Aurora Club Jazz Jam Live
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History
Lookout Birdland! FM knows jazz, and when he came across a new band - The Aurora Club - playing in a backwater bar, he knew he was onto something big, big BIG! He set em up as the house band at the Virtual Borealis Lounge, creating the new favorite hep place for beat cool jazz hipsterz. So pull up a chair and have a Cuban Cola, kick back and listen to 100 percent organic and original jazz. Say Thank Ya to FM.
Aurora Club Jazz Jam Live! is a Minneapolis-based jazz quartet/quintet that takes classic jazz chord progressions and then improvises like crazy - improvised heads, improvised solos, and improvised rhythms on the fly, often morphing into some pretty great jams. Sort of like Grateful Dead meet Medeski, Martin and Woods while Miles tags along for fun.
Playing live in a virtual jazz club
Dr. F - the wild keyboardist, is a bit shy, so the band decided to create its own Virtual jazz club - the Borealis Lounge, as a venue for the band to play live. To make it more like a real club, they introduced some club regulars: a host named FM, Charlie Bates - FM's trumpet-playing sidekick, Hacking Sam - the resident Beat Poet, and some hecklers in the audience, along with all the regular sounds you would here in a cool club. The band uses the virtual club concept to publish bootleg shows (podcasts) of the Jazz Jam Live! show. Each show is built loosely around a theme (e.g. "State Fair", "The Great Fatini", etc.), so it is mainly music but with some comedic bits between songs. The shows work best when played loud.
From its beginning in 2007, the Aurora Club Jazz Jam Live! have produced and distributed 26 podcast shows through ITunes and other internet podcast stations. The podcasts are free, and have been quite popular, with over 225,000 downloads as of 2011 (no small feat given that each podcast is a 50+ mb in size), and the show has an international following.
Members
Dan Crosbie (Charlie Bates): Trumpet, Congas, voices of FM and Charlie Bates
Kirk Mathison (Wrong Way Perkins): Guitar
Guy Messenger: Drums
Jonathan Vlaming (Berle): Bass, voice of Hackin Sam, sound effects
Dr. F (Dr. F): Piano
Wayne Fisher: Guitar on Halloween Party
Jake B. : Drums on Halloween Party
Paul P: Drums on many of the podcasts but getting him to rehearsal was like pulling teeth...
Discography
Albums
Christmas Jazz Jam Live! (2011 - self published - sold digitally only) Aurora Club – Jazz Jam Live (2009 - self published – sold digitally only)
Bootleg shows available online
28. Talent Show (4/12)
27. Halloween Party! 10/11
26. Cigar Bar 2/11
25. Hire this Band 7/10
24. Fan Club Night Riot 9 3/10
23. Education Night 11/09
22. Wrong Way Perkins joins the Band 6/09
21. Album for Sale 3/09
20. Turkey Time 11/08
19. Tribute to Jack Patz 10/08
18. The Sarah Palin Jazz Hour 9/08
17. Softball 8/08
16. Keeping Cool with the AC 7/08
15. Classical Jazz 5/08
14. The Great Fatini 3/08
13. Caucus Night 2/08
12. Christmas at the Borealis Lounge 12/07
11. Dr F Gets a Steinway D 10/07
10. My Southern Brother 9/07
9. Jack Patz is Back 8/07
Bootleg shows no longer available
8. Summertime 7/07
7. Out of Sight! 6/07
6. FM Takes no Graft 5/07
5. Thelonius Monk Night 3/07
4. The Lady from K Street 2/07
3. Music for Valentines 2/07
2. Aurora Club - On Fire! 1/07
1. Welcome to the Aurora Club! 1/07
Audio
Band website for free bootleg shows
Related Websites
Related groups
--Berle the bass player 09:36, 22 April 2011 (CDT)
