The Twin Cities Jazz Society (TCJS) celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2009! To honor this occasion TCJS will hold a special gala celebrating “30 Years of Jazz” on Feb. 8 at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis.

In 2009, we encourage readers to write about a special TCJS or jazz memory for “Coda.” Please type “Jazz Memory” in the subject area and e-mail it to the editor, Jim Torok, < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it >. We look forward to hearing from you!!  Following, three members share their memories of when they joined the TCJS Board of Directors.

 —Starla Barker, Jazz Notes Editor

‘TCJS Kick-off Event Attracts 2,200 Fans!’

by Jane Donahue

What a wonderful-sounding event to report to our current jazz fans. No such luck! It occurred on February 20, 1979, and successfully launched the Twin Cities Jazz Society on a jazz adventure. As reported in an article in the first issue of Jazz Notes, in April, 1979, “2,200 jazz fans packed the Prom Center (on University Avenue in St. Paul) for a free public concert and membership drive.” 30 years later, we’re still viable, and ready to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

I’m proud of the terrific start TCJS received at that kick-off event, and equally appreciative of our current roster of 989 members, made up of a mixture of jazz fans, from new to those who joined at that first event and all the rest in between.

Because I love looking back at past events, I’d like to give a rousing “thank you” to the musicians who performed back on February 20, 1979. They were: the Jim Tolck Nonet, Hamline University Jazz Lab Band, Nettie Sherman, Ken Green, Mike Elliot Trio, Morris Wilson, Gene Adams and Coexistence, Jim Gautier and Solstice, Manfredo Fest and Roberta Davis, plus Dave Karr and Carei Thomas. Other groups on hand but unable to play due to time limitations included Jim Field and the Mouldy Figs, the Irv Williams Quintet and the Eddie Berger Quartet.

A big “thank you” in advance to the musicians who will be performing at our 30th anniversary bash Feb. 8, 2009 at the Dakota Jazz Club. They are Mary Louise Knutson, Jay Epstein, Graydon Peterson and Doug Haining, with vocalists and other musicians to be announced.

—Jane joined TCJS in February, 1979, and has been on the TCJS Board of Directors for almost that long.

A Note From Dick Parker

I can probably trace my love of jazz back to a childhood fascination with my parents’ Spike Jones 78s. I’ve never understood or developed a taste for the more modern forms of jazz, but give me interesting chord changes and infectious rhythm and I’m fascinated, even without pistols or whistles.

That puts me in the minority among jazz aficionados, squarely amid the moldy figs, as hip musicians of the 1940s labeled Dixielanders and their passé music. And as a matter of fact, I’m one of the Mouldy Figs banjo players.

I was delighted to be invited to join the TCJS board of directors 10 years ago and enjoy being an advocate for traditional jazz as TCJS spotlights our local talent and provides performance opportunities through the “Jazz from J to Z” concert series. My interests also include jazz history and promoting jazz education...the next generation. As a retired journalist (37 years at the Star Tribune), I do some writing and editing for the TCJS publications Jazz Notes and Coda.

—Dick has been writing and editing for Jazz Notes and for Coda, and his works are much appreciated!

A Note From Carolyn Jackson, Associate Editor (Jazz Notes)

In the spring of 1992, I called the then Jazz Notes editor, Jane Donahue, and asked her if I could write an article for the newsletter about the UW-Eau Claire Jazz I Ensemble’s trip to China. The Ensemble was one of the first college groups anywhere to step through the door that was just beginning to open to America’s original art form—jazz. I can’t thank Jane enough for allowing me to write the article that appeared in the August issue along with one contributed by one of the Ensemble’s members, saxophonist Donald Pashby. From that summer on my association with the Twin Cities Jazz Society grew from general membership to a role the last few years as associate editor with longtime editor Starla Barker.

I guess you might say, “The rest is history.”  It gives me great pleasure to know that my jazz instructors, Karen and Tom Pieper, Laura Caviani and Joan Griffith are huge supporters of TCJS and have played “Jazz from J to Z” concerts and performed with me on the program I present each September for the TCJS annual meeting.

>From a fledgling group in the 1980s to a well known, well respected name in the Twin Cities music scene and regional colleges we [the TCJS] are here to stay for a long time.

—Carolyn along with her husband, Don (a photographer for TCJS) often help tend the TCJS table at concerts. Stop by and say hi!