Courtesy of Kurt Dietrich
Milwaukee native Woody Herman led big bands in Hollywood.
If there’s one thing a jazz musician knows how to do, it’s improvise. So when Kurt Dietrich set out to research the history of jazz in Wisconsin, he wound up following the stories of the state’s musicians down some unexpected paths.
Dietrich’s Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles from the Heartland (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) profiles more than 100 Wisconsin-connected jazz artists. Some have familiar names: Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman and Al Jarreau. Some left their home state to make careers on the coasts, and others — including Joan Wildman, Ben Sidran, Nick Moran and Gerri DiMaggio — are well known to those who follow local music.
Dietrich, a professor of music at Ripon College, is a trombone player whose jazz rock band Matrix had a good run in the 1970s. His son Paul is a Madison-based trumpet player and composer. Isthmus talked with Dietrich about the process of creating the hefty 548-page volume.
At what point did you realize the story of Wisconsin jazz was different from the one you planned to tell?
It was after I started interviewing musicians who weren’t necessarily stars and started hearing some interesting stories. One person led me to another person, who led me to another and I just kept hearing stories that made me realize I wanted to write about the people and not the music.
Did you find a common denominator in the stories?
There were things that recurred in just about all of them, like a teacher was important, or a family, or both. One of the people I talked to said with the younger generations — and I believe this is true — music instruction in Wisconsin is really good. So if a young musician has a gift, the chances are good some teacher is going to find it and help develop it.
What stories stood out for you?
One was (baritone saxophonist) Bev Dahlke-Smith. She had this really interesting career and was a trailblazer in a number of ways. She grew up in Wausau in the ’70s, went to UW-Madison and transferred to North Texas State, which was the best jazz school in the country. They had at least eight or nine jazz bands there, and the top jazz band was essentially a minor-league team for all the big bands. The members would move from there to Stan Kenton’s band, Woody Herman’s band, Maynard Ferguson’s band. Bev was the first female to play in the top band, and this was a big deal. From there she ended up going to the West Coast and was the first female non-singer to play in Harry James’ band.
When Joan Rivers got her own talk show on Fox [The Late Show, in 1986] and they had a band, she said, “There are no women in this band, I want a woman in the band,” so they hired Bev. It was Joan Rivers, so they introduced the band as “The Party Boys and the Tramp” and Bev was the Tramp. And for Joan, this was a term of affection. She became a minor celebrity after that.
You’re telling a lot of stories that I assume have not been told before.
I hope so, and there’s part of me that is sad that they haven’t been told before. But that’s what the book is all about: People ought to know about this.
