RONNY LOEW BAND BLENDS JAZZ AND FUNK

Contact info, sound clips and more at www.ronnyloew.go.to

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, Minn.---While Minnesota to some people can only mean the strange accents of the natives in the film “Fargo," or grumpy old men fishing in little shacks outdoors on frozen lakes in bone-chilling temperatures, Ronny Loew and his band prove night after night that the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul is a hot spot for soul and funk-jazz---blazing hot in the case of this recording. The burgeoning local club scene, busy concert hall schedule, recording studios, education programs and media all have contributed to the flowering of jazz in a place once considered, if not the end of the earth, at least a place from where you could see it.

So who is Ronny Loew and why did he go all the way to The Red Sea to make his debut recording for Hot Springs Records? First of all, it ain't that Red Sea, the one where Biblical miracles took place. This Red Sea is a club in Minneapolis' ethnically and racially-diverse, music-rich West Bank district, an unofficial adjunct location of the University of Minnesota and just a few miles from Loew's St. Paul-area residence. Recent emigres from half a dozen African nations stand shoulder to shoulder with regular Minnesota-type habitues of the bar, or first-time visitors, there to check out a band about which the word is spreading rapidly in this area and beyond.

One night, in the summer of 1999, when Loew and his band were playing The Red Sea, the club's sound engineer happened to have a high-qualtiy digital tape recorder going, captured the group in action before a pumped audience, and, with a great on-location-in-progress mix plus a little editing produced the debut recording of as hot a jazz-funk band as you'll find anywhere.

“That night at The Red Sea happened by chance." Loew relates. “We had no intention of making a live CD, especially not as our first release. But that night was so magical. The performances of each musician exceeded our usual high level of musicianship, energy and creativity to the point where we realized we just couldn't keep the recording to ourselves." Enter Steve Heckler, a native New Yorker who is a social worker for Hennepin County (Minneapolis) and, with partner Steve Adams, runs Hot Springs Records on the side. They were on hand for this performance and arranged to transfer tape to CD so here we are.

“The music on this CD is a cross-section of the styles we play in the Ronny Loew Band," says the leader. “The wide range of appeal our music has is apparent from the people who attend our performances: people of all colors, young and old, rich and poor, conservative and liberal...fans of musicians ranging from Miles Davis to Santana to Parliament to The Grateful Dead. “Our music truly has something for just about everyone. We play songs in contemporary rhythms and with the interaction, spontaneity and creativity of the jazz tradition. I like to describe us as an R&B/funk/jazz band with a lead sax player instead of a singer. Or, you could say that I am the singer. I try to express the emotions of the lyrics and the message of each song through my interpretation of the melodies."

Loew, born in St. Paul, Minn. in 1970, began playing clarinet at 10, tenor sax at 11, baritone sax at 13 and now is proficient on all of them plus the hard-to-keep-in-tune soprano. Eventually Loew went off to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and earned a degree in Performance Studies. Searching for his individual musical voice, he realized that even though most of his contemporaries who played saxophone idolized Coltrane, Cannonball and Bird, Loew---though certainly appreciative of their achievements---was drawn to the soul-funk end of the jazz sax spectrum, closer to the Parker named Maceo along with Grover Washington, David Sanborn, Kenny Garrett, Michael Brecker and bassist/arranger Marcus Miller.

After eight years in Boston, Loew returned to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1997. Having impressed many influential musicians and others in the music business while in Boston, Loew began getting calls to do saxophone and percussion work for soul and funk-jazz artists all over the U.S. and, indeed, all over the world. His suitcase and instrument case carry stickers from Austria, China, England, Greece, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Loew was steadily building a fan base in his home town. His computerized list ([email protected]) now numbers over 1,000, many of them Twin Cities residents who have packed local jazz clubs such as the Artists' Quarter, Dakota Bar & Grill and The Luxx to hear Loew and his band. “People I had told about the band said they didn't quite get it until they heard it," Loew says. “Then, they get hooked and can't wait to see us again. I hope this CD helps hook other people, too." Today, Loew's game plan is to keep doing those national and international gigs but devoting the major portion of his time and energies to making an ever-growing name for himself playing his own music. “As I focus on my own music, I hope eventually to reach the point where I am playing with my band on a national or international level," Loew says.

Loew's bandmates here include some Minnesota natives and some “immigrants."

* Minneapolis drummer Dave Anania, first-call for many live and studio gigs, has worked with local-going-national teen-age blues sensation Shannon Curfman and has opened for John Melancamp, among others.

*Duluth, Minn. bassist Tony Axtell,also is a producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and teacher. Axtell has played with many artists locally and nationally including Twin Cities' native Ricky Peterson, member of a large, famous Minnesota musical family and, at this writing, musical director and keyboard player for David Sanborn for more than eight years.

*Tommy Barbarella on keyboards , a first-call for TAFKAP and like Loew, a veteran of numerous world tours. “He's a treasure," Loew declares. “He's co-written numerous hits with Prince including “Gett Off" and several selections from the “Diamonds and Pearls" album and has several platinum records to his credit."

* Percussionist Esther Godinez, who also plays with TAFKAP, brings high energy and a Latin flair to the band. She's a leader in her own right and has become a major talent on the local jazz scene.

*Guitarist Andy Kotz has played with Babyface, After 7, Chante Moore and Michelle Shocked among many other artists.

*Guitarist Eric Essix, guest artist on this gig, is a Zebra recording artist who has opened for Herbie Hancock, Take 6, The Yellow Jackets, Bela Fleck and the Flectones, Dave Koz, Koko Taylor, and the O'Jays, among others. He's the youngest artist ever inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, alongside Nat King Cole, Sun Ra and Lionel Hampton, among others. While Axtell , Barbarella and Loew are Minnesota natives, the others (except Essix whom Heckler brought in for a Hot Springs Records Jazz Festival) have taken up residence here and established themselves on the Minnesota music scene but, like Loew, maintain active and busy global connections in a wide variety of settings and playing a dazzling array of musics.

Loew's choice of songs for this CD reveals the heart and soul of his musical personality. He offers the following synopsis of each song: