Jeni Fleming. Vocalist. Appearance at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.

A misty, cool Tuesday evening in Bexley. Our boarder, Alex Hettinga, and I walk to an evening of music at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. The seminary is located at the corner of College and East Main in Bexley. An audience is gathering for the first of this summer’s Tuesdays at Trinity musical events.

The performance space is the Trinity’s Gloria Dei worship center. The featured performer is Jeni Fleming. She and her ensemble live in Montana.

Many in the audience are wearing sweaters because of the cool evening. Inside the worship center, the air conditioning is on and people don’t take off their sweaters.

Trinity’s president, Mark Ramseth welcomes the musicians and the audience. He reminds the audience of the family connection that brings this musical performance to Trinity and Bexley. The singer, Jeni Fleming, is his daughter and Jake Fleming, the saxophonist, is his son-in-law. Mark reminds the audience that the musicians have traveled from Montana for the performance. And, they arrived in Bexley at 2:00 a.m.

Jeni Fleming. wears a black strapless cocktail dress with red and white oval prints. She also wears a long white scarf. The performance space is too chilly for Jeni, so she puts a coat on as the performance begins.

Jeni performed at Trinity for the first time in 2002. Since then, it has almost been an annual performance with different constellations of back-up musicians. This year’s line up of musicians are Craig Hall, electric and acoustic guitars; Adam Greenberg, an Ohio native on drums and percussion; Chris Cundy, piano and Hammond B3 organ; Sean Lehmann, bass and Jake Fleming, acoustic guitars and saxophone.

From Jeni’s prior performances, my expectation is for an evening of sophisticated jazz arrangements from the American Songbook and also some jazz arrangements of a few pop hits thrown into the mix.

Surprises are in store this evening. Jeni warns the audience that in the last two years their performance repertory has moved into a galaxy known in the music business as pop-rock , and that they are more specifically categorized as jazz-pop artists.
Jeni opens the evening’s performance with their own arrangement of a Beatles tune “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The lyric seems incongruous in the chapel setting but that doesn’t matter. The arrangement moves the familiar Beatles ballad into a Western Swing rhythm, clearly reminding me that this is an ensemble from Montana.

Jeni’s second song is written by Jake Fleming. The acoustics of the room make it difficult to catch all of the lyrics. The title is “Scarecrow” and some of the lyrics sound like it is an introspective, moody song but I’m not certain. Phrases that I decipher are “There’s a shadow hanging over me…you must call tonight…There’s a cold deep down inside of me….You must call to lie…Can’t erase the things that are part of me…” The acoustics aren’t working for me tonight so I’m not certain if these are the actual lyrics, particularly when I ask myself what these lyrics have to do with the song title “Scarecrow.” Perhaps for new songs, the lyric might be printed in the program?

The third number is a fresh arrangement of “Never My Love,” a song made popular by the Association in the late 1960s. Jeni confesses that she wrote the arrangement without reference to the original performance of the Association. When she listened to the original, Jeni describes her reaction as “I didn’t realize how much I had destroyed.”

As “Never My Love” concludes, Jeni has warmed up and takes off her jacket .

Appropriately, the next song is a Brazilian samba. I miss the songs name, but the tropical heat of the tune is unmistakable. There is a dragging major cord in the arrangement that, within the samba rhythm, recreates the measured pace of a walk on the beach.

The arrangements of the songs are much more complex than in previous performances. The ensemble is larger than the trio that I associate with Jeni, so the complexity shouldn’t surprise. The effect of the complexity is to make it more difficult to the focus on the vocalist. There is also some need to balance the several instruments. Percussion and piano were too loud and sometimes over-powered Jeni’s voice. The larger ensemble makes the performance less intimate, less personal.

The fifth song, “God Bless’ The Child,” is the Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Blues standard. A song and arrangement perfect for Jeni and, with Jake on the saxophone, a reminder of what these musicians do best. This is also where I begin to notice the bass playing of Sean Lehmann. What a musician. What an addition to the group’s sound and rhythm.

“God Bless’ The Child” is also where I first wonder if there is a Jazz Pop and Jazz Mom in this ensemble.

Next is another Jake Fleming song where I have difficulty deciphering the lyric. Maybe it is not the acoustics of the location; maybe it is my hearing that is deficient. I think the title is “The Other Side” with lyrics like “I fear my affliction…awesome innocence…Need a friend…to sneak into the other-side…I spend my time…painful song in a rock-fall…freedom I’ve been crying for is finally here…” Print the lyrics in the program. Please.

This is followed by a song that featured Chris Cundy on the piano. The piano filled the room with sound and lyrics seemed secondary. “Hallelujah” and “I’ve seen your flag and marble arch…” and “love is not a march” are all I caught.

The next song arrangement was written by Jake on a February trip to Hawaii. Jeni and Jake had a two hour professional engagement on one of the islands. The two hour engagement included a week-long hotel accommodation. During the week, Jake arranged “Day After Day.”

Then in quick succession, two familiar numbers “Gimme the beat boys and free my soul,” and the lyrics of “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Danny Boy.”

Closing the first half, , a Hebrew folk tune started slow and gathered speed.. This folk tune is a new genre and energized the audience. The interior chill had been broken.

During the interval, Alex and I discuss how the performance is different than anticipated. No standards in the play list. Little jazz except the Billie Holliday number.

The second half begins with another Brazilian song. Antonio Carlos Jobin’s “The Girl From Ipanema.” This song is performed as a samba and gives a fresh perspective on the standard.

Next is an R & B song made classic by Ray Charles: “One Mint Julip”. Jeni says the lyric is a description of how she met her husband Jake. In truth, she corrects the story to say she and Jake actually met at a campus ministry happy hour.

Then follows a Willie Nelson song, “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” and Lizz Wright’s “Trouble In The Air, I Don’t Want It.” Willie Nelson. How far the evening is from my expectation.

Before singing her final number, Jeni invites May Schwarz professor of church music to the microphone. Professor Schwarz organizes the Tuesday at Trinity musical events and she reminds the audience that next two Tuesdays at Trinity events are the Brass Band of Columbus on June 15 and the Columbus Symphony Brass Quintet on June 22.

Jeni’s final number is “I Need Your Inspiration” arranged as a dance number. With Jeni slapping a red tambourine, and Jake’s saxophone playing, this gospel classic energizes the musicians and the audience.

On the walk home, I discuss the performance with our boarder and explain that the concert was a surprise, and not what I expected at all. In a light rain, I comment that the music was louder, more energetic, more pop, less cerebral than her last performance. Our boarder is a sophomore music major at Carnegie Mellon and his comments are about acoustics,
arrangements and individual performances. “They covered a lot of genres,” he said, “She has a very versatile voice.” He was most impressed with Jeni’s “very pleasant voice” within the group and commented that the group could’ve let her shine a bit more. The lyrics to her songs were frequently indistinguishable over the band. However, even as someone who attends the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra every week, comparing and criticizing performers of the highest levels, Alex found the evening of music making quite enjoyable. He agreed that some of the songs worked considerably well with the ensemble, and it was very interesting to see their interpretations of different styles.

Next morning, when I look at my concert notes, I’m surprised. Rather than being a completely different Jeni Fleming, the notes are much like notes from her last concert. She takes familiar songs and rearranges the material into her own. The brainy content, both lyric and melody are gently led into the shelter of Jeni’s brilliance. She makes a song her child and nurtures it to become something new, something distinct from its origins. Jazz Pop and Jazz Mom indeed.

The sequence of songs, none from the American Songbook, also makes sense next day as I read my notes. Blues, Gospel, Bossa Nova, Beatles, Country and Western, Western Swing. The breadth of her repertory is amazing. What an enjoyable performance.
So next year, should we expect German Techno?

What I want is Jeni doing the Beach Boys. Please Jeni, next year do “In My Room,” “Rhonda.,” “California Girls.”

Jeni can pull it off an evening of the Beach Boys.

Maybe an entire CD of Jeni Fleming singing the Beach Boys.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Bexley Editorial Collective.

Jeni Fleming. Vocalist. Appearing at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.

From Bozeman, Montana: Jeni Fleming and Jeni Fleming Ensemble.

Tuesday evening, June 8. 2010 at 7:30 p.m.

Gloria Dei Worship Center
Trinity Lutheran Seminary
2199 E. Main St.
SW corner of College Ave. and E. Main St.
Bexley

Sample her six CDs at jenifleming.com

Booking agent Nikki McGee
406-388-2086
nikki@jenifleming.com

ProMusica and Jazz Vocalist Jane Monheit.

This year, Friday May 7, 2010, the annual gala fundraiser for ProMusica Chamber Orchestra was called “Lovers and Dreamers.”

The evening’s highlight was jazz vocalist Jane Monheit, sometimes accompanied by her trio and sometimes by the chamber orchestra. Timothy Russell led the chamber orchestra but Long Island girl Jane Monheit conducted everything. Lovers and dreamers; Russell and Monheit covered both topics.

ProMusica, Monheit and the musicians delivered a perfectly delightful evening of mostly American Songbook pieces.

ProMusica’s two principal venues, the Southern Theatre and St. Turibius Chapel at Pontifical College Josephinum, are well-selected for the orchestra and its usual repertory. Tonight's performance might have been better suited for St. Turibius Chapel, but more on that later. First, the good things.

Southern Theatre in particular, is the best Columbus venue for jazz vocalists and jazz ensembles. So the combination of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and Jane Monheit with her trio was a performance to anticipate.

ProMusica Chamber Orchestra is, well, a chamber orchestra that performs principally classical and baroque music with occasional contemporary orchestral scores.

It is not unusual for this orchestra to play Bach or Beethoven. It is unusual for it to perform Hoagy Carmichael and Judy Collins.

I was curious as to how the usual ProMusica audience would react to non-classical scores.

Monheit’s opening number was Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s “Pure Imagination.” Her performance of this song was clear and emotive. It was an invitation to the evening, to lovers and dreamers, and in the first twelve seconds of the song, Monheit convinced me that I would enjoy the evening.

Some of the song’s that followed were Cole Porter’s “Get Out of Town,” Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s “Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,”

A few songs before the interval, Monheit introduced me to an Arthur Swartz song that I wasn’t familiar with. The song is “Haunted Heart” and when I returned home after the performance, I looked in my songbooks but was disappointed.

But I saw others by Swartz that are familiar: “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “You and the Night and the Music.” Monheit’s performance of “Haunted Heart” was a mournful delight emotionally equal to the hopeful quality she gave to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” That song by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg became the signature piece of Judy Garland but Monheit could make that song her own if she gave her mind to it.

The second half of the performance continued with such numbers as Judy Collin’s “Since You’ve Asked.” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time.”

Monheit sang Portuguese pieces by Fernando Porto and Antonio Carlos Jobin. There seems to be a persistent liking for modern and popular Portuguese music, The most recent female jazz vocalist I reviewed for Agent of Currency was Jeni Fleming and her trio at a concert at the Gloria Dei chapel at the Trinity Lutheran Seminary. She too added numbers from Jobin to her concert. Is this a trend toward music of Portugal and Brazel composers?

My only disappointment in the performance was the venue so let me get that out of the way. Southern Theatre is an intimate performance space. Crowding the full chamber orchestra, three New York musicians with instruments, a soloist and orchestral conductor together on the Southern Theatre’s stage was a mistake.

A performance that should have been SRO, seemed that way only when you looked at the stage. With nothing to do between the pieces, the musicians, both those in the chamber orchestra and those in the trio, stayed on stage and looked like they were waiting in the lobby of the Greyhound bus station just around the corner from the Southern Theatre. When Monheit and her trio began Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” I detected a look of irony on the face of drummer Rick Montalbano.

Songs of romance seemed out of place when the singer was surrounded, cheek by jowl, by other musicians. It reminded me of the line-up of musicians waiting for their numbers to come up in Guild competitions. The music director Timothy Russell even added to the impression of too little space by sitting (on what looked like a speaker box) near the edge of the stage when the trio and Monheit were performing.

Otherwise, ProMusica and Monheit made it a delightful Spring evening. How did the usual ProMusica audience take to the non-classical play list?

After intermission only a few seats were vacant. The applause was warm but not enough to earn an encore.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008. Bexley, Ohio. Jeni Fleming Trio dazzles audience at Trinity seminary.

The second of three concerts in the twenty fourth annual Tuesday at Trinity was an evening of simple summer pleasures. Ice cream and music from the American Songbook. The performance was by a female jazz vocalist and two musicians, all three from Bozeman, Montana.

Does it sound a bit eccentric? Bozeman, Montana jazz musicians performing at a Lutheran seminary in Bexley, Ohio.

The Jeni Fleming Trio offered an hour and a half of American standards, rearranged, rewritten and remarkable.

The trio is Jeni Fleming, Jake Fleming and Craig Hall.

Trinity Lutheran Seminary is on the trio’s tour itinerary because Jeni’s father is president of the school.

Occasionally nepotism works very well and the performance of this trio is one of those times.

The concert is in the Gloria Dei worship center. The interior is shaped like the acoustic tent used at the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for its Summer at the Pops, or the Island Park Band Shell summer concerts of the Dayton Philharmonic. But the worship center is air-conditioned.

The audience is large, more than one hundred fifty people.

The usual Trinity audience, knowledgeable and sophisticated in their musical tastes.

Mostly women. Of all age ranges. Seniors, middle aged, mature mothers and young mothers. Capital and Trinity faculty. College students and high school girls. For the women in the audience, the hair colors are much more limited than the ages. Grey and white, with the occasional brunette. But, hands down, the dominant hair color for the audience is Lutheran blond.

The men in the audience. Some bald, a few beards. Mostly grey haired. Three African men; one speculating with his neighbor about travel to Montana. Some familiar faces from the seminary faculty, staff and Bexley neighbors.

The men and women in audience are attired in similar hues; white, cream, tan and pastel yellow. Occasional sparkles of color among the audience. For the men, brightest color is green, but even that is pastel green. For the women, pastel pink and fuchsia.


While the crowd gathers and finds their seats, the sanctuary itself is uncluttered save for the instruments the musicians will use: an upright bass viol, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar and a saxophone. Amplifiers and loud speakers are arranged around the edge of the alter platform at the sanctuary.

The three musicians walk to their instruments in the sanctuary. Dark suits for the men. Jake has a white tee shirt. Craig has a deep, deep purple dress shirt and a dark blue silk tie. Jeni is in a vivid red cocktail dress. A matching red shawl covers Jeni’s shoulders and arms. She also wears high heels, perhaps four inches high, with black ribbon straps. Agonizing, no doubt but a distraction. A distraction so compelling I forget my speculation about where men in Bozeman buy their dark suits.

This year the trio has completed a spring tour through Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. They came to Bexley following a Saturday concert in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The trip to Bexley took the musicians through the rain storms in Indiana. They lost a windshield wiper in the Indianapolis winds.

Another concert is scheduled for Bozeman, Montana this coming Saturday and the musicians must drive Thursday and Friday to meet that commitment.

Two long, twenty-four hour drives and two performances. in five days.

I wonder when the piper will be paid for those long hours. I also wonder when the musicians will reap the rewards of those long drives.

The concert begins. Jeni’s first four phrases are enticing. “I met a man…” Her voice promises an evening of pleasure. And she delivers. The song is an arrangement of “Mr. Bojangles” that keeps the song familiar but only confirms the identity near the end.

It is an approach to an American standard that keeps the song fresh and bewitching. Bill Evans did the same. But this evening the magic is the female voice of Jeni Fleming.

Jeni’s voice is clear and with perfect pitch. The clarity of her voice. Is it from breathing the clean air of Montana. Is singing really this different in big sky country.

Jake plays the sax on a jazz piece that no one identifies and I don’t recognize it. Seminary friends tap their feet and disguise their hipness. Vague references to phrases in “Route 66,” and recalling the jazz of the 1950s. Difficult vocals but her perfect pitch carries Jeni through this dangerous piece. What was that piece? Who wrote it?

This mystery is followed by an Antonio Carlos Jobin bossa nova piece. “Dindi” is the melody and the lyrics borrowed from the gospel hymn “Amazing Grace.” An amalgam that surprises but fits the context perfectly. The arrangement for saxophone and guitar are bossa nova and, on a hot summer night, music from tropical Brazil and Southern gospel lyrics fit the night perfectly. On a summer night it is easy to imagine Jobin writing music just for Jeni. “How sweet the sound.” The mélange of these two songs reminds me of the associations between Duke Ellington and the Lutheran Church.

Jake then introduces the song he wrote as a marriage proposal to Jeni. The song is “Once Around the Sun” and was inspired by Jeni’s remark that Jake should take a “day off.” Jake wrote the lyric with the misapprehension that a “day off” is “once around the sun” when a “once around the sun” is actually a year. Jeni accepted Jake’s proposal. Their marriage is not the last marriage that will be based on a husband’s misunderstanding.


The first set was completed with a memorable rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” “When all the world is a hopeless jumble, And the raindrops tumble all around, Heaven opens a magic lane…” The rendition is sung so pure, I began to think that Bozeman, Montana might be a refuge from urban horrors, a place where things are done accurately, even done perfectly.

And then, like an elephant suddenly charging into your living room, it happens. Joni sings the lyric “Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the CHIM LEE tops, that's where you'll find me.” CHIM LEE??? “CHIM LEE tops.”

Jeni really did sing “CHIM LEE. tops.”

Next time she is in Bexley, I’ll “axe” her why the unusual pronunciation.

The intermission is a little bourse where four of the trio’s five CDs are sold and autographed by the musicians. The phrase “…going like hot cakes” is descriptive.

The most recent CD is from 2006, “We’ll Be Together Again”

The CDs are available from www.jenifleming.com.

Jeni Fleming studied classical piano. She is an award winning soloist and is a talent opener at the annual Jazz Montana Festival in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Jake Fleming is a public school music teacher. He is also minister of music at the Center for Campus Ministry at MSU-Bozeman. He was the winner of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award-1992, and Academic Excellence Award in the MSU Concerto Competition for 1994.

Jake and Jeni Fleming are husband and wife.

Craig Hall works with several artists and groups from the intermountain region of Montana. He is a graduate of MSU and has studied guitar and vibraphone. His name appears on more than thirty six music CDs of regional artists. His work on these CDs is as arranger of string orchestrations and guitarist. Craig is also a recipient of a Montana Arts Council Fellowship.

The second half of the concert is an easy experience. Easy to enjoy. Easy to appreciate the musicianship of all three individuals. The first half was the performance of a trio. The second half highlights the individuals. The arrangements keep melodies intact and make it easy for the audience to pay attention to individual performances.

The first number I don’t recognize. Lyric includes “I can’t hear what you say” and “Second hand winds.”

An anecdote follows the first piece about why Craig became a bass player. Bozeman had no bass player, so Craig took the time to learn the instrument and now supplies bass for music ensembles throughout the city. He is always playing the bass for other combos. Craig has yet to have bass accompaniment for his own guitar playing.

Then follows a discussion of Jeni learning Portuguese. That explains the Jobin pieces. Jeni claims to be fluent in three sentences in Portuguese. “I would like fish, I would like a beer. I’m on a diet.”

Then Craig was featured on a song that had lyrics “I promise no more-no more fears, no more sighs…happiness I found was in my hometown.”

The title is probably “No More Blues.” This is followed by the Beatles “Can’t buy me love.” And then Paul Simon “Still crazy after all these years.” The anecdote that introduces the Paul Simons song is about the ease of shopping for groceries at 11:30 p.m. and listening to the Paul Simon song on the grocery store Muzak.

The standing ovation at the end brings another Jobin piece as encore. “The Girl from Ipanema.” Jeni sings the piece in Portuguese. Not one line though is about fish, beer or diets. Only “Danny Boy.”
.
There is mystery in this performance. My puzzlement on the walk home asks simple questions with no answers. Was the performance complex or was it really simple. Is Jeni’s voice what hypnotized me or was it her performance that mesmerized? She is a mystery that makes a hot summer night very nice.

Contact us.
WCRX-LP Editorial Collective
Bexley Public Radio Foundation operating as
WCRX-LP, 102.1 FM, Local Power Radio
2700 E. Main St., Suite 208
Columbus, OH 43209
Voice (614) 235 2929
Fax (614) 235 3008
Email wcrxlp@yahoo.com
Blog http://agentofcurrency.blogspot.com

Bexley Public Radio Foundation operating as WCRX-LP, 102.1 FM is exempt from federal taxes under IRC Section 501(c)(3). Donations are deductible from federal income taxes for individuals who itemize. Checks may identify the payee as Bexley Public Radio Foundation WCRX-LP, 102.1 FM.

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Bexley Public Radio Foundation.

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