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Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles from the Heartland
An extensive, upbeat compilation of Wisconsin’s jazz musicians
Although New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are often considered the epicenters of American jazz, this extensive, upbeat compilation of jazz musician biographies details Wisconsin’s rich association the genre since its the inception of the genre in the early 1900s. Iconic musicians Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman, Les Paul, and Al Jarreau all hailed from Wisconsin, as have many other influential players, composers, and teachers. Wisconsin Riffs features these musicians side-by-side—from the world-renowned to obscure regional artists—to portray a comprehensive history of jazz in Wisconsin.
Through meticulous research and more than a hundred interviews, author Kurt Dietrich has assembled a group of musicians who represent a wide range of backgrounds, ages, stylistic schools, and experiences—from leaders of swing-era big bands to legendary Wisconsin Conservatory instructors to today’s up-and-coming practitioners of contemporary jazz and jazz rock. For aspiring musicians, jazz enthusiasts, and fans of Wisconsin culture alike, Wisconsin Riffs presents a compelling, complex, and multi-layered concoction—just like jazz itself.
Although New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are often considered the epicenters of American jazz, this extensive, upbeat compilation of jazz musician biographies details Wisconsin’s rich association the genre since its the inception of the genre in the early 1900s. Iconic musicians Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman, Les Paul, and Al Jarreau all hailed from Wisconsin, as have many other influential players, composers, and teachers. Wisconsin Riffs features these musicians side-by-side—from the world-renowned to obscure regional artists—to portray a comprehensive history of jazz in Wisconsin.
Through meticulous research and more than a hundred interviews, author Kurt Dietrich has assembled a group of musicians who represent a wide range of backgrounds, ages, stylistic schools, and experiences—from leaders of swing-era big bands to legendary Wisconsin Conservatory instructors to today’s up-and-coming practitioners of contemporary jazz and jazz rock. For aspiring musicians, jazz enthusiasts, and fans of Wisconsin culture alike, Wisconsin Riffs presents a compelling, complex, and multi-layered concoction—just like jazz itself.
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Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 1, 2020
Legends of jazz are not found exclusively in New Orleans, Memphis and St. Louis. Wisconsin has made its contribution. “Wisconsin Riffs” is a chronicle of the Jazz scene in Wisconsin and the state’s national influence. It consists primarily of profiles of jazz musicians who have or had some association with Wisconsin. Either they were born, lived, were introduced to music or made the Badger State their base of operations. Some are famous, at least I have heard of them, such as Les Paul, Liberace and Woody Herman, but many lesser knowns have sagas of their own.
To a jazz aficionado or historian “Wisconsin Riffs” is a gold mine. Tales of musicians, where and with whom they studied, performed, and lived will seize and hold the reader’s attention. Narratives are to the point without digressing into excessive detail. I am neither a jazz aficionado or historian, but I appreciated this tome. I enjoy listening to music, studying history and visiting Wisconsin. The text is long and at times I drifted into auto-read but was then alerted by something that sparked my interest. I had heard that Lawrence University in Appleton has a strong music program but these accounts illustrate its broad influence. Citations of locations such as Alpine Valley Music Theatre and Birch Creek Jazz Camp spark memories. The accounts of the musicians engaged me on several levels. Some got me to bring up recordings of the subjects on Pandora. Author Kurt Dietrich works the tales of performers into the broader history by references to the effects of the Depression and World War II on music, the involvement of musicians’ unions and their leaders in labor history and the influence of society on the musicians, their family stresses, substance temptations, well known successes and tragic failures. He provides insights into life in the bands. Some make their living out of performing but many need to supplement earnings by teaching or holding non-musical day jobs. These chapters relate whole careers, not just the highlights with which we identify the individuals. Some worked with Doc Severinsen, (who was not born on the Tonight Show), Morey Amsterdam (who had a life before he met Dick Van Dyke) and made appearances on the Tonight Show. The challenges of a musician’s life, is summed up by trumpeter Eric Jacobson: “(I)t’s like you have to be everything. You’ve got to be a teacher, you’ve got to be a great musician, you’ve got to be a promoter, you’ve got to be a businessperson.” P. 428
Whether have an interest is jazz, music, Wisconsin or just a curiosity about other slices of life, “Wisconsin Riffs” is a book that will move your soul and may even drive you to Pandora.
I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
To a jazz aficionado or historian “Wisconsin Riffs” is a gold mine. Tales of musicians, where and with whom they studied, performed, and lived will seize and hold the reader’s attention. Narratives are to the point without digressing into excessive detail. I am neither a jazz aficionado or historian, but I appreciated this tome. I enjoy listening to music, studying history and visiting Wisconsin. The text is long and at times I drifted into auto-read but was then alerted by something that sparked my interest. I had heard that Lawrence University in Appleton has a strong music program but these accounts illustrate its broad influence. Citations of locations such as Alpine Valley Music Theatre and Birch Creek Jazz Camp spark memories. The accounts of the musicians engaged me on several levels. Some got me to bring up recordings of the subjects on Pandora. Author Kurt Dietrich works the tales of performers into the broader history by references to the effects of the Depression and World War II on music, the involvement of musicians’ unions and their leaders in labor history and the influence of society on the musicians, their family stresses, substance temptations, well known successes and tragic failures. He provides insights into life in the bands. Some make their living out of performing but many need to supplement earnings by teaching or holding non-musical day jobs. These chapters relate whole careers, not just the highlights with which we identify the individuals. Some worked with Doc Severinsen, (who was not born on the Tonight Show), Morey Amsterdam (who had a life before he met Dick Van Dyke) and made appearances on the Tonight Show. The challenges of a musician’s life, is summed up by trumpeter Eric Jacobson: “(I)t’s like you have to be everything. You’ve got to be a teacher, you’ve got to be a great musician, you’ve got to be a promoter, you’ve got to be a businessperson.” P. 428
Whether have an interest is jazz, music, Wisconsin or just a curiosity about other slices of life, “Wisconsin Riffs” is a book that will move your soul and may even drive you to Pandora.
I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
June 3, 2018
“Wisconsin Riffs should inspire books about other states’ legacies.” — John Edward Haase, curator emeritus, American Music, Smithsonian Institution, blurb on the back cover
Rather than a history of jazz in Wisconsin, this encyclopedic collection tells a hundred stories of jazz musicians in, from or connected to the state, mostly Milwaukee and Madison. A fun, interesting and tuneful reference book.
I most enjoyed the background in half a dozen profiles of jazzers who I saw or who otherwise anchor a memory:
— Sam Belton, a jazz drummer, owns City.Net Café, a few doors from where I work. “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck inspired him to play drums. Every now and then, Sam and friends play live jazz in the café, a fine urban scene with the setting sun shining on bikes, buses and pedestrians outside the front window where the group plays on the inside. I showed this book to Sam yesterday. He liked it.
— Among many other musicians including MSO players, Lynn (Bernstein) Arriale, the pianist, as well as Bunny Berigan’s niece and Kaye Berigan’s sister frequented a popular café where I worked as a fresh Milwaukee transplant. They were always good chats when they came in.
— Richard Davis, a top bass player, moved from New York to Madison for a teaching position at the university forty years ago. I knew him from his fine work ten years earlier on “Astral Weeks,” including the masterpiece “Ballerina,” by Van Morrison. Strap on your headphones and close your eyes. Then play it again.
— My ex and I rocked with Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd years ago. By that time, Woody was traveling with a band of many musicians half his age. Born a hundred years ago, he lived on the Lower East Side of Milwaukee, always renting, at one point above a music store. In Milwaukee, the band played at the Blue Heaven Roadhouse, Pick’s Madrid Club, The Strand Theater, and The Eagles Ballroom. I managed a band in high school named The Heard.
— My mother liked Les Paul and Mary Ford. They became a very early music memory of mine with his jazzy lines and fills for her sweet, smooth voice. They married at the Milwaukee County Courthouse during a gig at Jimmy Fazio’s Town Club, on Farwell at Brady. An alcove at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, celebrates and documents Les Paul. But a larger and stronger exhibit remains on display at a museum on the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee: Discovery World, the site of Les Paul’s big funeral, attracting guitarists from around the world.
— Juli Wood played rock ’n’ roll sax with The R and B Cadets beginning in the late seventies then with Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans for many years. Many memories of hip-shaking, head-bobbing and leg-swinging good times.
In addition to these folks, you will find a hundred more in this book.
The Jazz Gallery, on Center Street in Riverwest, enjoyed a six-year run, opening Labor Day weekend forty years ago, the summer I moved here. That became my hang. The Jazz Gallery earns many mentions in this book as a place where the best jazz played in town from seventy-eight to eighty-four. It was an intimate listening club. People who wanted to talk during the music could go somewhere else.
Rather than a history of jazz in Wisconsin, this encyclopedic collection tells a hundred stories of jazz musicians in, from or connected to the state, mostly Milwaukee and Madison. A fun, interesting and tuneful reference book.
I most enjoyed the background in half a dozen profiles of jazzers who I saw or who otherwise anchor a memory:
— Sam Belton, a jazz drummer, owns City.Net Café, a few doors from where I work. “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck inspired him to play drums. Every now and then, Sam and friends play live jazz in the café, a fine urban scene with the setting sun shining on bikes, buses and pedestrians outside the front window where the group plays on the inside. I showed this book to Sam yesterday. He liked it.
— Among many other musicians including MSO players, Lynn (Bernstein) Arriale, the pianist, as well as Bunny Berigan’s niece and Kaye Berigan’s sister frequented a popular café where I worked as a fresh Milwaukee transplant. They were always good chats when they came in.
— Richard Davis, a top bass player, moved from New York to Madison for a teaching position at the university forty years ago. I knew him from his fine work ten years earlier on “Astral Weeks,” including the masterpiece “Ballerina,” by Van Morrison. Strap on your headphones and close your eyes. Then play it again.
— My ex and I rocked with Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd years ago. By that time, Woody was traveling with a band of many musicians half his age. Born a hundred years ago, he lived on the Lower East Side of Milwaukee, always renting, at one point above a music store. In Milwaukee, the band played at the Blue Heaven Roadhouse, Pick’s Madrid Club, The Strand Theater, and The Eagles Ballroom. I managed a band in high school named The Heard.
— My mother liked Les Paul and Mary Ford. They became a very early music memory of mine with his jazzy lines and fills for her sweet, smooth voice. They married at the Milwaukee County Courthouse during a gig at Jimmy Fazio’s Town Club, on Farwell at Brady. An alcove at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, celebrates and documents Les Paul. But a larger and stronger exhibit remains on display at a museum on the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee: Discovery World, the site of Les Paul’s big funeral, attracting guitarists from around the world.
— Juli Wood played rock ’n’ roll sax with The R and B Cadets beginning in the late seventies then with Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans for many years. Many memories of hip-shaking, head-bobbing and leg-swinging good times.
In addition to these folks, you will find a hundred more in this book.
The Jazz Gallery, on Center Street in Riverwest, enjoyed a six-year run, opening Labor Day weekend forty years ago, the summer I moved here. That became my hang. The Jazz Gallery earns many mentions in this book as a place where the best jazz played in town from seventy-eight to eighty-four. It was an intimate listening club. People who wanted to talk during the music could go somewhere else.
November 26, 2019
Musicians can come from anywhere. No book demonstrates this better than Wisconsin Riffs, a book of biographical information on anyone in the Jazz Scene that had something to do with Wisconsin. Maybe they lived in Milwaukee as a child but moved to New York. Perhaps they went and worked in Wisconsin for a time. Either way, if they set their toe in Wisconsin, author Kurt Dietrich found out about it and wrote it in this book.
There are profiles of tons of musicians in here. I am not a massive fan of Jazz, but I know enough to get by. I have heard of the greats but a lot of the less famous musicians are lost on me. That is where this book comes in. It is organized in a manner that makes a bit of sense. It starts with the greats and moves on to talk about people by instrument. It talks about their formative years, how they got into Jazz, if they played in any combos that became famous and so on.
The last portion organizes musicians by where they came from. Jazz mainly flourished and was popular in the larger cities of Milwaukee and Madison, but a lot of musicians came from other places in the state.
This book was pretty good. Even though I come from Wisconsin, I did not realize that there was such a rich history of Jazz here. I appreciate the effort put forward by the author to correct this mistake of mine.
There are profiles of tons of musicians in here. I am not a massive fan of Jazz, but I know enough to get by. I have heard of the greats but a lot of the less famous musicians are lost on me. That is where this book comes in. It is organized in a manner that makes a bit of sense. It starts with the greats and moves on to talk about people by instrument. It talks about their formative years, how they got into Jazz, if they played in any combos that became famous and so on.
The last portion organizes musicians by where they came from. Jazz mainly flourished and was popular in the larger cities of Milwaukee and Madison, but a lot of musicians came from other places in the state.
This book was pretty good. Even though I come from Wisconsin, I did not realize that there was such a rich history of Jazz here. I appreciate the effort put forward by the author to correct this mistake of mine.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews