music

Maybe it's because they don't crave the limelight the way rock stars do, or it could simply be that they don't often write lyrics. But Minnesota jazz musicians can be hard to get to know.

Take Laura Caviani. Most people in the local jazz community have known of her for 15 years, as long as she has been playing piano with many of the scene's biggest talents and releasing her own well-received albums. But what do we really know about her?

Over the course of lunch at the Dakota -- where she's hosting a release party Wednesday for her latest CD, "Going There" -- I learned a lot of curious little bits about the St. Cloud native, some of which I never would have guessed.

Things like ...

• She served in the Air Force for four years after graduating from the University of Kansas in the early 1980s. Her stint in the Air Force Band was her first real taste of touring, which she has since done aplenty.

• Her dad was friends with Herbie Hancock at Grinnell College. The jazz legend even wrote a song for Caviani's parents, Dave and Catharine, when they got engaged (alas, it was never recorded).

• Laura herself has been romantically linked for about 10 years to saxophonist Pete Whitman, whom she calls her "guiding light" and "soul mate" in the liner notes to "Going There." She also records and performs in his acclaimed Pete Whitman X-tet.

• She played the trumpet, not piano, throughout high school and college, but she doesn't even own one anymore, nor does she miss it. "It's hard to go back from the piano," she said. "It's just the best instrument. It's like an orchestra at your fingertips."

• She can sing, too. I actually learned that from "Between the Lines," a bright and bluesy track on the new CD. Upon hearing the deep and affectionate voice on the track, I had the same reaction as renowned jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson: "I had to look to see who the singer was!"

Caviani made a name for herself nationally playing in Allyson's band in the late 1990s, after the singer left the Twin Cities for Kansas City. She's still close enough to Karrin to have co-opted her rhythm section, Bob Bowman and Todd Strait, to play on "Going There." The duo is also coming to town this week for Caviani's three CD parties.

"There are plenty of great local drummers and bassists I could've used, but Bob and Todd have that Kansas City groove thing that I just got hooked on," Caviani explained.

"Going There" is full of that groove, especially in tracks like "In the Interim" and "Tobacco Blues," the latter written by Caviani about the pitfalls of touring for someone trying to give up smoking. Hey, there are worse vices that a musician can pick up on the road.

Caviani writes almost all of her own music, a trait that grew out of her classical training. In fact, she says, "I composed jazz before I could really play it."

Two of the tracks on "Going There" grew out of special seminars/fellowships that Caviani enrolled in. "The Gilded Cage," a mid-tempo highlight on the disc, came out of a three-week study with pianist JoAnne Brackeen in which participants had to write one song every day. The eloquent "Paper Cranes" was written during a stay at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village in Japan after Caviani visited a Hiroshima museum.

The most personal track on the disc, though, is "In His Hands," which she wrote the day after jazz veteran Bobby Peterson's funeral in 2002.

"He was such a mentor to me musically, but he was also a very spiritual person," she said.

Caviani is quite the mentor, too, through her teaching roles at both Carleton and St. Olaf colleges. She believes wholeheartedly in music education. In fact, she says she's still learning herself.

"I learn things from my students, the people I play with, everyone," she said.