Vintage Band Festival 2024 is one week away. In past newsletters this spring and summer we’ve been highlighting the bands that will be performing at VBF 2024 on July 26-27. If you missed any newsletters or want to get a refresher, the complete schedule of concerts and all of the band profiles are on our website www.vintagebandfestival.org. Just click on the pull-down tab “VBF 2024”.
Today we want to thank our sponsors and community partners for their support. Without their financial and logistical support we would not be able to do what we do. Our Festival Sponsors this year are the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC), the City of Northfield, JoAnn Polley and Mark Ulmer, Mary Rosenberg, David and Nan Shumway, and Barbara Zaveruha and Glen Castore.
Our 2024 Stage Sponsors are Community Resource Bank, Merchants Bank, David Clarke, David and Martha Brown, Lee Engquist, Tyler and Kari Holden, and Lois and Noel Stratmoen.
A huge shout out to Isaac Leonard at Festival Production Services and Roger Fette at Fette Productions for our stage, audio and lighting tech. Thanks also to By All Means Graphics/Graphic Mailbox for our marketing support, Kathy Bjerke, our accountant and Jim Haas, our donor database manager.
Phil Peterson moved to Northfield in 2008 after retiring from the Insurance industry. Phil immediately immersed himself in community activity. He completed training to be a Northfield Historical Society tour guide, a member of the “posse” with expertise talking about the James Gang Bank Robbery. Phil’s love for music and tenor voice has him singing in the Bethel Lutheran Church Choir, I Cantanti (community choir) and volunteering as a hospice musician playing guitar and singing for hospice patients. Phil also plays the euphonium in the Fifty North Band and the Northfield Community Band. Thanks Phil, for what you give to Northfield and for being a board member of the Vintage Band Festival!
Paul Beck
If you were a brass-playing middle schooler in Northfield Schools from 1989-2013 you most likely had private lessons from teacher and trombonist, Paul Beck. “Mr. Beck” had a stellar career as a public-school teacher in Northfield and continues to participate as a trombonist is local bands and ensembles, did a stint as conductor of the Northfield Community Band, and sings in the St. John’s Lutheran Church Choir. As a graduate of St Olaf College, his connection to Northfield goes back many years (his mom was an Ole too). Paul taught instrumental music in two other rural Minnesota towns before landing in Northfield. Thank you for your volunteer service to the Vintage Band Festival!
Vintage Band Festival is looking for folks to help with various tasks during our upcoming event on July 26-27, 2024. The times that help is needed are 1:00 – 11:00 pm on July 26 and 7:00 am – 11:00 pm on July 27. Please let us know of your interest and availability by sending an message to bergesod@gmail.com.
If you think that Vintage Band Festival is all that Northfield, Minnesota has to offer, think again! There are three music festivals in July and one in August. In addition, every Saturday there is an open-air market with produce vendors, food trucks, and artisans of all kinds from 9 am – 1 pm.
Why not stay in Northfield for the summer? This week we’ll explore the inaugural Northfield Jazz Festival.
The Northfield Jazz Festival is set to take off in Northfield, MN on Sunday, July 14. The core of the festival will occur in Way Park from 1 to 5pm, featuring three bands led by Northfield resident jazz musicians: pianist Laura Caviani, vibraphonist Dave Hagedorn, and trombonist JC Sanford. This will be followed by a jam session at Imminent Brewing (519 Division St S #2) in downtown Northfield hosted by Jack Schabert’s Blue Ox Trio. All events are free and open to all ages. Festival Director JC Sanford received a 2024 Southeast MN Arts Council Grant (SEMAC) to fund much of the festival and has partnered with the Friends of Way Park organization to organize the event.
Opening up the festival at 1pm, JC Sanford’s Imminent Standards Trio was named for his frequent appearances at Northfield’s own Imminent Brewing before the pandemic put a pause on live performances. He went on to record two volumes of recordings of jazz standards (Imminent Standards Trio, Vol. 1 & 2), and this performance will feature the personnel of Vol. I, bassist Anthony Cox and drummer Phil Hey. When discussing this group, Scott Yanow of LA Jazz Scene says, “In addition to his fluent technique, Sanford has an expressive tone of his own, a sound that holds one’s interest in this sparse setting.” Sanford still regularly performs in New York City and internationally as a trombonist/composer/conductor and is commonly recognized as a “Rising Star” trombonist in DownBeat Magazine’s annual critics’ polls.
Maintime is a group of musicians that formed in 1999 to explore the music of Keith Jarrett, Kenny Wheeler, Jan Garbarek, and other performers influenced by the ECM record label in the 1970s. The band consists of Chris Olson, guitar, Jay Epstein, drums, Kevin Clements, bass, and Dave Hagedorn, vibraphone. Andrea Canter of Jazz Police has said, “The empathy among these musicians is immediately apparent from the first chords.” Their recording In the Meantime is available on BandCamp, and they will appear at 2:30pm.
For over 10 years, the Laura Caviani Trio has featured bassist Chris Bates and drummer Dave Schmalenberger. For this special performance, they will feature selections from their recordings Confluence and Mysterious Thelonious, along with recently written vocal originals fresh from Laura’s Carleton sabbatical. They also play every Sunday for the First Service at Plymouth Congregational church in Minneapolis. Pamela Espeland of MinnPost described Mysterious Thelonious as a “a joyous romp through ten of [Thelonious Monk’s] tunes, played by someone who knows them intimately yet continues to discover new things about them.” They will close out the Way Park portion of the festival at 4pm.
Though only recently a graduate of St. Olaf College in May, Jack Schabert has already released two recordings as a leader with a third on the way. In additional their frequent performances at Twin Cities venues like MetroNOME and kj’s hideaway, the Blue Ox Trio have also performed at numerous private events and nursing homes throughout the state. The jam session at Imminent Brewing will occur from 6 to 9pm.
There will also be food trucks: Praeliza Fusion Kitchen at Way Park and Deep Roots at Imminent Brewing.
The Northfield Jazz Festival is taking tax-deductible donations for operating support and funding for this year and beyond through their fiscal sponsor Zeitgeist. Any sponsors and/or donors interested in financially supporting the festival or any volunteers looking to be involved should contact JC Sanford at northfieldjazzfestival@gmail.com. Planning for the 2025 festival is already underway.
Tune in next week when we’ll talk about the Noontime Organ Recital Series in July and the August Bridge Chamber Music Festival.
Laura Caviani, Dave Hagedorn, JC Sanford (photo credit David Milne)
McNasty Brass Band is a collection of Minneapolis/St.Paul-based horn players and percussionists that fuse the Minnesota metropolitan sound with the spirit of New Orleans. The outcome of this fusion is hard-hitting dance music and high-energy live shows.
Each player works tirelessly outside McNasty Brass Band as a side man, some with national and international touring acts. That’s what makes McNasty special – these youthful but experienced side men come together and showcase their compositions, solos, group vocals and stage presence as front men. “McNasty Brass Band is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t make fun of the kid who is super into trumpet in 5th grade” (twincitiesmedia.net). Their recordings King Size Life and MNBB, encapsulate their live energy with exciting compositions, rowdy gang vocals and rip-roaring solos. The only thing missing is their dance moves!
The next two profiles showcase two of the longest-serving Vintage Band Festival board members, Jan Stevens, our Fundraising Committee chair and Lois Stratmoen, our donor Correspondent.
Jan Stevens
VBF board member and chief fundraiser, Jan Stevens, is a person of action who leads by example. Since 1994 Jan has been involved with the Northfield Rotary Club, and specifically with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Jan has been a champion advocate for Northfield and after retiring from the real estate world this is what she had to say about living here:
“Northfield has everything, 45 minutes to an international airport, 5 times a day bus
service to the metro area, one hour to the Mayo Clinic Hospitals, two outstanding
colleges that bookend the north side of Northfield, culture diverse activities that rival
anywhere, recreational activities for all ages, and church and bar music that rivals much
larger communities.”
That civic pride and keen sense of the arts brings us to her involvement with VBF. It was Jan’s generous gift that enabled the Vintage Band Festival Fund to be created in 2023. The fund is part of Northfield Shares and was established to allow the Vintage Band Festival to develop a more sustainable financial strategy. Jan’s passion for our community is contagious!
Lois Stratmoen
When was the last time you received a hand-written note in the mail? VBF board member and Donor Correspondent, Lois Stratmoen, is known for handwriting notes, not only to patrons of the Vintage Band Festival, but also to Northfield area youth who are featured in the Northfield News.
Lois and her husband Noel have been citizens of Northfield for more than 50 years. Her list of civic leadership roles is impressive to say the least. Here are a few: former chair of the Northfield Hospital Board, former church council president of Bethel Lutheran Church, Board of Directors/Northfield United Way, Northfield Arts Guild member and cast member in many Guild musical productions, and co-recipient of the 2003 Northfield Sertoma Service to Mankind Award. We are honored to have the wisdom and personal touch of Lois Stratmoen serving VBF!
The Vintage Band Festival Board is fortunate to have Northfield journalist and author, Joy Riggs, as our secretary and Grants Coordinator. Joy has been integral in securing many rounds of grant funding over the years and that has been a major reason for the longevity of the organization.
Joy is the author of “Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters” (the story of a Minnesota Music Man). The non-fiction book is the story of Joy’s great-grandfather and his life passion of developing community bands in several Minnesota towns. His commitment to civic pride, community participation and belief in the power of music to transform lives, continues through Joy’s volunteerism and the mission of the Vintage Band Festival. Great-Grandpa would be proud. Thank-you Joy!
Dan Bergeson
Mr. Bergeson is a doer. The Vintage Band Festival and Board members are indebted to Dan for his stellar leadership as President of the Festival since 2017, but his connection to the organization goes back to the beginning of the festival in 2006. He retired in 2018 from a 30-year career at Carleton College as Director of Auxiliary Services. You can hear Dan play his trumpet in several local brass ensembles and he recently took up the violin and the accordion. If there was a local percussion ensemble, I believe Dan would be the first gung-ho new percussionist!
Beasley’s Big Band with Courtney Burton is a group of musicians dedicated to playing great big band jazz and having fun at the same time. They are dedicated to preserving a “classic” big band style and especially strive to honor the legacy of the Count Basie Orchestra.
Founded in 1991, Beasley’s Big Band has played many different venues for a variety of audiences, ranging from corporate parties and ballroom dances to intimate club dates and charity functions. The name of the band comes from Chuck Beasley, the band’s founder, lead alto sax player, and chief musical arranger. Chuck passed in 2021, but the band and his legacy lives on. The band’s classic big band sound can be attributed to Chuck, who arranged the majority of the songs the band plays.
Jazz vocalist Courtney Burton was born to sing and she has been with Beasley’s Big Band for 18 years. With the band or her own combo—Court’s In Session—or a solo piano, she brings style, warmth, and a contemporary spirit to the music of the American Songbook and the swing era.
Beasley’s Big Band with Courtney Burton will perform at 8:30 pm on Saturday, July 27 in Downtown Northfield MN.
The Brass Messengers are a Minneapolis street band playing mostly original music inspired by global sources. The BMs formed from the annual rubble of of the Heart of the Beast Mayday Parade and Ceremony in Minneapolis. The musical origins were found in the music of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Balkans, but now the BMs play whatever works, throwing in a country song to the crying drinkers, a high speed polka or two for the midwest dancers, running in circles with the little ones, activating gatherings of our activist kin or a bit of Black Sabbath for the metal crowd. But mostly, it is an original music that rises from the heart of the band that can only be described as a homegrown Minneapolis street music sound.
The Messengers play stages large and small, events from parties to bars, large theaters to street parades and funerals. The Mess have been a part of the HONK community for nine years running, attending more than ten HONK festivals in Sommerville, Seattle and Austin, TX.
Brass Messengers will be on the VBF 2024 stage beginning at 6:45 pm on Saturday, July 27, 2024.
The Medalist Concert Band, a volunteer group composed of 70 Twin Cities–area musicians, was founded in the fall of 1968. The primary purposes for the band are (1) to provide adult musicians with an opportunity to perform; (2) to provide Bloomington and the surrounding area with outstanding musical concerts; and (3) to provide young musicians with a model of music as a lifelong hobby.
Since its founding, the Medalist Concert Band has given more than 1,000 performances, many of them with high school and college bands, at summer concerts-in-the-park, and in church-sponsored programs. In addition, the band has distinguished itself through invitational appearances at such prestigious events as the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Music Educators National Conference, and the Minnesota Music Educators Association Conference.
The Medalist Concert Band is proud to have earned a reputation as “one of foremost community bands in the nation,” as described by the National Band Association. The band was the 1996 recipient of the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Silver Scroll Award, which is given annually to the top two community bands in the United States.
The Medalist Concert Band will perform in Bridge Square on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 5:15 pm. This is the band’s first appearance at Vintage Band Festival.
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