World renowned tenor saxophone player (and Lakewood resident) Ernie Krivda is now in his fifth decade as a professional musician, but he shows no signs of slowing down. He regularly plays gigs as the leader of several small jazz ensembles and the 19-piece Fat Tuesday Big Band. Throughout his long and varied career, Ernie has done everything from backing up Motown artists like The Four Tops and The Supremes to touring with Quincy Jones’ band. He’s also managed to have a prolific career as a band leader in his own right, leading quintets, quartets, trios, and the Fat Tuesday Big Band. His work is routinely given high marks by jazz critics, who have called him “a major talent” and “one of the most important saxophonists of the decade”. Ernie will be bringing his jazz quintet to the Lakewood Public Library on Saturday June 23rd for its fundraising gala. I recently had the chance to speak with Ernie about this upcoming performance as well as other aspects of his career.

Lakewood Observer: Tell me a little about the show you’ll be performing at the Lakewood Public Library. What can people expect?

Ernie Krivda: I’m going to be performing with my quintet, which is made up of Bob Fraser on guitar. He’s a great, renowned guitarist, one of the most versatile in the country. He happens to also live in Lakewood. Peter Dominguez is on bass, and he’s a professor of bass at Oberlin Conservatory. Not only is he a great jazz bass player, but he’s a great orchestral bass player as well. On drums I have Ron Godale, who recorded with me as far back as 1980. And I’ll have Erin Kufel on vocals, she’s a great young talent. We’ll be playing a mix of standards from the great American songbook, and some originals as well that I have written.

LO: You also recently did a performance with the Lakewood Project.

EK: They’re absolutely wonderful. A string quartet from the Lakewood Project played a piece that I wrote for jazz tenor sax and a string quartet. And we performed that at the last Lakewood Project concert.

LO: How is the audience for jazz in Northeast Ohio?

EK: I think that they haven’t been given a lot of jazz choices recently. But it seems that when they are given choices, they are there and they support it, and they like it. I don’t know why the promoters don’t agree with me, but they don’t offer as much. But there actually is a jazz audience that’s hungry for more of it, and I hear that from them.

LO: In addition to your jazz quintet, you also have the Fat Tuesday Big Band. Do you prefer one to the other, or are they both equally fun?

EK: The Fat Tuesday Big Band is a 19 piece band, and it’s a very, very swinging big band. I’ve recorded a number of times with that group, and I enjoy that very much. Each band I play in is fun in different ways. Besides the big band I have a trio I play with, bass and drums. That’s enjoyable as well, once again for different reasons. I do a lot of different things because I like the differences and the challenges of each project. And I feel like I’m better for having done the different things.

LO: What’s the role of improvisation in your music?

EK: If you’re playing with a big band, much less of it is improvised, and what is improvised has to fit very specific situations because you have an arrangement. Whatever improvising is done has to fit. When there’s a smaller group, the ability to set the direction is there. That’s not necessarily true when you have an arrangement. So it’s a different kind of improvisation, but they’re equally challenging.

LO: Do you have a new album in the works?

EK: The trio that I mentioned is going to New York to record in June. So sometime at the end of 2007, most likely the beginning of 2008 I’ll have another CD out. Actually the plans are to record 2 CDs for CIMP Records, who I’ve recorded for many times. It will be mostly my original compositions.

LO: Anything else you want to add?

EK: I just wanted to say I think it’s absolutely wonderful that the library is going to have a performance space. Having played a number of times in the basement, I think it’s high time. It’s going to be great. It’ll give a whole new perspective to the arts in Lakewood, and most certainly the library.