(L to R) Matthew Miltich, Mike Miller and Sam Miltich of the Clearwater Hot Club trio perform at the March 22, 2014 Great Northern Radio Show at Mesabi Range College in Virginia, Minnesota. In that show, Sam Miltich wrote and performed original music inspired by his Croatian great-grandparents who lived in Virginia. PHOTO: Shelly Hanson
I have to admit something rather upsetting to people I know. I … don’t … really … care for jazz. As a genre. A few bars into most jazz standards and I’m having flashbacks to my elementary music teacher trying to teach me syncopation with wood blocks. (tock tock TOCK tock tock tock TOCK tock).
For me, jazz is like eating lobster. I get that it’s valuable. I get that there’s history and tradition to it. I get that some people really like it. I tried very hard to like it when I was in college. But I just didn’t.
Or was the problem that I’ve only ever tried to eat lobster 2,000 miles from the ocean?
When we put the new jazz double album “Sam Miltich and Friends: Live at the VFW” into the stereo on a family trip to Duluth, my thinking was perhaps I’d like jazz better if it came from a local source — specifically VFW Post 1720 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, played by one of my favorite guitar players, Wabana Township’s own Sam Miltich. The result was not only a pleasant surprise, but something that I would truly call an experience.
Sam has been a frequent guest on my Great Northern Radio Show where’s he’s mostly played ethnic standards of his Croatian Iron Range ancestors and some of his own compositions. A virtuoso guitarist, he has made an interesting choice: stay on the western Iron Range and raise a family instead of chasing bright lights of national recording and performing gigs. When Sam appeared on “A Prairie Home Companion,” Garrison Keillor asked him how such an impressive jazz guitarist made a living in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Sam’s answer: “Every Wednesday night at the VFW.”
Indeed, for years the sound of jazz — real, soulful jazz played by people who know what they’re doing — has wafted above this cold-weather mill town every Wednesday evening. Over the past year, Miltich and an impressive array of visiting talent have recorded these performances, the best of which are included in “Live at the VFW.”
From the liner notes:
“This is who we are and what we really sound like. We’re some guys in a small town bar playing music for the joy of it. We had such a good time playing each week that we started inviting guest musicians up from the Twin Cities to join us — not just because we love to play with them but also to share some great music with people in northern Minnesota.
If you haven’t noticed in my writing here, I really love Northern Minnesota. And I really love when it is proven that wonderful art and important experiences can be had here just as they can in big cities or exotic locales.
My enjoyment of Miltich’s latest album stems not just from it being a fine example of the gypsy jazz he plays all the time, but all the ways in which Miltich weaves the American institution of “jazz” around the immigrant experiences of his family on the Iron Range. The bright clarinet of Tony Balluff or the immaculate saxophone work of Minnesota jazz legend Dave Karr craft a sense of fundamental sound, punctuated at once by the haunting melody from Sara Pajunen’s violin on the Finnish tune “Metsakukkia.” Just as you get used to the ambiance, you are surprised by the exotic fun of songs like “Bossa Dorado.”
It’s a remarkable album, as Sam says, representing the sound of a time and a place. It’s well worth your time.
You can buy the CD ($19.99 for two very full discs) at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, at any of Sam’s gigs, or online here. It’s a perfect gift for anyone you know who likes jazz, or Northern Minnesota. And if they don’t, this is the kind of album that can change minds.
UPDATE: I neglected to mention, Sam will be holding a CD release party performance at 7 tonight (Friday, Dec. 5) at the VFW in Grand Rapids for the city’s First Friday art celebration. He’ll be in at the Croatian Hall in South St. Paul Saturday night.
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