Craig Thrane of Minnesota Jazz Chamber Orchestra and I met up with Phil Nusbaum to give a sneak preview of our Holiday Show, Mick Sterling Presents Chart House Live: Wishing You A Swinging Holiday - An Evening with Ella on Tuesday, December 27, 2022.

 Phil Nusbaum

Listening to Courtney Burton with the Minnesota Chamber Jazz Orchestra doing some Ella Fitzgerald, and you do a lot of Ella. Why is that Craig?

Craig Thrane

You can't beat Ella Fitzgerald. I mean, she represents America. You listen to her music, you listen to her lyrics, you listen to her sound, and that is true Americana.

Phil Nusbaum

In listening to the Great American Songbook, Ella curated from many songs, and of course, it's not an official listing. It's just, you know, the songs that you don’t want them to ever go away. Why did you include “Something's Gotta Give?”

Craig Thrane

You know,” Something's Gotta Give,” it's just, it's got this wonderful, upbeat attitude about it. And it's famous. I mean, everybody in the United States has heard this tune at some point or another, but nobody doesn't like Ella.

Phil Nusbaum

Your band has a singer that really enjoys it.

Craig Thrane

We've got a great singer. Her name is Courtney Burton, and she is the embodiment of Ella Fitzgerald in the Twin Cities.

Phil Nusbaum

When you're presenting a program, and the audience is supposed to like it, but it really helps if the band likes it. Who decides what the band is going to play?

Craig Thrane

Well, we're a collaborative group, kind of like how Ella was, and so we all discuss it together. We all work on it together. Collaboration is everything, but you got to have something that the band likes and the audience is going to like. Otherwise, there's no energy, and we got energy.

Phil Nusbaum

You also got to know when to play with a lot of focus, as in the song that's kind of slow as the band grooves on something like “Georgia on My Mind”

Craig Thrane

You got to stop and think about the feeling. I'm gonna ask you this. Do you think “Georgia on My Mind” is about the state or the person?

Phil Nusbaum

I'm a person guy; when it was a radio song, and I heard it, I wonder, but I thought no, no, he's that this song is being sung to a person.

Craig Thrane

I agree with you, but most people think of the state, and if you stop and think about the person, it adds a whole new set of romance to that tune.

Phil Nusbaum

We're speaking with Craig Thrane of the Minnesota jazz Chamber Orchestra. Some of the songs that your band performs you chose because of the backstory.

Craig Thrane

The backstory is great. It's part of what makes the song all humanized. If you take a look at the tune “Skylark,” I mean that was done by Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, and if you believe the urban legend, Johnny Mercer, had an affair with Judy Garland. And I look at one lyric, in particular, “my heart is riding on your wings.” And I think of him thinking that or saying that to Judy Garland, and every day now, if I see an old Buick Skylark going down the street, I think of Ella Fitzgerald, and if you see what I want you to think of MJCO, with Courtney Burton.

Phil Nusbaum

Courtney Burton is the featured vocalist for the Minnesota Jazz Chamber Orchestra. And on your December 27 concert, you're doing some Christmas music. How do you choose?

Courtney Burton

That was really tough. Because this is a show dedicated to the music of Ella Fitzgerald, we opted to, as a group, really look at her holiday tunes and which ones played the best of her style and that big band sound we could get with the chamber-size orchestra. We chose seven based on that.

Phil Nusbaum

We're going to listen to “Let It, Snow, Let It, Snow, Let It Snow.” Why did you choose this one?

Courtney Burton

It's such a fun song, and the arrangement is just uplifting and gives you that Christmas spirit.

Phil Nusbaum

Minnesota Chamber Jazz Orchestra, with vocalist Courtney Burton, features songs made famous by Ella Fitzgerald Thursday, December 27, at Brianno’s Charthouse in Lakeville. The show is at 7:00 pm. For information, the web address is Chart House Live: Mick Sterling Presents .com. The band also plays New Year's Eve from 7:00 pm until 8:30 pm at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center, whose web address is Masonic Heritage Center .org. This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Phil Nusbaum speaking.