A Jazz Legend, a British Hype, and Orchestral Rap—All in Your Complete Concert Calendar: April 2-8

Pretty much all the live music you can catch in the Twin Cities this week.

By Keith Harris

9:36 AM CDT on April 2, 2024

Photos provided|

Herbie Hancock; Nur-D

1Comments

Just wanted to mention that as of yesterday, I have been sober 26 years. How about that?

Tuesday, April 2

International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers

Myriam Gendron with Paul Metzger @ Cedar Cultural Center

John Scofield Trio @ Dakota

St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood

Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Steve‘n’Seagulls with Dig Deep @ Fine Line

Obi Original & The Black Atlantics (Residency) feat. Mayyadda, Sumer @ Green Room—Nigerian-born singer, guitarist, and bandleader Obi Original is as much at home with West African highlife as he is with modern Afrobeats, not to mention good old American funk, and he's lined up some terrific local acts for this five-week residency. Tonight, Mayyadda and Sumer share the bill with him. Next Tuesday he'll be joined by Fanaka Nation and Bakarii. Night three serves up Brandyn Lee Tulloch and Mack OC, while night four brings us Miloe and Klon Rose. Finishing things off on April 30 will be Bouchet Boyz and Bigg Kiaa. Good stuff.

Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central

Bluewater Kings @ Minnesota Music Cafe

DJ JEN-E @ Mortimer's

Anna Lapwood & Mini Opus @ Northrop

Annual Saint Paul Public Schools Honors Concert & Art Exhibition @ Ordway

All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge

J.E. Sunde and Sam Weber with Yonder @ 7th St Entry

Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar

Worker’s Playtime: Amanda Standalone @ 331 Club

February Conspiracy Series feat. Dan Schwartz and Nick Salisbury @ 331 Club

The New Halvoline Supremes @ White Squirrel

Lulu & the Shoe (Residency) with Cottonwood Shivers, Willow Waters @ White Squirrel

Edhochuli @ Zhora Darling

Wednesday, April 3

Wain McFarlane @ Acadia

MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe

Boettcher Hecht Quartet @ Berlin

Dylan Salfer @ Bunkers

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas @ Cedar Cultural Center

Bill Harris & Emily Beisel, Mystery House @ Cloudland

Maggie's Wednesday: Lori Dokken @ Crooners

Tim O'Brien Bluegrass Band @ Dakota

Set It Off @ Fillmore

Open Mic with Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo Coffee

Burning Blue Rain (Residency) with BZ3 Organ Trio and Ski Club @ Green Room

Erik Koskinen (Album Release/Residency) with Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld @ Icehouse

Patrick Adkins @ Jazz Central

The Craig Clark Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Here, There, Everywhere @ Orchestra Hall

Karaoke Crime Scene @ Palmer's

Favourite Girl @ The Parkway

FINICK, Emmy Woods, A Sunken Ship Irony @ Pilllar Forum

OpenDecks Presented by Sub:Culture @ ROK Music Lounge

John Magnuson @ Schooner Tavern

The Thing with Diet Lite and The Dalmatian Club @ 7th St Entry

Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Lenz & Frenz @ 331 Club

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers with Buffalo Nichols @ Turf Club

Mild Manner, Nothing But Joy, State Parks, Deletist @ Underground Music Venue

The Second Stringers @ White Squirrel

Unturned @ Zhora Darling

Thursday, April 4

Dylan Marlowe with Mackenzie Carpenter @ Amsterdam

Bryan Murray Trio with Art Bailey @ Berlin

Jaybee & the Routine @ Bunkers

Slut Intent, Hot Bagels, Melanerpes, The Tossups @ Cloudland

Erin Schwab and Emily Villano: Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill @ Crooners

Sue Scott's Island of Discarded Women with Mary M. Tjosvold and Yemi Love @ Crooners

Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves @ Dakota

LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34

Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Delilah Daybreaks, Broken Arrows, In Solid Air @ Eagles 34

We Three with SkyDxddy @ Fine Line

The Last Dinner Party with Miss Grit @ First Avenue—England is back, baby! In true British next-big-thing fashion, this painfully self-aware quintet generates as much discussion about the hype surrounding them as their music itself—why, The Telegraph says they could be the buzziest UK band to hit the States since Arctic Monkeys! Their debut, Prelude to Ecstasy, sets out to be a folk-prog soap opera fueled by an ironic dissection of internalized female self-destructive impulses, and gets maybe halfway there. Abigail Morris never follows through on her early proposition "Let me make my grief a commodity,” settling instead for fantasies like "I wish I could be a beautiful boy" and "I will fuck you like nothing matters." And musically, the band's meta-bombast allows them to maintain a safe enough distance from the darker moods they find so seductive without revealing much about them.

Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room

Jake La Botz Duo with Noah Levy @ Icehouse

Dirty Lowdown Fools Blues Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Young Relics @ Minnesota Music Cafe

The 4ontheFloor @ Modist Brewing

COMA CLUB + CARRELLEE + SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE + MAGENTA VICE @ Mortimer's

Here ,There, Everywhere @ Orchestra Hall

Throwback Thursdays with DJ Bootsy Ballins @ Palmer's

Seven Da Pantha @ ROK Music Lounge

Scent Reality East Lakers @ Schooner Tavern

Lilly Hiatt with Nathan Graham @ 7th St Entry

Herbie Hancock @ State Theatre—For 30 years, Herbie Hancock seemed to be at the center of every great musical shift in jazz. In the ’60s, as the pianist for Miles Davis’s second great quintet, the pianist helped adapt post-bop ideas to a small combo setting, while also adding new standards to the jazz catalog as a composer and bandleader on albums like Maiden Voyage. In the ’70s, he took Miles’s complex fusion ideas in more accessible directions, and his landmark recording Head Hunters not only drew from funk and soul but influenced subsequent funk and soul musicians. And when so many serious musicians were dismissing rap as a novelty in the early ’80s Hancock dove right in with “Rockit.” As innovators will do, Hancock has slowed down over the years, though fine late career projects like River: The Joni Letters demonstrate that neither his chops or his mass sensibility had diminished. Now nearly 84, he won’t be on the road much longer, and if you need one last nudge, he’ll be bringing a helluva band to town with him: Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Devin Daniels on sax, bassist James Genus, drummer Trevor Lawrence Jr., and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

TIPZ @ Studio B

Northeast Invitational @ 331 Club

Tyler Booth with Hailey James @ Turf Club

The Monday Club @ White Squirrel

Grand Courriers w. Dot Operator, Seth Conover @ White Squirrel

Friday, April 5

Velahsa @ Acadia

Kamaiyah @ Amsterdam—Said it before and I'll say it again: When it comes to tough, touring female rappers, Amsterdam is the spot. On her latest, Another Summer Night, this Bay Area MC maintains the silky flow and sultry funk bump that made A Good Night in the Ghetto such a fave with critics and heads alike.

Admiral Fox + Willow Waters @ Aster Cafe

Red Planet @ Berlin

Marvin Gaye Tribute @ Bunkers

Grieving Pines @ Caydence Records & Coffee

Murf, Life in Vacuum, Vin, Birth Order @ Cloudland

Dan Cavanagh and Dave Hagedorn @ Crooners

Mia Dorr Presents Evolution of the Diva: Linda Ronstadt @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Emily Green and Chris Lomheim @ Crooners

Greats Gone 2 Soon: The Men of Motown @ Dakota

Twin Cities 7 @ Eagles 34

Velahsa, Serious Fraud Office @ Eagles 34

Scary Pockets with Swatkins & The Positive Agenda @ Fine Line

Transmission 23rd Anniversary with DJ Jake Rudh @ First Avenue

Camela Widad @ Ginkgo

Dalmatian Club with Colin Bracewell, Tricksy, and Brother Means Ally @ Green Room

‘Classical Rock Piano’ with Debbie Center @ Hook and Ladder

Matt Andersen with Old Man Luedecke @ Hook and Ladder

Nadah El-Shazly with Liz Draper @ Icehouse

Shawn Wang @ Jazz Central

Johnnie Brown @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Juice! @ Modist Brewing

Nur-D with Minnesota Orchestra @ Orchestra Hall—When last we heard from rapper Nur-D, he’d forsworn performing at First Avenue-owned venues. His decision to boycott, he said at the time, was in protest of the club asking him to share the stage with an alleged sexual abuser. And that’s Matt Allen in a nutshell—he may be known (rightly) as a genial, even comic performer, but he sticks to his principles. Allen was active as a medic during the protests after George Floyd’s murder, and responded to 2020 with a pair of albums, 38th and Chicago, that turned an eye toward Minneapolis’s racial problems. Allen also likes to do things big, and there’s no bigger gig than performing with an orchestra. (OK, there are stadiums and arenas and such, but I’m talking artistically.) He’s teamed up with Andy Thompson, who handled the arrangements for Dessa’s similar gig with the Minnesota Orchestra, which may give you a hint of what he’s got planned. Or maybe not—you never know with Nur-D.

Anne-Marie McDermott Plays Chausson, Poulenc and Rogerson @ Ordway

Action Bronson @ Palace Theatre

Sun Wave Mountain Cave, Rat Castle Jazz Ensemble and Luverne @ Palmer's

The Dirty Pretty, Jest, Manifest Content @ Pilllar Forum

Ratio @ ROK Music Lounge

Greazy Gravy with Robb and Mick @ Schooner Tavern

Small Crush with Sunday Cruise and Emma Jeanne @ 7th St Entry

Timmy Trumpet with Will Sparks & Restricted @ Skyway Theatre

Battle Ballads @ Studio B

Tiny Daggers, Unguided, Trash Catties @ 331 Club

Week Long Weekend, Soul Stream, Damn Phibian, Grippy Socks @ Terminal Bar

Minnesota Music Month feat. Alan Sparhawk, Maygen & The Birdwatcher, Joe Rainey, and Kelley Smith @ Turf Club