Over the past weekend, MTU hosted its annual Don Keranen Jazz Fest–an annual, multi-night event featuring the performances of all of MTU’s most prominent jazz bands: the Lab and R&D Big bands, the Workshop Brass band, the Video Game Music Ensemble, and MTU’s premier jazz combo Jaztek, as well as the musical stylings of this year’s featured guest artist; Steven Hobert.
Hobert is a multi-instrumentalist who plays piano and accordion as well as singing and composing his own music. When asked to describe his own style of music, Hobert said that it is “spontaneous; I like to play in the moment.” Hobert also said that he “likes to incorporate many different styles of music.” American, Brazilian, West African, and Indian are just a few he named. Hobert said that he tries to “bring elements of all types of music into my playing.”
Hobert grew up in Wisconsin, studied music at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, and played for the Glenn Miller Orchestra before eventually moving to the Twin Cities, where he met and played with MTU’s current director of Jazz, Adam Meckler. Now Hobert resides on a farm in the countryside, about an hour and a half away from Minneapolis.
Hobert also gave some insight into his process of creating music. He likes to start with melodic ideas and build them with variations into a full song. He’ll often take a simple idea and start playing it on piano or singing it and just letting whatever he’s feeling in the moment guide where he takes it. Hobert has also said that this is how he approaches naming his pieces as well. Often looking around at his immediate surroundings for inspiration.
For anyone who would like to see the performances of Hobert and the rest of the bands that performed at the Don K Jazz Fest this weekend, the livestreams of the event have been recorded and are available to view on the Rozsa Center YouTube page.
