Connie Olson © Andrea Canter

Connie Olson grew up in Minneapolis and has been performing professionally since 17 as a lead singer for a wide range of music ensembles, including rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz. In the 1980s, she tested the scene in Los Angeles, attending the Dick Grove School of Music and working in many of LA's top venues such as the Disneyland Hotel, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and the Ritz Carlton Hotels. Her voice has taken her around the world, working with the Peter Duchin Big Band, and the Peter Graves Orchestra, as well as with musicians from the Manhattan Transfer, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and the bands of Prince and Madonna. She’s worked as a clinician at the Manhattan School of Music, and during the fall of 2002, she toured US colleges and music schools with acclaimed German vibraphonist Bill Molenhof.

Photo by Andrea Canter

No, it isn’t an episode of the Cosby Show at the Artists Quarter Wednesday night. The Slide Huxtable Quartet isn’t TV comedy, but rather a newly formed jazz ensemble that promises edgy arrangements from a group of veteran Twin Cities’ musicians. The Slide Huxtable Quartet includes former Motion Poets Mark Miller on trombone, Chris Bates on bass, and brother J.T. Bates on drums, along with Bill Bergman on guitar. Playing a mix of originals and standards rearranged “to put some fun into the music,” the band took its name from the famous Bill Cosby Show episode where Cliff's dad (Russell “Slide” Huxtable) plays at a jam session with a bunch of real jazz musicians. Notes Chris Bates, “Slide Hampton is playing off camera while Slide Huxtable does a really bad job of lip synching on camera. We all loved that episode as kids and so the band name came from there.”

As a teenager Brian dedicated himself to prog rock odysseys, but by the time he finished college he had composed an hour long film score incorporating stringquartets, pieces for small jazz combos, and sequenced MIDI. His 1995 piece Returning to Silence was chosen by the Macphail Center for Music as the subject of amaster class with composer Henry Threadgill. Improvisational structures and works for solo instruments and small ensembles continue to be Brian's compositional focus.

On electric bass Brian has been featured live and on recordings by acclaimed artists such as Storyhill, Alva Star, Brenda Weiler, and most notably Spymob - hi slongtime band that signed with Epic records in 1998.