Entertainment

Their love of music

It’s one of those brisk, beautiful fall days.

Steve Dolins and Derek Montgomery are sitting on the wide stone steps of Bradley University’s Dingeldine Music Center contemplating the recent past and near future of the jazz and blues series they started here.

In the recent past, like last year, they brought in Chicago jazz saxophonist Ari Brown and bluesy jazz pianist Earma Thompson, who recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Jazz Institute of Chicago.

On Wednesday, they’re bringing in Chicago’s Kimberly Gordon Trio.

Montgomery, the jazz fan, is gushing about Ari Brown’s performance and masters class at Dingeldine last year.

"I tell you, when Ari was here, it was like a fantasy camp for me," he says.

Dolins, the owner of a record company, is worrying about the things record producers worry about.

"Of all the CDs I’ve produced, hers has been the toughest to get exposure for." He’s talking about Kimberly Gordon, who’s headlining the trio with guitarist Andy Brown and organist Chris Foreman.

Dolins can’t understand. It’s competitive out there for jazz singers, but Gordon is great. Besides, she’s a beloved regular at the Green Mill, the Chicago club that launched careers of the likes of well-known jazz vocalists Kurt Elling and Patricia Barber.

And, Dolins is saying, Foreman is simply the best of his generation. Better known for his work with Deep Blue Organ Trio, Foreman belongs in the same league as fabled B-3 Hammond organists Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff.

He’s that good?

"Oh yeah," Montgomery and Dolins croon in unison.

They are the likeliest of unlikely duos.

Montgomery is the psychology professor/jazz fan who believes live jazz is as valuable for Bradley students and the Peoria area as a classroom lecture. Dolins is the founder and owner of The Sirens Records – a well-regarded independent record label dedicated to preserving Chicago’s blues legacy – who also teaches in Bradley’s computer science department.

One loves jazz, the other loves blues, especially classic blues piano. One deals with the emotional workings of the human brain. The other works with the structures of the technological brain. Neither comes out of Bradley’s music department. Yet, together, they’re introducing new audiences to the art and history of Chicago jazz and its roots in the blues.

The two met through mutual friends, and Montgomery, in a sense, took on the producer’s role, finding the funding to bring musicians to teach honors classes at Bradley, promoting their free performances at Dingeldine for local audiences.

"It seemed like the perfect synthesis," Montgomery says. "Steve, with all of his talents and connections, and this university, with all of its resources."

At 51, Dolins’ connections go back to his teen years in Skokie when his brother, Barry (who later started the Chicago Blues Festival), introduced him to the blues and boogie-woogie sounds of the pianists who would become his idols, friends and recording artists for his label.

He was only 19 when he started Sirens and produced its first CD, "Heavy Timbre," a gathering of Chicago boogie piano masters Willie Mabon, Sunnyland Slim, Blind John Davis, Jimmy Walker and Erwin Helfer. Helfer was Dolins’ piano teacher, mentor and guide to Chicago’s blues and jazz worlds.

Dolins wanted to help under-recognized musicians by recording them. He called them up, asked them to meet him at the studio.

"They were happy to participate in the project, even with a 19-year-old who didn’t know what he was doing," he says.

His work, but not his love for the blues, took hiatus while he grew up, finished school, worked, married. He restarted the label in 2001, again, with his heart instead of his head.

"This was never a business decision, it’s not the most commercial music in the world," he says. "It was always more about trying to help the musicians."

Since then, Dolins has recorded 15 more CDs, capturing old masters for posterity and young masters he thinks should be the next generation of legends in gospel, blues and jazz.

It’s one of those brisk, beautiful fall days.

Dolins and Montgomery are sitting on the wide stone steps of Dingeldine, replaying, in words, the music in their heads.

Dolins speaks in a sad, slow blues.

"The injustice of it all," he’s saying. "The injustice of it all, so many greats never got the recognition they deserve."

Montgomery is the spirit of jazz improvisation, riffing on connections between blues and jazz, between Dolins’ interests in computer science and passion for the blues.

"It’s almost like both parts of his brain are working," he’s saying. "That’s an unusual combination. People usually focus on the mathematical analytial side or the emotional side. It’s rare to find the combination."

Montgomery, the fan, starts to sound like Dolins, the producer, however, when the subject returns to the future.

"I’d love to make these events an annual thing," he says, "but funding is always an issue." For his last note, he wants to make sure the Bradley group that sponsored the event gets a mention: Bradley University Intellectual and Cultural Activities Committee.