NO COVER

We never celebrate milestones; however, 5 years has a nice ring to it and it is time to celebrate with past and present employees along with all of the artists, partners and friends who have helped make this place happen! Join us June 2-8 for a week long celebration featuring performances by a few familiar bands. Cover will be $5 per show. The kitchen will be creating a "best of" food menu and the bar will be slinging drink specials featuring Jim Beam products. We can't thank everyone enough for their support these first 5 years!  

James Buckley Trio:

James Buckley has been playing upright bass since the age of 10, and playing professionally in the Twin Cities since spring of 1999. He has been a part of dozens of ensembles, consisting of many genres, as a leader/organizer, curator, composer, and bassist. Accompanied in a trio setting by pianist Bryan Nichols and drummer J.T. Bates, 

James Buckley:

“Meet James Buckley, the hardest-working musician in the Twin Cities” -Erin Roof, Citypages. James performed live with Lizzo on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, December 2016. As the mainstay bassist for The Pines, James has been touring internationally with the indie-folk group and appears on their Red House Records releases "Tremolo", "Dark So Gold", "Pasture: Folk Songs", and "Above The Prairie". James recorded bass with Minneapolis super-group, "Gayngs" on their "The Last Prom on Earth" album, and played their performance at First Avenue, along with Coachella Music Festival April 2011. James co-founded and was bassist for Minneapolis' circuit-bending noisy pop-funk trio Mystery Palace, fronted and produced by Ryan Olcott of 12 Rods fame. James appears live and on recordings with Emmy Award-Winning, Universal Records Artists, The Blenders. James performed with Har Mar Superstar for an extensive world tour, highlighted by a live television performance on "Le Petit Journal" in Paris, France. Most recently, James performed upright and electric bass with Grammy Award-winning artist, Bon Iver, on his new album, 22, A Million.

Bryan Nichols:

Bryan Nichols is a Minneapolis-based pianist and composer, working primarily in jazz and improvised music. He returned to the Twin Cities in 2005 after four busy years in Chicago where he played with jazz heavyweights like Nicole Mitchell, Ernest Dawkins, Von Freeman and Hamid Drake. Since returning to Minneapolis, he leads and composes for his own trio, his quintet and his large group, We Are Many.  He also plays regularly with Gang Font, Kelly Rossum Quartet, James Buckley Trio, and Zacc Harris Quartet, in addition to being an in-demand freelancer. He teaches jazz piano at MacPhail Center for Music and University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, and he was also recently named artistic director of Jazz is NOW!, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit supporting regional music and composers. 
          Bryan was awarded a 2010-11 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, a prestigious and competitive award given to Minnesota musicians. He was also awarded a 2004 residency by Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, given to outstanding, emerging jazz performer/composers. His work as a composer earned him a subito grant from the American Composers Forum.  He has performed at most music venues in the Twin Cities and Chicago, in addition to international festivals including Sons d’Hiver (Paris, France) and Kerava Jazz Festival (Kerava, Finland) as well as local and regional festivals including the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Minnesota Sur Seine Festival. Bryan appears on recent recordings by James Buckley, Gang Font, Chris Morrissey, Gordon Johnson, Kelly Rossum, Todd Clouser, Gayngs and many more. In May 2011 Bryan released his debut recording as a leader, Bright Places, containing nine original compositions for his quintet.

JT Bates:

2016 has been a busy one indeed, and its not over yet!  Upcoming projects: recording with Frankie Lee for Loose Music/Thirty Tigers, a South American tour with the great improvisers Tony Malaby and William Parker, and two shows with Real Bulls (drums only band with Bad Plus drummer David King). All of this coming off celebrating being married in June(!) and earlier 2016 tours with Phil Cook and the Guitarheels(Thirty Tigers) which included some very memorable gigs like the Newport Folk Festival with guests The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Eaux Claires festival with guests Bruce Hornsby and Justin Vernon.  Continuing all the while to perform at the Jazz Implosion series monday nights at Icehouse in Minneapolis, including stellar trio night with Todd Clouser and the great John Medeski, as well as presenting shows like Tim Berne's Snakeoil, and Ches Smiths trio featuring Craig Taborn and Mat Maneri.