1. Beausoleil: After celebrating their 50th anniversary last year, Michael Doucet and his Cajun band are showing no sign of slowing down. The rootsy group from Lafayette, La., has a strong following on the north end of the Mississippi River thanks to frequent appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion” and a strong contingent of local French Americans. The fiddle- and accordion-led troupe is renowned worldwide, too, not just for its encyclopedic adherence to Cajun traditions but also because it just plain ol’ swings.
BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET
FEB 13 • 7PM
LEARN MORE>> BUY TICKETS>>
prolific Wycliffe Gordon, who has won the DownBeat’s Critics Poll as top trombonist an unmatched six times, joins Minnesota Music Educators Association’s All-State Jazz Band, which has 21 players from 17 high schools.
MMEA ALL-STATE JAZZ BAND feat. WYCLIFFE GORDON
FEB 14 • 6:30 & 8:30PM
LEARN MORE>> BUY TICKETS>>
Harmonious Americana trio Turn Turn Turn returns to the Dakota with Twins of Franklin.
TURN TURN TURN
w/Special Guests Twins of Franklin
FEB 15 • 7PM
LEARN MORE>> BUY TICKETS>>
Taylor Dayne: Maybe you saw her recently on “The Golden Bachelorette” or on “The Masked Singer” or on “RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race”? The last time the ‘80s/’90s pop diva was seen in the Twin Cities was in 2008 for Pride festivities. Dayne is on tour, singing “Tell It to My Heart,” “Prove Your Love” and “Love Will Lead You Back” and telling stories about writing tunes for Tina Turner, performing on Broadway in Elton John’s “Aida” and randomly encountering comic Tig Notaro.
TAYLOR DAYNE
FEB 16 • 5 & 7:30PM
LEARN MORE>> BUY TICKETS>>
New York chanteuse Kat Edmonson, a Dakota regular, just dropped a new single “Keep Movin’,” a melancholy, jazzy twanger that could have been in a David Lynch soundtrack.
KAT EDMONSON
FEB 17 • 7PM
LEARN MORE>> BUY TICKETS>>
Cecile McLorin Salvant: The Grammy-winning jazz vocalist never fails to surprise and mesmerize. She can get boldly adventurous as she did with her chamber opera “Ogresse” at Walker Art Center two years ago. She can have an intimate conversation as she has done in several Dakota appearances with pianist Sullivan Fortner. She can show up with a combo and dazzle with musical alchemy and theatrical presence. This time, Salvant comes with a new pianist, Glenn Zaleski, but always with a penchant for turning familiar pop and jazz tunes inside out with her formidable interpretive powers.