Jazz in Les Fields Hall: Steve Kenny Quartet

STEVE KENNY QUARTET

Steve Kenny Quartet

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 stages for 5 years, and has toured the Midwest and appeared on music series at Drake University, the Eau Clair Jazz festival, and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. The ensemble’s debut Recording – ‘Quartets’ was released in December by illicit Productions, and will be reissued on the Shifting Paradigm Records label on August 3, 2019… a few days before the Les Fields Hall performance in Rochester.

For the appearance at the Les Fields Hall, the following core members are scheduled to appear:

Steve Kenny is active in the Minnesota Jazz community as a Performer, Composer, Band Leader, Producer, Publisher, and Curator. He is frequently appearing on various Twin Cities and regional stages while performing in or leading ensembles. He’s prolific as a Jazz composer, often performing and recording his own original works which have won awards and commissions. Steve is a founding member of ‘the illicit sextet’, “Group 47”, “What Would Monk Do?” and his own Quartets, and he is the creative force behind the production company “illicit Productions”, which produces well over one hundred live shows a year and has a growing yearly catalog of Jazz CD’s being produced, released and distributed, including the successful ‘Twin Cities Jazz Sampler CDs’, with Volume 3 slated to be released in late 2019. Steve also curates and produces weekly Jazz series at Jazz Central Studios, Black Dog Lowertown, and in the summertime at Studio Z in Saint Paul.

Levi Schwartzberg, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, is already a veteran of four-mallet vibes performance; he is also an accomplished pianist, performing on both instruments in the U of M Jazz Combo. A graduate of Southwest High School who participated for two years with the Dakota Combo, Levi has led his own ensembles at Jazz Central, Black Dog and Khyber Pass Cafe as well as performing with Adam Linz’s Le Percheron, Steve Kenny, Will Kjeer, Charlie Lincoln, Davu Seru, and more

Charlie Lincoln recently completed his jazz studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. A Minneapolis South High alum, Charlie was already a busy gigging musician before graduation, playing with the Dakota Combo, Central Standard Time, the Charles Lincoln Group, and subbing with Eric Gravatt’s Source Code. In his senior year, Charlie was selected as one of two winning youth songwriters in the Eric Stokes Songwriting Contest and was on stage for the Young Performers Showcase for the Zeitgeist New Music Cabaret. Charlie is working constantly, performing with Hoaxer and the Dave Brattain Trio during the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, opening the All Originals summer jazz series at Studio Z on July 8, and serving as a curator for several Wednesday nights of “new music” at Jazz Central.

Miguel Hurtado (drums) played throughout the Twin Cities as a teenager in several youth bands, as well as with South High jazz ensembles. After graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in spring 2010, he returned to the Twin Cities where he quickly became a busy member of the local jazz scene. He has led his own ensembles at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival and performed at the Artists Quarter and Dakota; more recently he has been heard at Jazz Central, the Icehouse, Black Dog, and more. In addition to leading his own bands, he has performed with Jake Baldwin, John Raymond, Jeremy Walker, Javi Santiago, Joe Strachan, Ted Olsen, Will Kjeer, Steve Kenny, and Courageous Endeavors. He’s also expanding his musical resumé, playing with some local pop and R&B singers, particularly Alicia Steele and vocalist/rapper Toussaint Morrison.