The week's best Twin Cities jazz: Guitarist Mike Stern makes his comeback plus a Brazilian trio

September 5, 2017 at 8:19PM
In this Aug. 8, 2017 photo US jazz guitarist Mike Stern performs during the concert of Hungarian-born German musician Leslie Mandoki's all-star formation ManDoki Soulmates in Budapest Park in Budapest, Hungary. (Balazs Mohai/MTI via AP)
Jazz guitarist Mike Stern will perform at the Dakota. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Samba over easy

Eliane Elias has excelled at jazz, classical and her native Brazilian music over the course of her 30-year career. She recently shifted the emphasis from piano to vocals in her crowd-pleasing investigations of Brazilian songcraft. Her 2015 disc, "Made in Brazil," won a Grammy for its lush bossa nova-oriented program. Her latest, "Dance of Time," celebrates a century of samba music. This trio gig promises to give the material the sly intimacy it deserves. (7 & 9 p.m. Thu., Dakota, Mpls.; $20-$45, dakotacooks.com)

Javanese, no jive

Now based in the Twin Cities, Jay Afrisando is an Indonesian composer who has blown straight jazz on saxophone and concocted songs using the random signals of 140-character tweets. He and a quintet will perform "Convergence," his opus for Javanese gamelan instruments, electronics, quinto, bassoon and tenor sax. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Studio Z, St. Paul; free, studiozstpaul.com)

Staying power

It's been more than a decade since Snowblind released its debut disc. Aside from relatively new bassist Graydon Peterson, the three-horn, piano-less quintet has retained the same lineup. Bop and post-bop jazz holds sway, but there are swirls of Latin and hip-hop tucked into the corners of the group's mostly original tunes. The chromatic array provided by the trombone-trumpet-sax front line is spunky and rock-solid. (8:30 p.m. Sat., Black Dog, St. Paul; $10 suggested donation, blackdogstpaul.com)

Musical impressionism

Red Planet with pianist Bill Carrothers returns to the ­Dunsmore Room, a venue with an airy elegance that mirrors the plush and almost-spooky sounds emanating from this utterly distinctive quartet. Imagine the beacon of John Coltrane under a beautifully muted lampshade. (7 p.m. Tue., Crooners, Fridley; $15, croonersloungemn.com)

Comeback with killer band

Guitarist Mike Stern is best known for his membership in Miles Davis' early '80s comeback band, but his funky fusion-jazz attack has held up well in the decades since. This gig comes at a propitious time — the week after the release of "Trip," his own comeback album after suffering a horrendous fall that broke both upper arms and left him with nerve damage. The star-studded band is marvelous with Randy Brecker on trumpet, Dennis Chambers on drums and Tom Kennedy on bass. (7 & 9 p.m. Sept. 12-13, Dakota, Mpls.; $22-$42, dakotacooks.com)

BRITT ROBSON

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