The Juli Wood Quartet Performed at UMD

The Juli Wood Quartet filled the Weber Music Hall with jazzy tunes Wednesday night. The quartet consists of Juli Wood (tenor sax and vocals), Paul Silbergleit (guitar), Clay Schaub (bass) and Mike Schlick (drums). 

Silbergleit is a jazz guitarist, composer, educator and author based out of Milwaukee. He has worked with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He is also a member of We Six, an area jazz supergroup. 

Silbergleit also has albums that are climbing the jazz charts titled “Silberglicity,” “My New Attitude,” and “January.” 

Schaub is an educator at the Milwaukee Jazz Institute and an in-demand bassist. He performs over 300 concerts every year. He is an artist for Origin Records. Schaub also authored a method book for beginning jazz bassists titled “How to Build Walking Bass Lines in 14 Days.”

Schlick is an in-demand drummer in Chicago. He is also the drummer for two other bands that are led by Juli Wood.

Wood is a saxophonist, vocalist, composer and educator. Jazz has been a lifelong pursuit for her with four albums released, several studio projects and a number of worldwide performances (all in the past 20 years). 

The members met at different times in life, but all in Milwaukee. “The jazz community in any city, they kind of find each other at jam sessions and they keep calling the same people because you have a nice chemistry together,” Wood said. 

Wood’s fascination with the saxophone started in the sixth grade. She was 12 years old when she was watching the nationally televised program “Soul Train” that came out of Chicago. There were bands such as James Brown and KC and The Sunshine Band. “So, I thought the saxophone looked cool,” Wood said. “And I liked the sound of it.”

While her main instrument is the saxophone, Wood dabbled with the flute and clarinet as well as bassoon in college. 

She studied jazz at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and now she currently teaches at the Music Institute of Chicago. 

With 35 years of private lesson teaching experience, Wood’s advice to students studying music is to have a lot of fun with it. “Be passionate,” she said. “Take it where you can. Not everybody wants to or has to be a professional musician, but just enjoying the music is the main thing.”

Wood and her quartet are currently on a small tour. “I don’t tour very often, just maybe three times a year,” Wood said. “I can’t do that too often with the teaching schedule.” 

This Up North tour started at Concordia Language Village, a leader in global education that offers language and cultural programs for all ages. The quartet visited a Finnish language village called Salolampi. “I used to go there with my mom,” Wood said. “Then I started researching Finnish folk songs and arranging them for jazz quartet.” 

Wood has a recording called Synkkä Metsä that consists of Finnish folk songs. Her grandparents came to the USA from Finland, so she grew up hearing the music and learning a little bit of the Finnish language. 

Wood goes to Finland almost every summer, at least 20 times in her lifetime. “I have friends and cousins there,” she said. “It’s pretty fun to go over and play and eat the good bread.”

The quartet knew they’d have to do more performances than just the one at the language village, so they played at universities and clubs along the way as well.

Some of Wood’s favorite career moments include one of the quartet’s recent concerts from their current tour at the Jazz Central Studios in Minneapolis. “That was a highlight,” Wood said. 

She also enjoys traveling and festivals. “I think traveling is always so much fun for me,” she said. “Going to Finland, going to Spain, but also some of the more high profile gigs like playing at the Chicago Jazz Festival, I’ve done that a couple times and that’s always fun.”

The quartet is enjoying their tour and were excited to arrive at UMD. “I have an aunt and uncle who used to teach there years and years ago and my cousin and their children still live in Duluth,” Wood said. “So, it’s going to be a little bit of a family reunion.” 

“I love this city,” Wood said. “It’s neat to see how the city’s changing.”