Once Driftless, Always Driftless

It’s a Sunday afternoon in early November, and Luther students in the Driftless Jazz Ensemble have gathered in Jenson-Noble Hall of Music to start planning for their 2024 “Very Merry Driftless Christmas” holiday concert.

The energy is palpable, the banter playful as the 10-member group brainstorms its set list for the mid-December gig at Impact Coffee in Decorah. Potential songs (think “Last Christmas” by Wham!, “My Favorite Things” by Tony Bennett, and other popular holiday tunes) pipe through the speakers mounted high on the walls as the musicians work to whittle down the list and organize selected songs into sets.

“We’ve got to do ‘Hot Chocolate,’” urges Geoff Hjerleid ’86 of Byron, Minnesota, a self-proclaimed “DJE groupie” who sparked the creation of the ensemble in 2013 and today volunteers as its coordinator and an occasional vocalist. “Remember, this is your last time to cut loose before exams.”

The Driftless Jazz Ensemble at a rehearsal in November

Over the next 90 minutes, Christian Montover ’26 riffs on guitar, Simon McDonald ’26 fine-tunes his drums, Leif Carey-Odden ’25 runs scales on alto sax, and Ellie Hoehne ’26 (vocals) and Noah Bowers ’26 (guitar, bass, vocals) take turns rearranging song names on a large whiteboard in the center of the room. Jonas Haugland ’25 (trombone), David Helbling ’26 (soprano and tenor sax), Kristian Stordalen ’26 (trumpet), Mike Van Meter ’26 (bass), and Linaea Walsh ’28 (vocalist) add to the spirited debate. Eventually, all the musicians agree the song list looks, well, just right, and the playing of music begins.

“The band always makes decisions as a group,” observes Hjerleid of the dynamic that produced the set list. “There’s no hierarchy here.”
Hjerleid, an attorney with the Olmsted County (Minnesota) Attorney’s Office, provided the impetus for the group’s formation more than a decade ago. In 2013, he was helping organize the annual Olmsted County Bar Association fundraiser for a local nonprofit that provides free civil legal services to low-income individuals. When the topic of entertainment arose, Hjerleid pitched the idea of getting a band to play the event. “The best way I can describe my thinking at that moment was: go big or go home,” he says with a smile.

The idea was greenlighted, and Hjerleid started his search at his alma mater (of course!), where he knew that the jazz program, under the longstanding leadership of Tony Guzmán ’90, professor of music, attracted an array of talented young musicians each year. “I contacted Luther and essentially said, ‘Can you help an old alumnus? I need a band for a fundraiser,’” he recalls. Jon Ailabouni ’10, a gifted trumpeter then serving on the Luther music faculty, didn’t hesitate to answer the proverbial call.

The Driftless Jazz Ensemble at a event in Rochester, Minnesota, in 2022

“I’ve always been very supportive of students performing and working professionally,” says Ailabouni, today an assistant teaching professor at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. “This seemed like a great opportunity, and Geoff, as a Luther alumnus, was especially enthusiastic about the idea.”

And just like that, the formation of a small jazz band of student musicians began. (Credit Ailabouni with the apropos “Driftless Jazz Ensemble” name.) The group has played at the Olmsted County Bar Association fundraiser ever since—and, as its reputation has grown, especially around Decorah, at as many other gigs as its schedule can accommodate. “The students are really busy,” Hjerleid says of the challenge of booking events. “They’re involved in so many other things at Luther.”

In the first couple of years, Ailabouni took the stage with the students at the Rochester fundraiser. “Performing with students in professional settings taps into the spirit of mentorship and learning on the bandstand that is integral to the jazz tradition,” he reflects. “This is music that was meant to be learned aurally from elders (though when I played with DJE, I was only in my 20s)—and, as any musician knows, we all learn so much by performing.”

Over time, however, the students in the ensemble took the reins: “As the students grew in their abilities and independence, it was good to see them handle the leadership, communication, and logistics to make this commitment on their own, as that’s also an important part of formation as a professional musician,” Ailabouni says.

A big part of that commitment, Hjerleid points out, is ensuring the continuity of the band: “It’s very much driven by the students—the current members are always thinking about who is coming onboard next, who might be a good fit to fill a future opening.”

Sam Liska ’23 of St. Paul, Minnesota—who played trumpet for the ensemble as a student and continues, as he puts it, “to jam with the group” if asked—well remembers the moment he was approached about becoming part of DJE. “I was playing my trumpet late one night in the orchestra room in Jenson-Noble, and I looked up to see two seniors standing at the door,” he says. “They asked me if I’d like to join their group, and thus my time in Driftless began.”

The Driftless Jazz Ensemble at a rousing show at Impact Coffee in Decorah

Liska recalls many wonderful moments performing with DJE but says one was particularly moving. “Playing at Impact Coffee during Nordic Fest 2022 was unforgettable,” he says. “That performance drew one of the largest crowds the group had ever attracted, and I can remember the floor literally shaking from so many people dancing.”

Ellie Hoehne was hooked when she heard the band perform a few months later at its 2022 holiday show at Impact. “The music they made that night felt like a living thing, like something taking shape right in front of the audience, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she says. Much to her delight, she was asked to join the band her junior year. The experience hasn’t disappointed.

“Every once in a while, we’ll be performing a tune and something will just click,” she says. “The music suddenly takes over, and all we can do is try to keep up. It doesn’t happen every time, but when it does, it’s absolutely magical.”

It was the high standard of musicianship that immediately impressed Christian Montover when he was asked to sit in on a DJE rehearsal in 2022. Over the past couple years, he’s loved playing music without boundaries: swing and jazz, rock and blues, country, and material he can only describe as “pretty off-the-wall.” “I’ve really enjoyed being in a group where no holds are barred,” he says. “The theme for me would be continual reinvention—it’s fun to be in a group where being a static entity doesn’t work by its nature.”

That’s because, as Jackson Kates ’24, an alumni member now living in St. Paul, Minnesota, emphasizes, “The beauty of the band is that it’s always reforming—people drift in and out because members graduate or study abroad, and new people then come in to fill their spots.”

The Driftless Jazz Ensemble at a holiday concert in 2023

Kates was recruited to DJE by Hjerleid and by drummer Nolan Mancl ’23. “I remember it just being fun from the start,” he recalls. “It was all about friends making live music together the best we possibly could. It was magical, and Geoff helped create this space where we could create that magic.”

Ailabouni agrees. “Geoff should get a lot of credit for doing much of the legwork, scheduling and booking gigs and pulling the groups together around a fixed date on the calendar,” he says. “That’s a huge part of putting a band together.”

Hjerleid himself downplays his role in the ensemble, emphasizing instead that it’s the band members who log the hours of practice and deliver onstage time and again. “I get to listen to a fantastic band when we rehearse, and when we have a gig, sometimes, I get to sing,” he says. “But either way, I get to see my favorite band live, and I get the best seat in the house. It’s an absolute blast.”

There’s at least one thing upon which all the musicians involved with DJE, including Hjerleid, can agree: once Driftless, always Driftless. “This group has such a special sense of community because we know we’re a part of something larger than us,” says Liska. “After graduating and leaving the group for the next generation of Driftless members, I feel an even stronger sense of community with my Driftless peers, because there’s a degree of trust in giving away something you hold dearly.”