The grand opening line-up will be a dynamic mix of high profile main acts and some of Lula’s most popular regular performers. The celebration opens on Thursday, July 14, when formidable, young guitarist Chris Graham will host a jazz jam, hooking up jazz artists currently studying at major music conservatories with advanced teenage jazz players. Friday night features the best jazz to be heard around town with the Kevin Washington Quartet, including trumpeter Sonny Covington, pianist Peter Schimke, bassist Jeff Bailey and drummer Kevin Washington. Saturday night highlights rising star Thomasina Petrus. On Sunday, July 17, Lula’s will throw a barbeque and youth talent show in the afternoon and culminate its celebration with a CD release party for young jazz quintet Second Nature. (See attached schedule with times and performers.)

The opening will take place at Lula’s Coffee & Jaz, 3400 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis, beginning Thursday, July 14 at 7:00 p.m. and ending Sunday, July 17 at 10:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served. There will be no cover charge for the opening, except after 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday when $5 will be requested.

Collaborating with Lula’s efforts are the owners of Diamond Bridge Music, former Prince guitarist Levi Seacer, Jalonda Jackson and Lydia Marie Moses, who bring the local talent to Lula’s stage six nights a week. In keeping with Lula’s interest in nurturing up-and-coming jazz musicians, Diamond Bridge has discovered a new teenage jazz quintet, assembled especially for Lula’s. Diamond Bridge has plans to produce two CDs in the coming year using these talented young jazz musicians, who now call themselves the Bridge, meaning a bridge for youth to the jazz experience.

Lula’s African American owner, David Booker, a carpenter by trade, has renovated Lula’s home literally with his own hands over the last four years. Lula’s elegant and imaginative décor speaks to Booker’s love for jazz music and its legacy. One of his aims in creating Lula’s is to disseminate jazz music at the neighborhood level.

According to Gale Jensen, jazz club goer and Lula’s regular, “With Lula’s, it’s really the audience that is new.” She describes Lula’s neighborhood audiences as highly diverse in both age and race, and wildly appreciative. “Before Lula’s, I had never been part of an audience who feels this music with such generosity and intensity. Like the music is water in a desert. The people soak it up almost with a kind of joy.”

• Thursday, July 14
  • Chris Graham Trio, 7 - 8
  • Chris Graham hosts a Jazz Jam, 8 – 10
  Friday, July 15
  • Art Show with work by local artists Deborah Milford, Jesse Greenbridge, Zoe Keller, Ed Johnson and others, and music by Double-Stop, 5 – 7
  • Jazz quintet The Bridge, 7 – 8
  • Jazz trio Aural Dimensions, 8 - 9
  • Kevin Washington Quartet, 9 – 10:30
  • Poet Sol Testimony and Friends accompanied by the Kevin Washington Quartet, 10:30 – 11:30
  • Lula’s spoken word and poetry, 11:30 - midnight
  Saturday, July 16
  • Smooth jazz pianist Wenso Ashby featuring singer Zsame, 5 - 7
  • R&B singer Ray Covington, 7 – 9
  • Jazz singer Thomasina Petrus, 9 – midnight
  Sunday, July 17
  • Youth talent show, 2 – 4
  • Jazz quintet Ahmed and the Creators, 4 – 6
  • Jazz quartet The Back Alley Boys, 6 – 7
  • Jazz pianist Todd Burrell and singer Rhonda Johnson, 7 - 8
  • Jazz quintet Second Nature CD Release Party, 8 – 10
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