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Pre-TCJazzFest: Steve Kenny Quartet & Le Percheron
Jun 20 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Modern Original Jazz
A double header with an opening set by the Steve Kenny Quartet followed by a set by the ensemble, Le Percheron. The popular Jazz Trumpeter and his quartet open for Minnesota’s very best and longest running Avant-Guard Jazz band to kick off the 2024 Twin Cities Jazz Festival.
Bryan Murray saxophones
Noah Ophoven-Baldwin cornet
Levi Schwartzberg vibes
Adam Linz bass
Cory Healey drums
The Steve Kenny Quartet is a flexible membership ensemble that focuses on select Original Compositions by Steve Kenny and a number of crowd-pleasing innovative arrangements of Jazz standards. The group has been performing on Twin Cities Jazz Club stages for 10 years and has toured the Midwest and appeared on the music series at Drake University, the Eau Clair Jazz festival, and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. Steve Kenny is active in the Minnesota Jazz community as a Performer, Composer, and Curator. Steve is a founding member of ‘the illicit sextet’, “Group 47”, “What Would Monk Do?” and his own “Quartets”. Steve was the curator of a weekly Saturday Jazz series at kj’s hideaway, and before that the Black Dog Cafe, producing over 400 Saturday Night Jazz shows. His latest recording, “Quartets”, includes original compositions played by 4 separate ensembles of Twin Cities Jazz musicians, including a Live version of Steve Kenny’s Ghost Suite. in 2019 the national Jazz Journalists Association named Steve as a “Minnesota Jazz Hero” for his work in the Jazz community and lifelong devotion to the Idiom.
Le Percheron is a long-standing creative project led by Adam Linz (Fat Kid Wednesdays) says “I love being able to have vibes, cornet, bass, drums. I’m a huge Don Cherry fan. One of my favorite Don Cherry groups is that European quartet with Karl Berger. I love that sound. So that’s kind of where the group started. It is an outlet for me to compose. My goal with Le Percheron is to continue to play with those guys. I don’t believe in overnight success. We’ve been a band for 8 years now, and I think we’re just getting comfortable. My goal is to keep developing the group. I love that those guys are so willing to go with me down this road. I’m not trying to push it, so we need to play all the time, either. I like to give things a lot of breathing room, so that when we do play, we have something to play about.” And now, with the addition of Bryan Murray, this group is really world-class and must be heard to be believed.