Crooners to pay Minnesota musicians for live streaming concert series during COVID-19 pandemic

Minnesota musicians will play a series of concerts live streamed from Crooners Supper Club in Fridley and get paid for it.

Thanks to more than $25,000 raised, musicians will play as many as five shows a week in the "Keep Music Live" series, starting next week. The first concert is Jennifer and Reed Grimm, billed as a "sibling revelry," at 7 p.m. on April 3.

The series is being put together by Crooners, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, radio station KBEM-FM (Jazz 88) and Jazz Central club.

The performances can be live streamed at croonersmn.com and facebook.com/croonersmn and simulcast at 88.5 FM on Jazz 88.

"We put out a call for support to our patrons to get this started, and the response has been amazing," TC Jazz Festival executive director Steve Heckler said in a statement. "We are mobilizing and uniting a Twin Cities music scene deeply concerned about the immediate and long-term impact on our local musicians."

Among the musicians booked are Robert Robinson, Joyann Parker, Debbie Duncan, Patty Peterson, Prudence Johnson, Pat Donohue and Mick Sterling.

Led by a donation from jazz fans Mike and Donna Wolsted, organizers have a fund of $25,000 to pay musicians whose gigs have disappeared because of the coronavirus pandemic. The concerts will be free; donations are being accepted at twincitiesjazzfestival.com.

"We are asking all concert participants to follow our health protocols," said Crooners owner Mary Tjosvold, who also owns 33 health-care residences. "They will be screened when they arrive, and we will observe social distancing on stage and off when the shows are produced."

For more information, go to croonersmn.com.

All shows are at 7 p.m., with an additional jazz performances on Fridays at 8:30 p.m.

Here is the schedule so far:

April 3 – Jennifer and Reed Grimm at 7 p.m.; the Sightless Quartet at 8:30 p.m.

April 4 – Maud Hixson with Rick Carlson

April 8 – Pat Donohue and friends

April 9 – Laura Caviani and friends jazzing up Ravel and Debussy

April 10 – Arne Fogel saluting Andy Williams at 7 p.m.; Adam Harder Nussbaum Quartet at 8:30 p.m.

April 11— Michael Monroe saluting Cat Stevens

April 12 – Easter with Robert Robinson

April 16 – Miss Myra and the Moonshiners

April 17 – Mick Sterling saluting Billy Joel at 7 p.m.; Paul Harper's Shrewd Quartet at 8:30 p.m.

April 18 – "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" with Lori Dokken, Patty Peterson, Debbie Duncan and others

April 22 – Joyann Parker saluting Patsy Cline

April 24 – Debbie Duncan Quartet at 7 p.m.; Steve Kenny Quartet at 8:30 p.m