“…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.
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.”
Roy Hargrove, Trumpet Justin Robinson, Alto Sax & Flute Jonathan Batiste, Piano Ameen Saleem, Bass Montez Coleman, Drums
Pamela Espeland described Hargrove’s June appearance here as “A night of shifting moods, rhythms and speeds, fine solo turns, and fun all around, on stage and in the audience.” She has so much more to say than that, so… read the review here…
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove has firmly established himself as one of the premier players in jazz and beyond. Always looking for more challenging and colorful ways to flex his musical chops, Hargrove has left indelible imprints in a vast array of artful settings. Since his recording debut at age 19, he has won the praise and respect of critics, peers, and fans alike with his fiery soloing and original ideas within the hard bop context. Now 39, Hargrove seems to have no limit of ideas or different musical settings to fulfill them: in addition to his lauded quintet work, he has made forays into Latin and Cuban music (1997’s Habana), recorded an album of ballads with strings(1999’s Moment to Moment), and stepped into the hip-hop world (two recent records with his RH Factor).
His two Grammy awards have come in very different settings. His Cuban-based band Crisol (with piano legend Jesus “Chucho” Valdes and drummer Horatio “El Negro” Hernandez), won the Best Latin Jazz Performance Grammy in 1997, and 2002’s Directions in Music (with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker) won Best Instrumental Jazz Album.
Young pianist Jonathan Batiste is the latest arrival from the celebrated Batiste family of New Orleans. A solo artist in his own right, he already has three albums under his own name, and has performed as leader or sideman in over 30 countries with artists like Harry Connick, Jr, Lenny Kravitz, Abbey Lincoln, and Jimmy Buffet.And he is all of 22 years old. Currently a member of Cassandra Wilson’s touring band, he joins the Roy Hargrove Quintet for these very special shows.
Dorado Schmitt All Stars :: January 18-19, 2010
Online sales for the January 18th performances of Dorado Shmitt All Stars have ended; however, there are still tickets available. Please call the our Box Office at 612.332.5299 for tickets. To order A-Train discounted tickets and access Members’ Preferred Seating, log-in to our ticketing system. (Upper right corner) Not a member? Join Now!
Mark O’ Connor’s Hot Swing :: January 20, 2010
To order A-Train discounted tickets and access Members’ Preferred Seating, log-in to our ticketing system. (Upper right corner) Not a member? Join Now!
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
Julian Lage, guitar Tupac Mantilla, percussion Jorge Roeder, bass Ben Roseth, saxophones Aristides Rivas, cello
21 year old guitar virtuoso Julian Lage is already a seasoned veteran in the jazz world. Having spent several years as a sideman in groups led by Gary Burton, Nnenna Frelon, and David Grisman, Lage has developed a surprisingly mature and unique musical language. His ability to create striking musical moments in a variety of contexts is so captivating that his technical prowess is almost taken for granted. His debut solo recording, Sounding Point, was released in March 2009.
Lage started playing guitar at age 5, and discovered jazz quickly, absorbing everything he heard. His preternatural ability gave him an opportunity to perform on the nationally televised Grammy Awards telecast in 2000, where he was spotted by Gary Burton. Lage joined Burton on some performances and eventually became a regular member of Burton’s Generations Quintet, exposing him to the touring jazz circuit. He spent the following years appearing on many stages and records, as a sideman and as a collaborator (notably with pianist Taylor Eigsti), all the while composing and honing his own musical voice.
With the release of his amazing debut record, Lage is poised at the forefront of the new generation of jazz performers, an exciting new voice for the years to come.
“I was amazed by the depth of his playing, he’s a real improviser who just goes with the flow. He’s not about anything other than making a beautiful musical statement.” -David Grisman
“Sounding Point is so negligibly packaged that it could easily slip under the radar or be mistaken for just another guitar-geek recording. In fact it’s a major find: springy, intelligent chamber Americana that fits perfectly into a spectrum of Nonesuch-style players like Bill Frisell and Chris Thile’s Punch Brothers.” Time Out New York
Twin cities based Atlantis Quartet has combined youth and experience to forge a tremendous, unique, and original group sound in the modern jazz idiom. The compositions range in style from multi-meter grooves to complex harmonic explorations; from fusionistic rhythms to free and timeless tone poems, all filled with world class improvisation that is both organic and volatile. Clive Griffin of Jazz Improv Magazine describes the band as “Highly skilled musicians who have invested themselves heavily to develop their individual approaches…together, they sound genuinely inspired.” The group features four of Minnesota’s most exciting musicians, Brandon Wozniak (saxophone), Zacc Harris (guitar), Pete Hennig (drums), and Chris Bates (bass)
Cover $5