History Club to become jazz club for Great American Songbook performances

It would be difficult to make a straight-faced argument that Sioux Falls is lacking in live music these days.

JazzFest is no more, of course, but the city has a host of venues whose musical offerings can scratch nearly any sonic itch the former JazzFest faithful may have, albeit at a smaller scale. There’s live music at the Levitt Shell three nights a week all through the summer, and music rings out across Phillips Avenue as performers on street corners and patios play for downtown revelers. 

That’s just the free stuff. Bars and concert halls from one end of the city to the other host enough local, regional and touring acts nearly every weekend. 

Even so, there’s still one atmosphere that’s hard to find: a live jazz club with jazz in the foreground, not the background. 

That’s precisely the kind of atmosphere Gene McGowan aims to bring to The History Club of Sioux Falls just south of downtown over the next month or so, with a series of Wednesday night jam sessions set to play out in the run-up to an Aug. 31 jazz party featuring classic tunes from the Great American Songbook.

It’s the second of what the 86-year-old pianist envisioned as an annual “jazz birthday party” back in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic and a handful of other circumstances put plans on hold.

This year, the show will kick off just a few days after McGowan’s 87th birthday.

“A lot of people do different things on their birthdays, and I just decided to have a jazz party,” said McGowan, who spent decades playing for the Navy all over the world and more time still playing clubs in and around Sioux Falls.

The current lineup features McGowan on keys, his 45-year collaborator Greg Olsen on drums, Ralph Olsen on saxophone and Mike Andersen on electric bass. 

Ralph Olsen recently retired from a career playing in pit orchestras for Broadway shows and returned to Sioux Falls.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s up in that phenom category for performers,” McGowan said. 

McGowan’s son Mike, who’ll join the group for the Aug. 31 party, has Broadway credits of his own, performing in shows like “The Producers.” The Lincoln High School graduate also has film and television credits to his name in shows like “Blue Bloods,” “Madam Secretary” and “Law & Order SVU.” 

Mike McGowan will sing the Great American Songbook standards made famous by people like Cole Porter, Erroll Garner, Johnny Mathis, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.

They’re songs the ex-South Dakotan and current New Yorker has known since childhood. Mike McGowan knew early on that he wanted to be a performer — he even did a sixth grade essay on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers — but he had plenty of support and guidance from his family.

“When we were growing up, we were allowed to do just about anything we wanted with our free time, but there were two things we were required to do: piano and swimming lessons,” he said.

He attributes the swimming-lesson requirement to his father’s time in the Navy. The music was a family tradition across generations. Mike McGowan recalls singing jazz standards at his grandmother’s house as a kid, he said, and his mother was a great singer. 

Between all that and his father’s skills as a piano player, Mike McGowan developed a strong appreciation for the songs he’ll sing at the end of August. 

The thematic complexity of the songs themselves makes a jazz club atmosphere an ideal venue, he said. The melodies stick with you, he said, but standards like “My Funny Valentine” or “It Had To Be You” tend to be more clever and layered than a modern pop song.

“As an audience member, it requires you to listen because it’s almost never as simple as you think it is,” Mike McGowan said. 

The birthday party aspect of the show was part of the motivation, McGowan said, but the musicians also yearned for an audience to share those moments with. The core group of Sioux Falls musicians regularly gathers in a shared space in Washington Square to play, but a live audience brings out the best in improvising jazz musicians.

“It’s just a bunch of old guys sitting around playing, and we know how to do it pretty well,” McGowan said. “But none of us want to go play in a bar with a bunch of noisy people.”

The group regularly performs in the lobby of the Washington Pavilion for patrons of the venue’s musicals, but that’s also jazz as background music. 

The History Club felt like just the kind of place to create an intimate, jazz-friendly atmosphere that puts the music in the spotlight. The club at 758 S. Phillips Ave. opened its doors in 1879, and its small ballroom served as a hangout for several generations of early Sioux Falls residents. It’s now a space that can be rented for a variety of occasions. McGowan estimates that 75 people can fit comfortably for the performances. 

Tickets for the Aug. 31 show, which is at 8 p.m., are $25 and available through Eventbrite.

To see other upcoming jazz performances from the group, click here.