BlueStem Jazz is bringing trumpeter Ralph Alessi to Cafe Coda on Sept. 21.
Logan Richardson’s Blues People will play an 8 p.m. set at The Winnebago on Sept. 6. If you’re excited to hear the Kansas City, Missouri-born saxophonist, be sure to thank the two retired guys in the back of the room who have made this and countless other local jazz performances possible.
Thomas Ferrella, a former physician at Meriter Hospital’s emergency room, has been bringing live jazz to Madison for the past three years, including at Arts + Literature Laboratory and Trinity Lutheran Church. Now he has created a partnership with Dave Stone, a former mechanical engineer and business owner, to launch an organization designed to book and promote jazz in clubs across the city.
BlueStem Jazz, named for the large prairie grass native to Wisconsin, aims to bring musicians and club owners together in an effort to increase the presence of America’s indigenous musical art form in Madison, eventually making the city a center of progressive jazz in the same way Memphis is home to the blues and Nashville to country music.
“I like doing things that really make me feel alive,” says Stone, 65, who began his deep dive into jazz after seeing a 1975 Weather Report concert. “There are few things that me feel as alive as listening to really good music.”
“I have a creative drive that expresses itself in the visual, and I want to help others in this area,” says Ferrella, 63, now a conceptual artist and amateur musician. “What we’re doing here dovetails beautifully with how I want to exit this planet.”
Despite their shared artistic ethos, the pair have embraced a serious business model designed to make sure the musicians get paid what they’re owed and that club owners turn a profit from jazz events. BlueStem, which has applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status, is a volunteer enterprise, with neither Ferrella nor Stone profiting from the work. In fact, they often financially underwrite local jazz performances, with help from a cadre of anonymous donors.
“We’re doing it altruistically, but we’re also being a little selfish in that we get to hear this great music in our own home town,” Ferrella says.
BlueStem works with a variety of area clubs and entities, including Art In, Audio for the Arts, Café Coda, North Street Cabaret, The Winnebago and Threshold, striving to match international jazz stars and local musicians to the right venues. They also have started a residency program, recently awarding local bassist John Christensen a $2,000 grant to support his art.
“That’s our version of the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius Grant.’” Ferrella says.
Ferrella notes that BlueStem is promoting two upcoming Cafe Coda shows: Ralph Alessi on Sept. 21 and the legendary Roscoe Mitchell on Sept. 22. Bringing international acts to town and helping the local jazz scene and its performers grow is part and parcel of what the two jazz ambassadors do. Call it their second act.
“The musicians feel that vibe and the word is getting out,” Ferrella says. “There’s the two nutty guys in Madison that will give musicians all the money and there’s no bullshit.”
[Editor's note: The September 6 show at the Winnebago, Logan Richardson's Blues People, has been cancelled.]
