01. Wolverines Classic
Jazz Orchestra LP Album
01 1974



Congaine_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
02. I'm Gonna Take My Bimbo Back To The Bamboo Isle
Bimbo_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Bugle Call_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Miss Mud_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Off Buffalo_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Misery Blues_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
New Down Hom_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Nobody_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
Bozo_WCO_LP 01_MP3
10_Undecided_LP 01_MP3
11. Copland Piano Concerto (excerpts)
Copland_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
12. Oh Sister, Ain't That Hot!
Oh Sister_WCJO_LP 01_MP3
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02. Wolverines Classic
Jazz Orchestra KQRS-FM;
St. Paul, MN 1974

02. Wolverines Classic Jazz
Orchestra KQRS-FM; St.
Paul, MN 1974
**Context**
The Original
Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra
KQRS-FM St. Paul, MN
1974
This was our first ever radio broadcast. We’d been establishing good reputation around town—got
some good press from Will Jones of the Mpls. Star-Tribune re: our regular Sunday night gig at the Longhorn Saloon, downtown
Minneapolis (we did 35 Sundays in a row).
We were a cohesive unit rehearsing every Saturday at the Pillsbury House (an old mansion converted to artist environments
where several of us were caretakers of the building in exchange for free rent.
And we had some especially talented players: Mark Bryn, Piano; Joe Demko, Steve Benson, Guitars; Johnny Olson, Violin;
Becky Reimer, Vocals. This added special dimension to the project.
Back then, we had plenty of time for research (there were 4 of us at one time, transcribing original recordings from reel-to-reel
tape recorders) and study (all players had tapes of the original recordings and studied the original styles). And I’d
bumped into a couple of fanatical record collectors who hipped me to all sorts of great period music I’d never heard
before—I would bring my cassette recorder, then transfer to reel-to-reel.
The Repertoire:
My premise was always: "unusual, out of the ordinary, yet very creative." We did some numbers that were quite daring: e.g.,
the "Whiteman Stomp". That’s really a concert piece, but we got away with it in most places. Even more daring was the
"Copland Piano Concerto-Excerpts". We performed it at this KQRS gig, but also at a notorious West Band bar called the Cabooze:
14 of us crammed onto the elevated triangular stage in one corner (we had to lift an upright piano up there, plus all of
the stands and instruments). We played ‘normal’ (for us, anyway) repertoire throughout, but towards the end of
the evening, everyone was pretty much looped and charged-up, so I asked Mark the Piano Man:
"Can you do ‘Copland?’ "
"Here? Now?"
"Yeah, let’s do it for an Encore!"
This piece had 2 tempo changes, so 3 tempi = everyone was dancing up a storm to our stuff, but every tune was in one straight
tempo; great for dancers. What would these charged-up dancing fools down below us react to tempo changes? OMG, they loved
it! There would be a short pause in the dancing, then they’d pick up on the new tempos and hoot and holler! When we
hit the ending, there was a huge Roar!
To my mind, this was a triumph: we pitched a Classical curve ball to the ‘masses’ and they ate it up. It’s
sort of like Louis Moreau Gottschalk carting his Grand Piano by horse and carriage to cornfields and playing Classical stuff
for ‘plain folk’.
San_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Whiteman Stomp_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Bugle Call Rag_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Nobody_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Off To Buffalo_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Hungry Blues_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Swing 41_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
Undecided_WCJO_KQRS_MP3
10. Copland "Piano Concerto" (excerpts)
Copland_Piano Concerto_KQRS_MP3
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