Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble to Close Out Door Concerts season

The Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble performing at Jazz At Five in Madison.

In the summer of 2012, Dr. Johannes Wallmann moved to Madison to accept the position of Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Music. In accepting the position, he became the inaugural holder of the John and Carolyn Peterson Chair in Jazz Studies at the university.

A veteran of the New York and San Francisco Bay Area jazz scenes, Wallmann is best known for his prolific performances in styles as diverse as mainstream jazz, electric fusion, American spirituals, Cantonese pop music and 20th century classical music. After moving to the Midwest, the composer and contemporary jazz pianist quickly found his way into a weekly gig at The Fountain of Madison, where he had the opportunity to perform with a number of talented musicians.

Six months later, he brought together three other musicians with whom he loved performing and formed the Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble, which will close out the 2014-15 season of Door Concerts, Inc. on April 10 with a performance at Benny D’z in Sturgeon Bay.

The jazz ensemble consists of Wallmann on piano, Russ Johnson on trumpet, John Christensen on bass, and Keith Lienert on drums. I had the opportunity to catch up with Wallmann recently to talk about the jazz ensemble, its influences and what the audience can expect with the upcoming performance.

Alyssa Skiba (AS): What are some of the biggest influences to the sound of the Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble?

Johannes Wallmann (JW): There are a lot of influences. That’s the beauty of jazz – every experience that you have with music, you can find ways to incorporate that. There aren’t rules that say, ‘You can’t bring this experience that you have had into the music.’ … The most formative influences for the type of jazz that we play is really rooted in the 1950s and 1960s – the harmonic language, the melodies, the aesthetic of it but also with a more modern rhythmic type of language.

AS: The jazz ensemble will close out the Door Concerts, Inc. 2014-15 concert series, which has brought many classical acts to the county. How will your performance differ?

JW: One of the big differences between going to a classical concert versus a jazz concert is that just about everything that we play is something that will make you want to tap your feet and make you move your body, whether that’s actually dancing or swaying back and forth. If some part of your body is not moving, we aren’t doing our job right.

AS: Jazz tends to have a strong improvisational component to it. How strongly does the Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble hold to that?

JW: Absolutely every piece that we play has a huge component of improvisation in it. The way the composition and the improvisation interact is maybe a little bit like storytelling in that as a storyteller, you have a framework, which in our case is the composition. You do follow that framework and everything hangs on the story, but how you tell the story is going to be very different each time depending who your audience is, how much time you have to tell the story, how closely they are paying attention. In our case, group storytelling. We all know the story, we all know the key points that we want to reach in that. If you think about married storytelling where married couples are constantly chipping in, ‘Oh, you forgot this part!’ or ‘This is really important.’ That could be either really entertaining and super engaging and make for amazing dinner conversation, or it can be completely annoying just depending on what kind of chemistry people have together. I think what we bring to the table is a great chemistry outside of musical storytellers between the four of us in the band. The audience plays a really important role, too, because depending who you are telling the story to, changes how you tell it too.

AS: Is a strong connection to jazz music important in order for people to enjoy your show?

JW: I think there are two things that really keep people connected to the music. One is a focus on groove and having music that makes them tap their feet and feel good. The other one is a real focus on melody. I think people are willing to go with you quite far if you start out playing some beautiful melodies for them. They connect to that. If they hear beautiful melody and a good groove, they don’t really care whether it’s composed or improvised or how it all started. They enjoy the experience. Then when you tell them, ‘That thing that we just played, we played that specifically for you. We will never play that piece the same way again and that same melody, nobody else will ever hear like that again because we played that for you,’ that’s a neat extra bonus. Beautiful melodies and the groove come first.

AS: Any other comments about your upcoming performance in Door County?

Johannes Wallmann.

JW: We’re just really looking forward to it. The one time I’ve been there the people were just wonderful and it will be great to come back as not only a tourist but to connect with people through music.

The Johannes Wallmann Jazz Ensemble will perform at 7pm on Friday, April 10 at Benny D’z, 23 W. Oak St. in Sturgeon Bay. An optional pre-concert dinner will be at 6pm. Tickets for subscribers/members and their minor children are free. Music students are free. All others, $15 for concert, $20 for dinner, all inclusive. Call 920.743.6040 in advance if attending dinner. For more information on Door Concerts, Inc. call 920.743.3755.