Northeast Wisconsin Music Review

The Ambassadors

Birch Creek Music Performance Center, Egg Harbor , WI

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County, Sister Bay, WI

July 19, 2007

A for Ambassadors

Years of experience in listening to music often results in an increased measure of pleasure from hearing young musicians, budding artists, encounter the great traditions in classical music and jazz. Not infrequently, they bring a fresh enthusiasm to music too frequently executed with dull routine by established figures whose enthusiasm has fled, chased by a constant diet of the same thing night after night. The phenomenon of discovery enables Birch Creek to hold out to audiences performances filled to overflowing with the art’s vital juices, substantial and undiluted.

This is, after all, the essential stuff of music – discovery and adventure. Absent that, music dries to powder and vanishes in the wind.

To offer its students maximum opportunities for growth and exposure to audiences, Birch Creek several years ago established the Ambassadors, an elite student combo which is kept busy performing all over Door County during each two-week jazz session. This year’s first edition was one of the best yet, talented and well-integrated.

They listen to each other closely.

At a cabaret-type setting in Sister Bay , the sextet could be heard and observed closely; proximity only added to one’s appreciation for what they had to offer. The members were alto saxophonist Alex Weitz from Tucson, Arizona; tenor man Blake Deibel of St. Louis, Missouri; trumpeter Andrew Panzer of Prospect Heights, Illinois; bassist Beau Knippel of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; drummer Bryan Butelefski of Neenah, Wisconsin and pianist Jacob Dupre of Baton Rouge, Louisiana . When we heard them for their Thursday evening’s concert, they had played together only since Monday.

Under the supervision of Steve Fulton, one of today’s finest trumpeters and an involved, knowledgeable instructor, the group tackled a long list of basic jazz standards, sometimes in arrangements close to those which have achieved fame, sometimes in strikingly different takes. As happens in jazz clubs, each player was given the space to create a solo statement that had a logical beginning, a building middle section and a logical conclusion. Each player had the wherewithal to accomplish much of what he desired. Technical security, familiarity with many of the great players on their respective instruments and a palpable conviction about what they were undertaking provided the impetus and incentive for performances that were remarkably satisfying.

Alex Weitz plays with much of the edgy passion that marks the best alto artists. His grasp of glissandi and slurs provides momentum to his phrasing and he articulates his lines with notable drive and conviction. We understand that he also plays tenor, but believe that his is a real alto temperament; he well may find his true pathway with that instrument. On tenor, Blake Deibel offers firm, focused tone and a more laid-back persona. He, too, improvises easily around the changes and shapes his phrases with unruffled authority. Trumpeter Andrew Panzer (who also served as spokesmen for the ensemble), played well on Flugelhorn with a handsome sound and the occasional inclination to step outside home-base tonality to explore parallel harmonies. Bassist Beau Knippel laid down lines that aided the front-line players while maintaining good intonation and crisp fingering. Bryan Butelefski has a considerable arsenal of drum figures and is a propulsive percussionist. Sometimes too loud for the soloists he was accompanying, he simply may have been caught in the resonances emanating from the two walls close to his set-up.

The sixth member of the Ambassadors was in another category altogether. Jacob Dupre, barely 15 years of age, played piano with a fullness that engendered disbelief. Although compact in size, he already has a huge technique, able to encompass the most intricate passagework and the reach to summon large chords, often adding an affecting tremolo a la Oscar Peterson. An uncanny gift for arresting modulation imprints his solo work with a sovereignty given to the very few. His imagination is as vast as his technical means, never stalling out even in the most complex intricacies. When we spoke with him as intermission, he told us that his current teacher has urged him to listen to more contemporary pianists, among them Chick Correa. We replied that we felt he was destined to be a far finer artist than that gentleman. His ability right now is almost Tatumesque – and that’s not stretching things one bit. Oh, and he swings with absolute ferocity. One of the most gifted young artists we’ve encountered in a number of years.

Running through such tunes as “C Jam Blues” “Perdido,” “Blue Monk,” “Chasin’ the Bird,” “When Your Lover has Gone” and “Billy’s Bounce,” the Ambassadors pulled together a double set that would have done credit to many professional combos.

Never discount the young; they can surprise us again and again in ways we cannot always anticipate – and for that we can be glad. (Erik Eriksson)