1. Madeleine Peyroux: This year’s “Let’s Walk,” her ninth album, is a new adventure for the jazzy folk/blues chanteuse. It’s her first project consisting entirely of songs she co-penned. No interpretations of standards or pop classics. There is social commentary as “How I Wish” reflects on racism in America, “Please Come on Inside” welcomes immigrants, and the gospel-tinged title track urges that “we bless togetherness from far and wide, from heel to toe,” with backup singers including Catherine Russell and Cindy Mizelle. And there is pure jazzy joy, as evidenced on “Showman Dan,” a New Orleans piano stroll that salutes Peyroux’s mentor, Danny Fitzgerald of the Lost Wandering Blues And Jazz Band. “Let’s Walk” travels in hipness and progressivism.
MADELEINE PEYROUX
OCT 24-25 • 7PM
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After NPG singer Liv Warfield rocked the Dakota on Monday, Shelby J arrives from North Carolina to bring the Uptown funk to downtown Minneapolis.
SHELBY J
OCT 26 • 7PM
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8. Charles Lloyd: At 87, he pulled off a rare feat in jazz this year: DownBeat’s Critics Poll named him jazz artist of the year (for the second consecutive year), top tenor saxophonist, jazz album of the year and a new member of the DownBeat Hall of Fame. Lloyd first captured DownBeat’s artist of the year back in 1967. An ever-curious seeker and adventurer, he plays in four different combos these days. He’s bringing his quartet, which includes pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland.
CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET: LIVE AT THE ORDWAY
OCT 27 • 7:30PM
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Well-connected jazz trumpeter Chris Botti — who has played with a host of bold-face names like Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin — becomes Ed Sullivan in his multi-night club stands with a parade of disparate guests, this time including singer Veronica Swift, violinist Anastasiia Mazurok, singer/songwriter John Splithoff, pianist Julian Waterfall Pollack and guitarist marvel Leo Amuedo.