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It is the Artists’ Quarter in downtown St. Paul, one of the many gathering points for followers of a thriving underground jazz scene in the Twin Cites, and one of the only places still receiving visitors at such an hour in the area, even if it is only 9 p.m. On this late August Wednesday night, local night at the AQ, it is a Hamline band, Envy, that is sharing the spotlight, setting up for one last hurrah before the pressure of the school year comes back over them.

The band itself is an effort by seven members of the Hamline University Jazz Ensemble featuring Josh Schultz on piano, Josh Kothe-Levie on guitar, Jake Wylie playing baritone sax, George Eliou on tenor sax, Peter LaVoie on alto sax, Aaron Rupar on drums, and Nick Sagan playing bass guitar. All of them are entering their senior years at Hamline, with the exception of LaVoie who is only in his third year of college.

This particular night, however, is missing Wylie, but with two saxophones remaining, the show would continue. Surrounded by images of the greats of the genre about the entire exterior of the room, the band set up as a crowd slowly amassed. The venue conforms well to the stereotypical jazz club image, with a bar in the back and a stage surrounded by tables close enough to reach from the stage. Such an intimate setting highlighted the generational variance of the crowd with groups of college students pressed right up next to older patrons and right up close to the artists. With a genre that has lived on through the time it is notable that its appeal has transcended the ages as well.

“The Midwest has been tremendous for many genres, but especially in the Twin Cities jazz has had a good underground following,” Sagan said later. You could see the following here as attendance approached the triple digits, quite a feat for the opening act in a place not designed to hold too many more. Add onto this the bleakness of the sidewalks outside and there is a strong testament to the strength of the scene and the music it represents.

After a crowd-pleasing 60-minute set, Envy gave way to the main act of the night, Green. It was Envy’s first show at the AQ as a whole, though some of the members had played there before. In fact, the band’s current name can be traced back to the AQ and the band Green.

“Josh Shultz’s brother is in Green, and some of our guys were playing in their horn section [in June] and when one of the guys went to introduce them to the crowd they didn’t have a name. So he said ‘This is
Green with envy.’ That name sort of stuck,” explained Sagan.

The band has been together in some form for years, since the fall of 2002 when the group’s core members met as freshmen. They were all in the Hamline University Jazz Ensemble, as they still are, and started under the name Stellar Recess. The group has rotated in and out many members over the years, all within the Hamline family, and has gone through numerous name and stylistic changes. They have done everything from competing as a rhythm quartet to their current standing as a septet.

Schultz, Kothe-Levie, Rupar and Sagan have been steady members of the band, and Wylie has also been around for much of the process. The groups latest incarnation materialized over the summer with the addition of Eliou and LaVoie to the horns section, giving the group a more balanced jazz sound.

With school back in session, the band must now focus more on balancing schedules than ever before.

“It is not that hard to keep the jazz ensemble and Envy separate,” Sagan said, “because with the ensemble, it has a very set schedule since it is a for-credit class. What is more difficult is working around our personal schedules. With seven of us having work and classes it becomes harder to work out rehearsal time.”

But as fans of the music, the band members find it worth the effort required to put together the complex and time consuming sound of a jazz combo.

“For jazz there is a lot to do to prepare,” noted Kothe-Levie. “You have to do all of your solo practicing with the music, and there is a lot of memorizing. In practices, we discuss the music to see what direction we should go in. It is different for a show like the one at the Artists’ Quarter. There we had to know exactly what we would be playing, and with the time limit we had to know how long it would be. At a place like Lula’s we can just go up there and figure it out.

“Jazz is one of the best ways to keep up your playing. You need a lot of musical and technical skills and knowledge. It is a high level of music, something you can always get better at no matter how long you play. I am always growing and moving forward as a musician, pushing to get even better.”

Adding to this difficulty is the nature of jazz. A majority of Envy’s music consists of their own adaptations of older jazz standards, a very common practice among jazz musicians.

“It is a good challenge to try and find different ways to play songs that have been played for 50 years. It is mostly repetition, so to set ourselves apart we have to come up with our own spin on songs,” said Kothe-Levie.

Sagan gave some insight into the writing process: “We get together and just play the songs as best we can. We all have our backgrounds in music and we all approach the same pieces from a slightly different angle. We bring together songs we know and if they sound good the first time through, we go with it. Most of the songs we play we have been playing for a while and just changing as we go along.

“We have tried some new and interesting things, like doing Pink Floyd’s Money as jazz. A lot of other styles are strongly influenced by older jazz, and you can hear that in the sound. It all a matter of interpretation, and most of the time interpretations coincide.”

“There is so much jazz out there,” Kothe-Levie added. “We have all just touched the tip. Collectively we all know different songs and we are into different styles within jazz. On the whole we have a good mix of everything, but we are getting more progressive in our sound.”

The night at AQ was not only their interpretations of others, though. The set featured one piece, “Traffic Jam,” that was authored by Schultz, an impressive task in a genre where most of the listeners are themselves musicians. Any weaknesses a piece has will likely be noticed by a crowed of tuned ears, but the audience loved every second of it.

The groups shared love of music makes the time commitment worthwhile. In addition to being involved in two different jazz groups, many of the members are also involved in other musical projects. These side efforts encompass an array of musical styles, but somehow the jazz keeps them together.

“I took lessons as kid, but is still grew up listening to hard core punk, and metal,” Kothe-Levie said. “We are a nice mix of everything in jazz, but we are getting more progressive in our style.

“With jazz I can find a different way to express myself, I speak through the guitar. In rock when you are writing songs and lyrics it is a much different type of expression.”

He also gave a perspective on jazz as a whole, and how they have to try and stand out. “The music that is most commonly recognized as jazz is actually pretty cheesy. You have to try to look for something with a bit more of an edge and model it to the way you like.”

Sagan also had some things to say about the musical process. “We’d like to have more of our own, original pieces, but that can be difficult especially in jazz with all of the work involved. We all have our own styles and strengths that we can bring together. It is nice to listen to how others do things and then get together and collaborate.”

Though the recent show was the first at the AQ for group, they have played all over the Twin Cities thorough their many incarnations. The have played on many college campuses in the region as well as other local jazz clubs. They have played many shows at Lula’s Coffee and Jazz in Uptown in Minneapolis. Kothe-Levie has found the local scene to be very positive for promoting jazz.

“In recent years a lot has been happening in jazz. Happy Apple and other local bands and national bands have been showing that new things can still be done.

“In the Twin Cities especially a lot is going on in jazz. A lot of the more experienced artists are having a great influence on newer acts like us, even if they don’t realize it.”

Although their music is different than the typical local band, their short term goals sound very much the same. “It sounds fairly stereotypical, said Sagan, “but we’d like to get more gigs. We have put out a demo in past, and this year we want to do as much recording as possible to get either a good demo or an album together. And of course we want to just keep playing and get our name out.”

Now with the bustle of classes and the other obligations of school the band is slowing down a little bit to spend more time on other pursuits. Their last major gig of the year is on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. at Lula’s Coffee and Jazz, but they will continue to play together as they contemplate recording and future shows. For now you can catch them at their upcoming show, or the entire Hamline University Jazz Ensemble in their performances throughout the year. Local and national jazz shows can be found nightly at jazz clubs throughout the Twin Cities.