The trio includes Adam Linz on bass and JT Bates on drums. Linz is the new coordinator of jazz at MacPhail, where he directs ensembles including the Dakota Combo. One of the most active musicians on the modern and free jazz scene, he performs regularly with Fat Kid Wednesdays, the Adam Meckler Quintet and George Cartwright’s Gloryland Pony Cat. If it’s Monday, you can probably find Adam at the Clown Lounge in St. Paul. Also a frequent performer at the Clown and other venues supporting modern music, JT Bates performs with Fat Kid Wednesdays, Happy Apple, the Kelly Rossum Quartet and more. He was a member of Motion Poets, has played and recorded with Doug Little, and has worked with a variety of Latin, electronic, and experimental ensembles. Both Adam and JT have been involved in the production and performances of the Minnesota Sur Seine Festival. 

Paul Renz Quintet

Twin Cities guitarist/composer Paul Renz may be best known as Director of Jazz Studies at the West Bank School of Music but his chops as performer and composer are also well established by his seven recordings. A native of Washington, DC, Renz earned degrees from the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. His academic resume includes developing jazz curriculum at an arts magnet high school in Norfolk, VA and teaching jazz at Tidewater Community College before coming to Minneapolis in 1994 to direct jazz studies at the West Bank School of Music. He’s also resident guitar instructor at the MacPhail Center for Music. Renz wasted no time becoming an integral part of the Twin Cities jazz scene in the mid 90s, continuing his roles as composer and bandleader as well as performer on guitar and electric bass. His new release, In My Own Hands, is a set of nine originals compositions brought to swinging, funky, joyous life by his quintet, flautist Anders Bostrom, keyboard specialist Brian Ziemniak, bassist Eric Graham and drummer Nathan Fryett. All will be on hand at MacPhail except Bostrom, who will be replaced for this gig by saxophonist and frequent cohort Andrew Schwandt. 

Andrew Schwandt started his professional career while still in his teens, playing on cruise ships. Back in Minnesota, he has worked with the fusion band Starting Point, Gold Standard, Kolaberate and Story City. His associations have included Steve Jennings, Sanford Moore, Chris Lomheim, Gary Raynor, Gordy Johnson, and Terry Burns, as well as Paul Renz. He appears on Renz’s recording, Beyond Blues. Brian Ziemniak is earning a reputation as one of the area’s most talented young musicians, having performed with Andres Prado, Gordy Johnson, Peter Erskine, Moveable Feast, Bruce Henry, Yohannes Tona and more. He leads his own quartet with Peter Vircks, Jeff Brueske and Haralds Bondaris, and appears on Renz’s Beyond Blues, Rebop and In My Own Hands. Bassist Eric Graham currently a full-time music professor at Century College in St. Paul, MN, where he directs the jazz combo and teaches courses in world music, jazz and popular music. In addition to a Masters Degree in Music Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University, he has studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music and the University of North Texas, and Hindustani music at the Ali Akbar College of Music. He has performed on the last four releases from Paul Renz. Drummer Nathan Fryett plays with such diverse bands as 13 Hertz, The State Champs, Sketch Engine, The Sweet Science and Paul Cherba Quartet. He’s managed the drum kit for Paul Renz’s most recent recordings. 

Tickets for the MacPhail Spotlight series “Jazz Innovations” concert are available at the door or in advance from MacPhail; ticket hotline 612-767-5250; $20, $15 for students 6-18 and seniors 55+. Antonello Hall is located on the second floor of MacPhail at 501 South Second Street in the Minneapolis Arts District; www.macphail.org