It’s all they do and they play it well. Melissa Stoudt and Ann Marie McIntire, the duo who perform as JazzSpring, quit their day jobs to focus only on playing jazz as a full-time occupation, using a wide variety of instruments to share each individual moment with the audience — who it seems never go home singing the blues.
They will be playing on Pudge’s patio, and capturing listeners with melodies that flow out into the streetscape, Thursday and Friday nights for the rest of the summer.
Jazz standards by a variety of composers are their favorite songs. “Ellington, Monk, Jobim, Gillespie, Carmichael. No one artist constitutes a majority of our repertoire,” they say, but the songs are usually familiar to folks, either having been performed by Big Bands, or vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. “Our music gives it a new sound.”
There is little if any guitar in their performances at this time, but virtually any other jazz instrument that you’d want to hear. “We love guitar, but currently use flute, alto sax, piano, and if space allows, upright bass,” they say, adding that other rhythm instruments are incorporated at times. “Flute and piano has a nice clean sound. Jazz flute is rarely heard, and it captivates the audience, visually and audibly. They may not know why, but people think, hmmm, that’s different. When we use flute with string bass, the sound is on the opposite ends of the spectrum… featuring the highest instrument and the lowest instrument in an orchestra….with nothing in between. Cool sound.”
The two musicians met years ago during a gig, then reconnected when both joined the Moonlight Serenaders Big Band several years back. They quit full-time day jobs, to concentrate on music full-time.
Do they have a particular solo they like best? “We are always changing it up. I think what makes a solo great is one’s ability to enter into the music emotionally,” they agree. “If you can get inside the feeling of the song you are playing, you can capture the audience. At that point we and our listeners share a moment in time that ties all of us to the emotion of the song. When the song is over, we move on. We can’t turn around and grab that same experience again.”
“Sometimes I wish I could, but I don’t strive to replicate the same emotion I had yesterday,” McIntire adds. “That’s jazz.”
Every day is filled with opportunities to touch someone with music, the performers say. “We can’t predict what music or situation will arise, but we are prepared to play music where needed.” McIntire gave an example: “Today, I was driving by a memory care housing unit where several white haired residents were sitting on balconies watching cars zip by. The balconies faced a busy street and an empty sidewalk. I parked, pulled out my flute and marched down the sidewalk playing ‘Dixie’. This was pretty off the wall, especially for an introvert, but the seniors got out of their rocking chairs, laughing and clapping. McIntire said music is a Divine interface between people. Last month, JazzSpring played for a funeral. “The music in that beautiful vaulted countryside church felt like it was interlaced with angels,” she said. “It is always astounding to connect to others through music and every performance invites that connection.”
The duo also plays weddings and funerals, at restaurants and private parties, and for other celebrations in the Twin Cities. They have have a demo CD that they hand out, with snippets of about 10 tunes, and you can get that from them when they play at Pudge’s, which will be every Thursday and Friday through the end of August. Occasionally, they will have subs, when there are previously contracted gigs, such as at the Wabasha Street Caves the first Thursday of every month. The subs are Connie Dussl, vocalist, and Herb Reinke, on guitar. The complete calendar is on jazzspring.com.