About this Event
This show will be live-streamed for free in partnership with the Twin Cities Jazz Festival and Crooners through the Keep Music Live fund. Click here to register for free.Dinner and cocktail seating and service begins 1 hour before showtimes.
"Taste and understatement. Swing and savoir-faire. Grace and grooves. Intimacy and panache. Singer Charmin Michelle delivers all of the above and more.
This is what the Minneapolis Star/Tribune had to say about this charismatic chanteuse whose conversational style recalls the late Billie Holiday and other legendary ladies of jazz. And, yet, her music is free of tiresome camp and easy nostalgia. She's a savvy songstress and, while putting her own imprint on a melody, is always respectful of those who first inhabited it.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Charmin moved to Minnesota while still a child and has called it home ever since. Though based in Minneapolis, she is no stranger to life on the road and began touring internationally in 1986. She has performed at jazz festivals throughout Europe with pianists Mulgrew Miller and Kirk Lightsey, and saxophonists Harry Allen and Grant Stewart, among others. The late Brother Jack McDuff, one of her biggest fans, was instrumental in launching her career abroad. He said, "She's really different. I call her 'Chow Mein.' With her trio, less is more. And they're right in the pocket."
On her last tour to Spain, she recorded with the aforementioned Allen and Stewart, as well as saxophonist Scott Hamilton, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and Barcelonan musicians Ignasi Terraza, and the Toni Sola Quartet.
Dennis Spears became known as the male voice of Moore By Four, the locally-based, internationally heeled quartet headed by pianist/arranger Sanford Moore, featuring the voices of Spears, Yolanda Bruce, Ginger Commodore and Connie Evingson. Dennis has kept himself busy and visible ever since, performing in theater, in music ensembles, and gigging with his own band(s). He is one of the best entertainers around this area, and his renown is growing. His theater piece about Nat King Cole was presented at the Kennedy Center in spring 2011.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Crooners MainStage, 6161 Hwy 65 NE, Minneapolis, United States
USD 20.00 to USD 25.00