Two home town shows in two nights at the wonderful Dakota Jazz Club. We’ll play songs from “The Morning World” and road test some new material before heading into the studio to record our second record.
JULY 2nd and JULY 3rd @ 11:30PM
Dave King-drums
Mike Lewis-saxophones
Nir Felder-guitar
Me-bass
Serious things happening in the Clown Lounge tonight:
metzger/linz/bates and hopefully lewis/fratzke/seru.
10:30. $5. Clown Lounge, Turf Club, Saint Paul, Minnesota
March 1
Charlie Hunter
7:00 and 9:30
“…a man who [has] built his badass reputation by conquering hairy bass lines and heady post-bop melodies simultaneously on custom eight-string instruments… Hunter is still a musical beast.” – Guitar Player
With a career spanning 16 years and almost 20 albums, Charlie Hunter consistently ups his game as an innovative writer and bandleader. He has worked with the likes of Norah Jones, Mos Def, John Mayer, D’Angelo and countless others. He is widely considered the authority on the seven and eight-string guitar, and continues to stun audiences with his ability to simultaneously bust out tasty bass parts, melodic leads and swinging rhythms. Hunter’s signature style of writing and performing has secured his place as one of today’s great guitarists.
February 21-23
Ahmad Jamal
7:00 and 9:30
A true American original: jazz piano legend Ahmad Jamal returns to the Dakota for six shows!
“…his playing is as sensitive, as passionate and as hypnotic as it’s ever been. –Marc Meyers, All About Jazz
Ahmad Jamal is one of the most distinctive and influential pianists in jazz history. His use of space and ability to create moments of tension and release through dynamics are trademarks of his style. Jamal’s elegant touch, muscular and lissome, is instantly recognizable, and his classic “Poinciana” has become a major landmark in the history of jazz and popular music.
Jamal was raised in Pittsburgh, a city revered for its rich musical heritage and home to such jazz luminaries as Errol Garner and Billy Eckstine. (As a boy, Jamal delivered papers to Billy Strayhorn’s family!) He got his first piano job with the George Hudson Orchestra at the age of 17, and began his recording career in 1951. Jamal’s early records had an impact on a young Miles Davis, who insisted that pianist Red Garland sound like him on his classic Quintet recordings from the 1950s. The Davis recordings also feature some early Jamal originals, “New Rhumba” and “Ahmad’s Blues.”
So much more than “the guy who influenced Miles,” Jamal has evolved the piano trio into a single telepathic entity with graceful synergy, and has done so without compromising or losing his musical identity. Jamal’s technique is dazzling, and few pianists can deliver a ballad with the same understated ease he has.
“Ahmad Jamal must be, to a listener unfamiliar with his music, a revelation. Even to those who know his music, each performance comes as a fresh and exciting discovery.” Simon Jay Harper, All About Jazz
“I can think of only one other artist in jazz music I could mention in the same category of awesomeness, Duke Ellington, and he needed sixteen people. Mr. Jamal does it with three guys.” Monty Alexander
Music critic Stanley Crouch consider’s Mr. Jamal’s distinctive style as having had an influence on the same level as “Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and John Lewis, all thinkers whose wrestling with form and content influenced the shape and texture of the music, and whose ensembles were models of their music visions.”
ONE LOW PRICE OF $5
More Cowbell presents.. (UPSTAIRS)
JON & MARLON (members Knife World, Moonstone)
PADHANDLERS (James Buckley of Mystery Palace & Ryan Olson of Gayngs, Building Better Bombs, Marijuana Deathsquad)
BUFFALO MOON
THE REBOUNDS (DJ DUO) (Rebecca Peterson +1)
& DOWNSTAIRS – CLOWN LOUNGE JAZZ
Enormous Quartet makes its debut at the Clown Lounge Tuesday series. A brilliant quartet featuring players of enormous talent, this is a great group to check out.
Volcano Insurance is the brainchild of Madison, WI guitarist Luke Polipnick, whose Ben Monder like compositions are sure to stir up the night.
(Chris Thomson, Park Evans, Chris Bates, Joey Van Phillips) & (Luke Polipnick, Chris Bates, Joey Van Phillips)
December 25-27
The Bad Plus
7:00 & 9:30
The Bad Plus reestablish their Midwestern roots with their annual appearance at the Dakota, where they first appeared under the name “Dave King Trio” in 2000. With their fiercely iconoclastic sound and brilliant original music, they have achieved a level of success that few jazz groups have ever elevated to.
“If the Coen Brothers put together a jazz trio, perhaps it would be like this, the comic and the dramatic rolled together.”
- The Guardian
“With the most distinctive sound of any three-piece outfit since Nirvana, The Bad Plus again demonstrate vitality few bands– rock, jazz, or whatever–can match.”
- Amplifer
not sure who’s playing first or second, but two great trios will perform this monday.
-michael lewis, erik fratzke, and davu seru
-paul metzger, adam linz, jt bates
it shall be a throw down, i’m sure.
happy holidays.
get your ass down there.
10:30, $5
———————
The New Standards played their annual holiday show at The Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, December 5th. Guests included Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, Jeremy Messersmith, Adam Levy, Janey Winterbauer, Prudence Johnson, Kristen Mooney, Eric Heywood, Dan Wilson, and quite a few others. Jazz interpretations of pop hits ran the spectrum: Hey Yeah by Outkast (dated but still entertaining), Do You Realize? by the Flaming Lips, Toxic by Britney Spears (a real highlight), I Want You To Want Me by Cheap Trick. These songs were interspersed with traditional holiday songs. My highlight of the night was “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. The song made me feel like a child at Christmas, and that’s not an easy emotion to capture.
The New Standards and Friends – Pure Imagination from Chase Turner on Vimeo.
Tonight!
4$ Admission covers Jazz in the Clown Lounge & Upstairs show. Happy Birthday Carin (of First Communion Afterparty)
10PM – 21+ – @ Turf Club (1601 University Avenue, Saint Paul, MN)
Upstairs:
Downstairs: Frankhouse & Ingo Bethke
The Black Dog Cafe in St Paul is holding a benefit CD sale with live music on Sunday, December 6th from noon until 6 p.m. Twin Cities guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer Dean Magraw is an artist of extraordinary ability. Dean is recovering from a bone marrow transplant and has had to cancel all of his performances for the foreseeable future. This is the latest in a number of benefits that have been organized to help raise money for Dean’s living expenses. There are nearly a thousand brand new CD’s. Many are hard to find, some have never been available in the U.S before and they represent many different musical genres. You can name your price above the minimum $3 (per CD) donation. The music line-up includes Gabriel Hilmar, Michael Ziegahn Flamenco guitar with dancers (Dean was Michaels first guitar teacher), Jeff Ray on Slide/blues guitar, Raymond Yates and more to be announced.
Records for Dean: Fundraising CD Sale at the Black Dog Cafe in St Paul, 12/6/09
This particular event has a French connection, Dean Magraw toured all over France several times with the group Next, created by François Corneloup with Dean, JT Bates, Chico Huff and Dominique Pifarély. He made many connections and got many fans and friends over there. His many friends over there worked with the French independent record label association Les Allumés du Jazz to collect a good selection of 600 CD’s from France and had them delivered to the Twin Cities to ofer them for this benefit. Local record labels and musicians have also donated hundreds of CD’s for this sale.
This is a great way to show your support for Dean and pick up a few holiday gifts and stocking-stuffers at the same time! The Black Dog will also donate 10% of all food and drink purchases to the cause.
The Black Dog is located at 308 Prince Street, near the farmer’s Market in Lowertown, St Paul. For more information visit www.blackdogstpaul.com or call (651) 228-9274. Also visit www.dothedean.com for information on more upcoming benefits.
