Hot Swing in a Cold City

I settled in at 7 pm for the early show at Minneapolis' Dakota Jazz Club to see Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing, finishing off the Dakota's 4-day celebration of Django Reinhardt's 100th birthday. The band featured Mark on violin, Gary Mazzaroppi on upright bass and Matt Munisteri and Frank Vignola both on guitar. After two very swingin' numbers they played a heartbreakingly beautiful waltz.

Mark then invited Wailin' Jenny Heather Masse to sing "Honeysuckle Rose," "Misty," "Fascinating Rhythm," and the most incredible rendition of "Stars Fell on Alabama." From there, the quartet went into a roaring gypsy number followed by a couple soulful bluesier numbers. Since it was the first of two shows, the set wasn't terribly long, but they did do a nice encore version of "Time After Time" (the jazz standard, not the Cyndi Lauper hit), featuring Heather's amazing vocals. The music along with a nice glass of Malbec and a zesty carpaccio made for one tasty Wednesday night.

To top the evening off, I met two lovely Womenfolk listeners and ran into my old Oberlin pal Sam Bergman, violist for the Minnesota Orchestra and the man responsible for giving my first radio show. He has his own blog called Inside the Classics.