Argus Leader July 3, 2003
Jill Callison

An acoustic jazz trio with ties to a local church will give a concert Sunday.

The Jeni Fleming Trio of Bozeman, Mont., is connected to First Lutheran Church through its senior pastor, the Rev. John Christopherson, and its director of music, Brian Johnson.

Jeni Fleming, then Jeni Ramseth; Jake Fleming and Chad Langford were students at Montana State University in Bozeman from 1995-2000.

Christopherson was a professor and university chaplain at MSU; Johnson was a part-time professor of music.

Students and professors joined to create different liturgies and guide a church community of young adults that was the fast-growing campus ministry congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Christopherson and Johnson reunited in the winter of 2002 at First Lutheran. The Flemings, who were married three years ago, and Langford have remained in Bozeman, pursuing a career in music.

The trio has released several CDs.

Jeni Fleming can sing as effortlessly as Barbara Streisand and her voice has the jazzy lilt of Whitney Houston and the sheer electricity of Mariah Carey, Christopherson says. A recent review compares her force to that of recent Grammy winner Norah Jones.

But don't let the comparisons fool you into thinking you've heard it before, Christopherson says. It has a unique quality of its own.

Johnson says the Jeni Fleming Trio is on the cusp of national recognition.

"Jake was teaching full time out in Montana; Chad had been working on a master's degree in composition out on the West Coast," Johnson says. "I think right now they're taking a look at what kind of things might be able to happen. This is the first time they've had energy and time to give this thing a go."

Christopherson met Jeni Ramseth in 1996 when she transferred to MSU. Her father, the Rev. Mark Ramseth, was Christopherson's bishop, and Christopherson's mother, Dorothy, of Sioux Falls, and Jeni's grandmother were old friends.

Her grandmother also was gifted musically. She taught at St. Olaf College until her late 70s, then taught at Carleton College until she was in her mid-80s.

Jeni's father suggested Christopherson should ask her to sing at the campus services. Helping Christopherson with those was his minister of music, Jake Fleming.

Langford plays upright bass, Johnson says. Jake Fleming plays guitar and saxophone.

"Then Jeni has this outrageously great voice," he says. "They run the gamut stylistically. They're all classically trained, but they have exposure in pop and jazz and folk as well as traditional stuff."

The Jeni Fleming Trio also will play at all three services Sunday at First Lutheran. The jazz liturgy will be supported by the church's 15-member big band.

Jeni Fleming will sing "Over the Rainbow," which will tie in with Christopherson's meditation as First Lutheran begins a capital campaign.

Johnson is looking forward to playing once more with the Flemings and Langford.

"They just love music," he says. "Chad just kind of gets lost in another world, and it's really the same with the other two."