Bear’s hosts Jazz Fables’ 18th anniversary

This Thursday will mark the 18th anniversary of local concert series Jazz Fables. Jazz band Ut Haus, which plays every anniversary show, will be joined on stage by founding members of the Jazz Fables. \nThe jazz show began when a house band named the Jazz Fables, which formed in 1977, gained a regular spot performing the music of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington at Bear’s Place every Thursday.\n“In the fall of 1989, I took a quartet into Bear’s Place that was going to be the same regular house band every week,” Jazz Fables founding member David Miller said. “The concept at Bear’s Place was that we were going to have a different guest every week.”\nDespite the group’s success, various members left the band to pursue professional careers in teaching. The Jazz Fables were forced to broaden their scope and change the format of the group. The result was the transformation of the Jazz Fables as a band to the Jazz Fables concert series, where other jazz groups would come in to play.\nToday, the concert series is just as popular, booking both locally and nationally renowned jazz artists such as pianist Monika Herzig and world-famous saxophonist Dave Liebman.\nUt Haus is among these groups, and is featured every year during the anniversary concert. The group’s name stems from the place where it used to rehearse: the basement of the bassist’s house they affectionately dubbed the “Ut Haus.”\nThe group includes Jerry Morris on French horn and vocals, Miller on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Brian Kearney on baritone, tenor and alto sax. In addition, they will have special guests Joe Donnelly on baritone/tenor sax and flute, Robert Stright on vibes and vocals, Steve Johnson on bass and Kevin Newcomb on drums, Miller said.\n“I hate to blow my own horn, but I’m the only musician I know of who’s worked with both a Grammy Award-winner and a Pulitzer Prize-winner,” said Johnson, bassist and co-founder of the original band.\nUt Haus is anything but standard. It usually performs avant-garde arrangements. Tonight, however, the band will diverge from its normal routine and play a set of jazz standards.\n“In this case what we decided to do was to play some of the arrangements that Jerry Morris has written for us in that past several years that we hadn’t been playing very much, so it (ends) up being a much more conventional set by our standards,” Miller said.\nBand members have known each other so long that cracking inside jokes and reminiscing about school are frequent during performances, adding color and vibrancy to their tunes, Johnson said. Members of the band banter back and forth in a mock dialogue before a Ray Charles tune much like Charles did on his own records and perform all manner of tomfoolery, making the entire performance more interactive and personal.\n“Obviously, we have a lot of fun with this band,” Johnson said. “It’s practically a cult.”\nFor this particular show, Ut Haus will showcase several vocal performances. In addition to Jerry Morris’ vocals, guest vibraphonist Bob Stright will for the first time be tossing his mallets aside to sing Rodgers’ and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine” and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Quiet Nights.”\n“We’re not just an avant-garde jazz band, we’re not just an instrumental jazz band, we’ve got combinations of all those things.”\nThe concert is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the back room of Bear’s Place. The cover charge is $5.