The Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival – JazzFest will again present a great spectrum of sounds on its second stage continuing our tradition of exciting local and regional talent each summer. This year will certainly be no exception. Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues will present 11 local and regional jazz, blues, hip-hop, and rock acts during the festival’s entirety, July 14, 15 and 16 at Yankton Trail Park including:
The Union Grove Pickers
Comprised of members of many notable Sioux Falls bands such as Snakebeard Jackson, The Union Grove Pickers is a project born out of friendship and a mutual love for the Americana roots of rock and roll. Watching a show is a bit like sitting around a campfire with some friends, each throwing out their favorite tune. However, unlike most of us, each of the friends that take the stage with The Union Grove Pictures is a consummate musician, and all seem to understand that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. You can hear Dylan, Cash, The Carter Family, Joni Mitchell, even the Beatles and Janice Joplin in their original tunes, which comprise the majority of their sets. But don’t be surprised to hear a cover or two of classic roots/bluegrass tunes, either. Likely as not, you’ll want to sing along, too.
Soulcrate Music
Blossoming during an age in which independent hip-hop was creating its own self industry, much of the Midwest was watching its artists putting their cities on the map, Soulcrate Music took the model to a new plateau. DJ Absolute and siblings Attention Def and Dirt Dee built their following from scratch in their hometown of Sioux Falls, SD, focusing on creating new style of energetic music with a high regard for soul and classic hip-hop. Quickly, the trio found itself opening local shows for national heavyweights, from Atmosphere, 311, and The Spill Canvas. Soulcrate released “The Heartland Panic,” in 2010, followed by a successful national tour. Needless to say, this band is still on the upswing and sure to draw an energetic crowd.
Wumpus
Wumpus (Sean Egan, Matt McFarland, Rich Hastings, Chad McKinney and Jason Hegg) is a rock and roll band from Sioux Falls, SD. Between the main songwriting efforts of Hegg and McKinney and the collaborative adventures of the band as a whole, Wumpus has penned over 150 original songs. Their musical styles range anywhere from straight up rock and roll, pop, psychedelic, country, and experimental freak out. The band recently released a fourth album called The Rug. “Wumpus will tantalize you with their gorgeous, existential sound,” says Roman Black of 605 Magazine. Prior to playing with Wumpus, members were in such area bands as Spooncat!, This Wine Is Mine, Snakebeard Jackson, The Flow, Thunderjeep, and The Masons.
We All Have Hooks for Hands
Originally starting in a downtown Sioux Falls apartment as a simple project to create happy pop tunes, We All Have Hooks for Hands recorded “Hold on, c’mon” with minimal members or a name for the project. Afterward a six piece set off for a short west coast tour. Upon returning, a full-length album was put into production. The result is a full band with a radiant sound, which includes dueling drummers, a violinist, three guitars, two horn/keyboard players, and a lonely bass. The size of the band and collective feel is a means to experiment with sound and dynamics. The influences that formed the subsequent album, “The Shape of Energy,” are as colorful as they are plentiful. The party lifestyle in a rural city fuels the music: “We love everyone and the party’s at our place.”
Kepler’s Theory
The name Kepler’s Theory is a nod to the spirit of Johannes Kepler’s 1619 work entitled Harmonies of the World, where he linked the equations of planetary motion with music theory & harmony. Kepler’s Theory consists of a group of musicians who have established careers outside the field of music, but who realize the link to music is an essential part of their worlds. Performing arrangements of artists ranging from Pat Metheny, to Bonnie Raitt, Kepler’s Theory places their own special fusion-pop twist to these arrangements for a unique sound. The group includes Scott Hoy on keys, Dan Steinwand on guitar, Mark Law on bass, Kris Lauseng on vocals and piano and Jay Hardy on drums. For this year’s JazzFest, Kepler’s Theory welcomes special guest Jenna Hardy-Pedersen. Jenna is a Berklee College of Music graduate with a degree in Jazz and performs on vibraphone. She also holds a Master’s in Jazz from the University on Northern Iowa.
Mat d. and the Profane Saints
Singer-Songwriter Mathew deRiso has been performing on American stages since 2003. Hailed by critics as “A young Steve Earle with a more powerful set of pipes” with music likened to “Johnny Cash on steroids”, Mat combines elements of folk, blues, rock ‘n roll and traditional country into a sound best described as hard-luck Americana. His recordings have earned him numerous album of the year nods from the Folk and Americana music communities as well as earning him the privilege of performing alongside an impressive list of songwriters and performers including David Allan Coe, John Hiatt, the Bottle Rockets, Reverend Horton Heat and Whitey Morgan and the 78′s. He has performed with band mates the Profane Saints since 2006, which featured a revolving line-up until 2008. The group consists Jeff Deignan on percussion, Kurt Mullins on guitar and Bob Birch on bass. The band begs their first national tour in April 2011.
Charles Sanders Quintet
The Charles Sanders Quintet is committed to exploring the music of some of the most innovative new artists in jazz while still retaining clear connections to traditional and mainstream jazz forms, as well as blues and gospel. The members are: Charles Sanders, keyboards, Allison Nash, vocals and Eddie Dunn, bass, all from Sioux City, and C.J. Kocher, saxophones and Darin Wadley, drums, both from Vermillion and both professors in the USD Music Department. “Charles and I have played together for many years,” claims Dunn, “we share a deep commitment to exploring the new world of Jazz. The jazzers know each other; we just assembled the right talent into the appropriate setting.” The band features the vocal talents of the young singer Nash. “Allison is really a remarkable singer,” says Dunn, “she grew up singing in church. Charles has become a mentor of sorts for her.” Nash has been accepted into the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she’ll attend next fall. Dunn, the Director of Distance Learning for WITCC, hopes his latest project will continue to play the club scene and possibly get on the bill at a few more festivals this summer. “We are planning to do a little recording and more promotion,” claims Dunn. “The festivals are the only chance for a Jazz group to play for a large crowd. Even the Jazz clubs in New York City draw small crowds.”
Diischer-Pederson Trio
Mark Diischer (drums) is the Band Director at Pipestone High School. He studied percussion at South Dakota State University and received his Master’s degree from the University of Nebraska. Tyler Pedersen (bass guitar) is the Band Director at Graettinger/Terril Schools in Northwest Iowa. Pedersen received his music degree from South Dakota State University and currently lives in Spirit Lake, IA. Jenna Hardy Pedersen (vibraphone) has her degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and her Master’s from the University of Northern Iowa. She is a Music Minister in Iowa and teaches music at Impulse Arts Academy. All three met while attending South Dakota State University. While each have pursued different aspects of music, the Diischer-Pederson Trio’s love of music and performing has kept them playing together off and on for the last seven years.
Chris Champion Group
Guitarist Chris Champion has been playing and teaching now for over 40 years. Originally studying classical guitar, Chris made the transition to electric guitar in the early 1980s. Attending the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood CA in 1983 afforded Chris the opportunity to study with some of the finest teachers in the world. In 1997, Chris became the Jazz Guitar Instructor at Arizona State University and held this position until 2008. Currently living in South Dakota, Chris is performing and teaching in the Sioux Falls area on a regular basis.
The Sewer Rats
The Sewer Rats began in the summer of 2008 with brothers Dan and Mike Nissen. The two brothers began playing local shows shortly thereafter. Since that time they have been fortunate to play with a number of extremely talented bass players and drummers. They released their first album in January 2010 entitled “Save Yourself”, recorded by Tom Devoux. All instrumentation on the album was played by Dan and Mike Nissen, with the exception of two drum tracks by Tom Devoux. For the following year they were privileged to play with Curtis and Lex Linton on drums and bass respectively, also featured on the second record. The Rats have been very busy playing local shows such as the Downtown Eastbank Block Party, and opening for national acts such as The Black Diamond Heavies and The Good Life. They just returned from a gig at an unofficial SXSW event in Austin TX. In March 2011, Brogan Costa became full-time drummer for the band. Tim Munce is temporarily playing bass. Their second album is fully recorded and will be out by summer 2011. The Sewer Rats are looking forward to taking their second album on the road this fall.
Pasque
“Pasque is an attempt at a soundtrack for a Midwest Saturday night”, says Thomas Hentges, front man of the unique blues-rock band. The five members of the Sioux Falls based band have seen their share of stage time. Thomas Hentges, Tim Munce, John “slap” Myers, Adam Jones, and Martin Lien have all put in ten years or more of writing, performing, and recording original music. All old friends and admirers of one another’s talents, this group, sound as if they are destined to work together. Influenced heavily by the music of the early 1970s, Pasque delivers their interpretation of what most call classic rock. Basking their collective ear in classic blues, R&B, and a healthy dose of roots, Pasque manage to bring something unique to the SD live music scene.
A detailed performance schedule will be released in May.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s local music television series No Cover, No Minimum will host and emcee at Second Stage all weekend.
For more information on JazzFest 2011, please contact Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues at 605-335-6101.
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