A Swingin’ Christmas w/ The Andrew Walesch Big Band

NEARLY SOLD OUT. Please contact the box office at 612-332-5299 for seating options.

“fresh and classic at the same time” – Jon Bream, Star Tribune

There’s no better place to be the night before Christmas Eve than at the Dakota with Andrew Walesch and his 18-piece big band. Ring in the holidays with the songs of Bennett, Sinatra, Bublé, Basie, and more.

Like a good many before him, singer and pianist Andrew Walesch manages to encapsulate the sophistication of a cosmopolite and the self-effacing charm of a country boy. Leading his all-star big band packed with local sidemen favorites, showman Andrew Walesch kidnaps the Blue Eyes tradition and makes it his own in his jazz-bent Sinatra revue that jams venues all over the Midwest and beyond with a uniquely cross-generational audience. Whether composing and arranging or appearing in settings ranging from solo artist to big band, this Minnesota native, who crisscrosses the country playing dates, is as respectful of his predecessors as he is ready to take a leap into the unknown and chart a new course. With this ten-piece band, Walesch is a traditionalist and an iconoclast rolled into one. His audiences include jazz enthusiasts of a certain age, as well as a younger crowd compelled by his down-home insouciance, and the knowing irreverence of a tried-and-true American nightclub entertainer.

“Although they are my idols, I don’t attempt to imitate the great pop and jazz artists of the 50s and ’60s, says Andrew, but I go for broke when we do our shows – vocally and musically – which is what they all did best and why they were in a class of their own.” His vocal and piano chops, along with his keen sensibility to find and interpret a great lyric, have led to some great opportunities for Walesch, including an appearance on the nationally syndicated NPR broadcast Mountain Stage and more recently, an invitation to perform at the 33rd Annual Cabaret Convention at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Andrew Walesch is residing in Phoenix Arizona where he has been elected as the new Artistic Director for the world-famous Musical Instrument Museum.

Learn More: https://www.andrewwalesch.com