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A performance by the UWS Percussion Ensemble. Photos by Jill Fisher.

Attention all Blues fans: do you know about the Minnesota Blues Society’s Hall of Fame? 

And do you know the organization is based at the Minnesota Music Café in St. Paul? 

Well, I’m a newbie to both and I have to report what a delight it was to discover these when a little bird told me about the first a while back. Can you guess who that little birdie might be? 

Well here’s a hint: she was just inducted into the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame on Sunday, Dec. 1, receiving the “Linda Tannebaum Supportive of the Blues Award.” 

Second clue: for 12 years she’s hosted (and continues to do so) a three-hour, Saturday blues radio program on The North at 103.3 FM. 

You guessed it, Rebecca Gullion Lindquist.

Rebecca Lindquist

Several folks from Duluth made it down to the Music Café for the awards ceremony, including me and the Curmudgeon. What a merry time it was. 

We got to hear Patricia Tribby, a close pal and long-time listener of the radio program, introduce Lindquist to the MBHF crowd along with Linquist’s acceptance speech. It certainly was a celebration, complete with Pat Donohue playing a lick or two in lieu of an acceptance speech for the “Blues Performer” award he received on this occasion.

You may recall that Pat Donohue, best known as leader of the Prairie Home Companion’s house band, performed at the West Theatre back on April 25 together with fellow musicians John Wright, Richard Kreihn and P.K. Mayo. That was a fine concert performed for too small an audience. I am hoping that, should Pat Donohue play this venue again, with or without other musicians, a greater number of folks will turn out to enjoy his award-winning musicianship.

That wasn’t the only treat in store for us this Sunday afternoon. We got to hear two sets of rockin’ danceable blues music by Jay Walter and the Rectifiers. Walter was super hot on the blues harp, as well as vocals. His rendition of “Merry Christmas Baby” sure did treat me right, getting me in the mood for the holidays. 

The rest of the Rectifiers include John Franken (electric guitar), Bill Grenke (bass guitar) and Marty Bryduck (drums). On this afternoon they were joined by Bruce McCabe on keys (known for his stints with the bands Lamont Cranston and Hoopsnakes). 

The venue itself deserves a shout out. A bar is separate from the large stage, dance floor and seating area with walls plastered with blues memorabilia. Just inside the front entry is an area with vintage music items for sale. I snagged the book Blues for Dummies for $10, which is full of information sure to be useful. 

I will definitely be getting back to this place in the months ahead and you may want to too. Check out its calendar of shows at minnesotamusiccafe.com.

Jay Walter and the Rectifiers

I got out to a few other musical events following the Blues Hall of Fame celebration, the first of which was Monday, Dec. 2, when the Twin Port Tenors put on a holiday show at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary here in Duluth. We heard three of the four tenors on this evening: Bill Bastian, Marcus McConico and Cal Metts. John Pierce was absent and Rachel Inselman, a soprano, filled in for him on a few numbers. She also accompanied them on piano throughout the show. 

You can probably guess many of the selections played as they covered the gamut of religious and secular seasonal songs. What I was most amazed by was Bastian’s high falsetto on a couple tunes, including “Silver Bells.” Then there was the amusing addition of kazoo by McConico on “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas.” 

But the most fun was the finale, “Twelve Days of Christmas,” where the audience was divided into 12 sections, each of which was assigned a “day” at which it was to stand and sing that day’s gifts. Mine was the fourth day: “Four French Hens.” That got our blood flowing before heading out into the cold!

Tuesday, Dec. 3, it was on to Sir Ben’s to hear two members of Yeah Scherz—Kyle Scherz on acoustic guitar and Tarek Makky on electric guitar. (The other two members of this band are Dicky Betts and Matt Groom). Here was a duo worth listening to for their resonant harmonies and instrumentals along with covers of The Cranberries’ and other’s hits. 

Scherz’s falsetto rivaled Bastian’s. I will look forward to seeing and hearing the full four-piece band sometime in 2025.

By Wednesday, I was in the mood for something different and that is just what was available at UWS’s Thorpe Langley Auditorium (a venue new to me) in a performance by the UWS Percussion Ensemble. 

The 14-member group is led and joined in performance by Dr. Brett Jones, who is the Professor of Percussion and Chair of the Music Department at UWS. Jones hails from South Dakota and has earned degrees from the University of Colorado and Texas Tech University. Now that he has settled in northwest Wisconsin he also plays regularly with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.

A great variety of percussion instruments were used in this program: piano, marimbas, xylophone, glockenspiel, crotales (pitched metal disks), tubular chimes, wind chimes, gong, triangle, timpani, taikos (Japanese drums) and even glass bottles, in addition to the typical drum set with snare and bass drums and cymbals. 

For the most part this concert was a heart-pounding, exciting experience, starting off with “Escaping a Nightmare” guest conducted by Johnathan Erickson, a UWS grad who is currently working on his master’s degree. 

By contrast there were serene compositions as well such as the second piece, “Streams,” that included the first-rate flute accompaniment by Emma Jones (Dr. Brett’s daughter). This latter number was music to meditate to.

The Japanese form of drumming was demonstrated on the piece “Taiko,” named for the type of drums on which it is played—there were four of these huge drums along with several bongos used. This provided the loudest and most compelling rhythms of the concert, which made folks sit up to take it all in. (See recordings by Kodō, a professional Japanese taiko drumming troupe online.) 

Another special number was the world premiere of “Chasing Ashes” composed in 2021 by Prof. Jones. It was conceived as a minimalist piece in the style of avant-garde percussionist Steve Reich. This catchy and relatively short piece had flexible instrumentation that allowed performers to play their preferred instruments.

“Log Cabin Blues” featured Jay Kim from South Korea, a junior in the UWS music program. It was a ragtime-style number by G.H. Green, arranged by Bob Becker (of the percussion group Nexus). Kim led on the xylophone, with others accompanying him. It was a fast and furious and totally fun piece that the audience particularly appreciated, judging by the enthusiastic applause.

The final piece, “Anthracite Groove” was composed by Greg Kehl Moore, another professor in UWS’s Music Department and the Jazz Program Director. (Many of us know him as leader of the Duluth Transit Authority). This was the number that used glass beer and wine bottles, crotales and included Marcus Esters playing electric bass guitar. In introducing this piece, Jones explained it demonstrates “metro modulation” where the rhythms change throughout the piece, which can be heard if listening closely. This was a fine finale to an exceptional concert.

For those who might like to experience a similar event, put Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, on your calendars when the world premiere of “Serenity Mass” will be performed on marimba by its composer David Packa at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Superior.

And, finally, the Holly Jolly Get Down at the Cosmic Lounge in Bent Paddle Brewing was quite the scene on Saturday, Dec. 7, with Soulhead playing two sets and Gochujang (named for a Korean hot sauce!) playing one set. They had the place jumpin’ (without a seasonal song to be heard). You’ll hear more from me about them as I continue to follow both these fabulous groups in 2025.

UPCOMING: For those of you who want to indulge in music of the season there are two concerts I would recommend. Consider driving out to Morgan Park where the United Protestant Church is hosting its annual Christmas concert by Bill Bastian and the Highland String Quartet on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 pm. It’s a beautiful way to celebrate the season, and goodies will be served afterwards. 

The second is “Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas” at the West. It was so well received last Christmastime that two shows are scheduled this year: Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 7 pm and Saturday, Dec. 21, at 2 pm. Hope to see you there!