Doc Evans Jazz Festival
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Fountain Lake Park, Albert Lea, MN
Noon to 5 p.m.
The Mouldy Figs and The Southside Aces
The Southside Aces play Traditional Jazz. A deep respect and passion for
the jazz heritage is shared by this young, vibrant and exciting group. Members of the Southside Aces have brought traditional jazz to all corners
of the United States and abroad including such far flung places as France,
Armenia, Jamaica, Canada and of course New Orleans. Between them, the band
has logged dozens of trips to the Crescent City where they have learned
from (and performed with) the masters of Traditional Jazz. The Southside Aces play in the tradition of the great New Orleans dance
hall bands. Their 2005 release "All Aboard!" will not disappoint the Traditional Jazz fan. The Southside Aces will release a new CD in late summer 2006. The Southside Aces are: Jim Field has the largest Dixieland jazz band in the state, maybe in
the country. The Mouldy Figs are well known to all jazz fans in the
Twin Cities. The concept of the Mouldy Figs is unique because
it features rotating personnel. It was set up to include lots of
different players, and fans never know who they might see
performing together on a given night. The Mouldy Figs love to play music and have fun. That fun and love shows in their performances. Today's Mouldy Figs include close to 40 musicians. Jim says the requirements to be a Mouldy Fig
are being "talented enough to play on the spot, play tunes in several different keys, and love
traditional jazz." Jim says that while nobody would travel around the world to hear the Mouldy
Figs as musicians, their ideal is to spread fun and love through music. His goal is to make people
happy and express his own happiness through music, and he says that's a stronger motivation than
being a purist about traditional jazz. As Jim says, and fans know, a Mouldy Figs gig is always
exciting because it is extemporaneous--you never know what will happen!
Tony Balluff- clarinet
Zack Lozier- trumpet
Steve Sandberg- trombone
Erik Jacobson- sousaphone
Robert Bell- guitar
Dave Michael- drums
The Mouldy Figs
Free Event!
90 minutes south of the Twin Cities in beautiful Albert Lea, MN
Call 800-345-8414 for more details.
From Interstate 35, take exit 11. Right turn at 3rd stoplight. Go down to Fountain Street.
Doc Evans (1907 - 1977) was a fixture in Minnesota jazz for decades. He has played in clubs in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and continues to have an international following. Evans recorded close to 40 records, several of which are out on CD. For over a decade, he played concerts to sold-out crowds at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Two popular Twin Cities bands filled a beautiful Saturday with the music of the seventh annual Doc Evans Jazz Festival July 2 in Albert Lea, Minn.
Reuben Ristrom's Bourbon Street Boys led off the festival with the National Anthem, then launched into their typical blend of virtuosity, versatility and showmanship. They played mostly familiar tunes, some of them made familiar by Doc in the 1950s. Ristrom, who recalled playing in his band early in his career (late in the doctor's), switched between banjo and guitar during the boys' sets. Russ Peterson played clarinet, tenor sax, string bass and flute at one time or another. Tom Reykdal stuck mostly with cornet but picked up a fluegelhorn once or twice, and lowered his horn to sing occasionally. Steve Pikal, one of the workingest bassists and trombonists in the Twin Cities, made good use of his chops on both those instruments. And Dick Bortolussi got off his stool to keep the beat on a variety of surfaces besides his drum kit, including Ristrom's banjo and structural elements of the Fountain Lake Park gazebo.
The Bill Evans New Orleans Jazz Band always honors the traditional sound and repertoire, anchored in the nearly 50-year musical partnership of trombonist Evans, cornetist Charlie DeVore and drummer Don "Doggie" Berg. With their regular bandmates -- Tony Balluff on clarinet, Dave McCurdy on banjo and guitar, and Pikal on bass -- they delighted the regular fans who traveled to Albert Lea to hear them and perhaps educated others in the Saturday afternoon crowd.
There was no admission charge, but organizer Allan Evans, Doc's son, gratefully accepted cash donations, and he had a full assortment of CD reissues of Doc Evans albums. The latest is "Muskrat Ramble," a new publication of the 1959 album but with about twice as many tracks.
To order CDs and look for information on next year's festival, go to the Website www.docevans.com.
Story and photos by Dick Parker
Pictures from previous festivals.
Caught up in the moment --
Jim Torok
Jim Fields
Dick Parker--
Bill Evans--
Les Fields