1 Vijay Iyer Trio, the Dakota. This inventive and celebrated jazz pianist mixed the melodic with the rhythmic and impressionistic, seemingly locked in with sensational 30-year-old drummer Jeremy Dutton (what a left hand). It was a terrific, enthralling 110 minutes of modern jazz that elicited a genuine (not an obligatory) standing ovation. Only three weeks into the year, Iyer, who had performed at Walker Art Center before, set a high standard for best jazz concert of 2024 in his Dakota debut.
3 Shelby Lynne, the Dakota. Honoring the club owner’s request to do a Dusty Springfield show, the Grammy-winning Alabama singer/songwriter dusted off her 2008 Springfield album “Just a Little Lovin’,” blending the sad and the sultry into a torchy minimalism of Southern soul, topped with her own melancholy “Black Light Blue,” a dark and beautiful stunner from 1999′s “I Am Shelby Lynne.”