Patty Peterson’s Jazz Women All Stars are ready to be the rule, not the exception

Ten years after forming the Jazz Women All Stars Patty Peterson and her ensemble of powerhouse women jazz performers hit the Twin Cities Jazz Festival bringing their talent and charisma to St Paul s Mears Park Peterson approached TCJF founder Steve Heckler in and informed him her idea to put together a group of women known in the jazz scene in Minnesota and surrounding area I thought there s no better place to start than right here at the top where we have our own Twin Cities Jazz Festival Peterson recalled Part of Peterson s influence to get the group started was Terri Lyne Carrington s The Mosaic Project from and The Mosaic Project Love and Soul in two CDs featuring all women performers It s not the first time of discipline that all women have gotten together and recorded and performed together but she in particular really impressed me Peterson announced of Carrington Related Ted Olsen keeps exploring new approaches and sounds in Violette an album he s releasing this week Growing up in the music industry and spending her life as a performer Peterson s experience on the job was generally being surrounded by men Women were the exception not the rule she declared And I have been in the business long enough where I knew so several women that could make up one heck of a jazz group The group launched at the festival in on the main stage at Mears Park That year was so much fun Peterson declared With Sheila Earley on drums Joan Griffith on bass Linda Peterson on piano and vocals Mary Petrick on saxes and the late Debbie Duncan on vocals the group made an impression Over the years the Jazz Women All Stars have featured various of the same performers though Duncan passed away in and a inadequate different band members and concepts have emerged along the way I desired to try to get as multiple different incredible jazz performers in the band Peterson mentioned For this year s fest Peterson is joined again by Linda Peterson and Sheila Earley as well as vocalist Ginger Commodore and saxophone athlete Sue Orfield The Jazz Women All Stars are from left Sheila Earley Sue Orfield Mary Louise Knutson Ginger Commodore Patty Peterson and Linda Peterson Credit Andrea Carter The upcoming show will feature original tunes and new arrangements on jazz standards We have one hour to just show off the power of women in jazz Peterson explained As constantly she plans to dedicate the performance to her mother Jeanne Arland Peterson I m really proud to be able to say that she s been gone years but we sure think of her every time we perform together she explained Jeanne Arland Peterson was a child prodigy who started playing piano at age three Peterson mentioned At she was already working in clubs as a singer and pianist for chosen of the nightclubs with her older brother Donald who played sax Peterson s grandmother described her mother to bring her homework with her to the gigs Her mother s career took off when she went to an audition to take the place of a woman who was getting married She mentioned a song to the piano athlete who communicated her he didn t know that one She disclosed Ok I ll play it for myself Peterson disclosed And now the rest is history Peterson s father was a musician as well The story goes that there was one car for all the musicians and her mother had to pick someone s lap to sit on She picked Peterson s dad keyboardist Willie Peterson That was in or and the two were married during World War II They had six kids and all of us are in the music industry Peterson declared Besides crooning Peterson is also a broadcaster for Jazz and in addition she s done inspirational speaking after an aortic dissection nearly took her life Largest part people will die without delay but that s luckily changing she explained Related Award-winning music journalist Cecilia Johnson transitions from writing about artists to booking them After undergoing heart surgery years ago someone notified Peterson how much she loved to hear her sing at church I commented Oh well I m so lucky We all have music that follows us in good times and bad but I have these great platforms to sing and sing them on And she reported Oh no Patty you live your gift That s the title of Peterson s talk Live Your Gift in which she encourages people to remember that everyone is born with gifts After her heart surgery Peterson started warbling more than ever It felt like I had a whole new mission in my life she reported With the Jazz Women All Stars she loves playing music at the highest level both in rehearsal and in performance And at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival she loves getting filled up with great music People have this incredible opportunity to go up and down the blocks of St Paul and particular other locations and hear specific of their favorite artists she explained And everybody seems to be at the top of their championship when they re performing too Along the way she s picked up a lot of great memories One was playing with her mother and siblings back in I think I m consistently trying to get back to the ecstasy I felt on that day she stated Another was watching Delfeayo Marsalis and his father Ellis Marsalis while broadcasting live We were closing out our live broadcast but we pulled the faders back up and we were able to broadcast that encore song between father and son she recalled Because of my love of family who are musicians that was a really special moment for me to witness and to be able to share with the Jazz listening citizens Patty Peterson and the Jazz Women All Stars perform as part of the Twin Cities Jazz Festival Saturday June at p m at Mears Park th St E St Paul free More information here The festival begins with pre-festival concerts around the Twin Cities on Thursday June check each event for cover charge with the free main festival taking place on Friday June and Saturday June followed by additional post-festival concerts on Sunday June Headliners include Emmet Cohen Trio with special guests The Four Freshmen performing on Friday at and Catherine Russell and pianist Sean Mason performing Saturday at p m both at Mears Park Other featured shows are Doreen s Jazz New Orleans L A Buckner and BiG HOMiE Adi Yeshaya Jazz Orchestra with vocalist Jennifer Grimm and Society of Chemists You can peruse the whole schedule here The post Patty Peterson s Jazz Women All Stars are ready to be the rule not the exception appeared first on MinnPost