Paddy Cassidy
Golpe Tierra
There was a time when South Park Street was a destination for jazz in Madison. But Mr. P’s is long gone. R Place filled the role for a while, but it, too, is history.
On Saturday, July 18, the south side will once again be alive with jazz, thanks to “Strollin’ South Park Street,” the latest edition of the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium’s series of neighborhood jazz showcases. Strollin’ South Park Street is this season’s second Strollin’ event, and the fifth overall.
The Strollin’ concept sprang from the Madison musician community through a series of town hall-style meetings the consortium convened two winters ago. The idea is to do a sort of gallery night, but for jazz instead of art. The neighborhoods strolled so far are Schenk’s Corners (twice), Monroe Street and First Settlement. This year’s series will wrap up in September with Strollin’ Hilldale.
One challenge is that Madison doesn’t have many venues that routinely book live jazz. The solution, says bassist Nick Moran, one of the event’s coordinators, is to partner with venues that don’t ordinarily host jazz and to share the financial commitment. The results have been promising, and have led to more opportunities for local jazzers.
Jay Derks
Mad City Funk
Black Star Drum Line
“The venue pays an act, and the consortium matches that payment to hire additional acts,” Moran explains. “And then we collect audience donations, and all that money goes directly to the band, so it subsidizes the payment.”
Many of the Strollin’ events take place in unconventional places. Venues for Strollin’ South Park Street are the Villager Mall parking lot, which will feature the Madison Music Foundry Student Jazz Ensemble, the Fountain of Life Ensemble, and Black Star Drum Line; the Urban League Community Room, where the Rick Flowers Quartet will perform; and the South District police station, which will host Mad City Funk and Golpe Tierra. The event will conclude with an after-party at Mason Lounge — quite a ways north of the other locations, but an actual, active jazz venue — featuring bpmTrio and the Five Points Jazz Collective.
Moran thinks a lot of the appeal of Strollin’ is its low-key flavor. “It’s a really grassroots thing, and you can see that when you’re at the event,” Moran says. “We don’t have big sound systems or anything like that. It’s just jazz musicians coming together for the community. Each event has had the character of the neighborhood, and I’m really excited to see what South Park Street’s going to be like. I think it’s going to be a great family, neighborhood party.”
