unique Venue

While there are many other performance opportunities in the Twin Cities, Jazz Central is unique as “a place for jazz musicians and appreciators to congregate,” notes Tanner. “Pianists never get to hang out with other pianists on gigs, same for other instrumentalists. Jazz Central provides musicians a place to come together and discuss the music scene, talk ‘shop’ and bounce musical ideas off each other.” Jazz Central also offers a recording studio, managed by saxophonist/ engineer Don Jacques. Musicians have the opportunity to record live in the performance space as well as within the controlled areas of the studio.

Tanner sees the “underground” performance space movement as a sign of the times and a good option for musicians during the current economic downturn. “One of the things that inspired us to create Jazz Central was a lack of decent rehearsal spaces to really create our own music. Since the recession began, we've lost a lot of the venues that used to hire us. I think we'll be seeing a lot more ‘underground’ spaces open. House ‘jazz parties’ have become more frequent as well. I do hope more pop up because these underground joints tend to bring out raw creativity in musicians.”

Adds Mac, “We generally feel that there is a wealth of very talented, seasoned jazz musicians that we rarely play with or hear in an environment conducive to 'the Art'. Now we do.”