Concert: 3-5 pm
Improvisational Music Workshop: 6-7 pm
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Vocalist Connie Evingson
with Dave Karr (saxophone) and Mary Louise Knutson (piano)
Sunday, Nov. 16
701 E. Washington Ave.
Madison, WI |
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ABOUT CONNIE EVINGSON
Jazz vocalist Connie Evingson is known for taking divergent musical paths. Her recorded catalog of acclaimed CD's ranging from jazz and Broadway standards to the music of Peggy Lee, the Beatles, Django Reinhardt, Dave Frishberg, Norman Gimbel and more reflects an adventurous spirit that knows no boundaries. A Twin Cities resident, Connie appears regularly at the nationally renowned Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, is the featured artist of the Jazz at the Jungle concert series at the Jungle Theater (also in Minneapolis) and tours worldwide, with appearances at concert halls, theaters and festivals in the U.S., Europe and Japan. She has been a guest artist with Jazz at Lincoln Center, Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, the Minnesota Orchestra and Toronto Symphony conducted by Doc Severinsen, the JazzMN Orchestra and Vocalessence, among others. Her nine CD's on Minnehaha Music have all charted in the Top 50 in the U.S. and Canada and can be heard on radio stations around the world. All the Cats Join In, her third CD in the "jazz manouche" style popularized by Django Reinhardt, is scheduled for release this Fall, 2013.
Whether singing bebop, bossa nova, big band swing or a ballad, Connie's voice is readily identifiable - sure in pitch, a tad smoky in places, razor sharp in articulation and exhibiting an inherent sense of swing that's dead-center in the pocket. Nominated as JazzWeek Vocalist of the Year in 2005 alongside Stacey Kent, Madeleine Peyroux, Tierney Sutton and Curtis Stigers, Connie has been featured on the Smithsonian's Jazz Singers radio series, NPR's Fresh Air and Weekend Edition, and is included on numerous compilations discs in the U.S., China and Japan. She is a two-time recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians.
ABOUT DAVE KARR
Saxophonist Dave Karr, has performed with some of the finest local and national jazz instrumentalists and vocalists. In addition to performing, he has composed and arranged music for Film, Radio, Television commercials and various recording projects. Young at heart, the 81year old claims; “I have found the fountain of youth in the challenge of Jazz Improvisation”. Dave has been guest soloist with the U of M Jazz Band, the University of Wisconsin Jazz band,the Mankato Symphony Orchesta, University of Mankato Jazz Band, and soloist and clinician with many High School jazz bands programs. Dave’s quintet “Mulligan Stew” has played at “Hot Summer Jazz” events and at the “Artists Quarter’” Jazz Club in St.Paul. His quartet plays regularly at the “Artists Quarter” and has for several years. He plays lead Tenor Sax with Doug Snapps’ JazzMinn Orchestra since its beginning in 2000. His original compositions have been performed by several area groups.
ABOUT MARY LOUISE KNUTSON
In 2006 Knutson was a Minnesota Music Awards nominee for both Jazz Artist of the Year and Pianist of the Year, and in 2005, she was a Finalist in the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams "Women in Jazz" International Pianist Competition. In 2004, Knutson was the recipient of Lawrence University's distinguished Nathan M. Pusey Alumni Achievement Award for significant contributions and achievements in a career field, and in 2001, Knutson's debut jazz trio CD, Call Me When You Get There, charted in JazzWeek's Top 50 for eight consecutive weeks, and earned Knutson the award for Top New Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year from KWJL Radio in California. Featured tracks include her award-winning compositions and signature arrangements of such jazz classics as "Tangerine", "Green Dolphin Street (mp3)", and "Gone With the Wind" and range from the joyful lyricism of "Call Me When You Get There" to the impassioned blaze of "Meridian”. Knutson can be heard regularly with her group, the Mary Louise Knutson Trio, or as a soloist, at clubs, festivals, and concert halls here and abroad; with area vocalists Connie Evingson and Debbie Duncan; and with a variety of instrumental groups including the JazzMN Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the jazz-classical-world music double quartet, One World Consort. Knutson tours regularly with former Tonight Show bandleader trumpeter Doc Severinsen and his big band (featuring two-time Grammy Award winner tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts), has toured the U.S. with her own group, the Mary Louise Knutson Trio, and Italy with vocalist Debbie Duncan. Mary Louise has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Kevin Mahogany, Randy Brecker, Bobby Shew, Nicholas Payton, Terell Stafford, Richie Cole, Greg Abate, Von Freeman, Slide Hampton, Mike Stern, Peter Erskine, Billy Hart, Ed Shaughnessy, and Richard Davis.
