The celebrated vocalist Bruce Henry is back in town to perform a concert on Saturday at the Dakota titled "Everyone Under the Sun: A Celebration of Unity and Love." Henry connected with Sean McPherson to discuss how he and the band will use Martin Luther King Jr. as a point of departure to build community with the audience.

Jennifer Grimm the singer and Joe Cruz the guitarist are a couple of experienced Twin Cities musicians. The two team up every Thursday at Ingredients in White Bear, 5:30 till 8pm. How do they do it? Well it’s a mix of planning, and adapting to whatever is going on at the time, as Jennifer explained to Phil Nusbaum

Pop Wagner’s groups entertain for brunch every second Saturday of the month at Icehouse from 11am till 2pm. This Saturday, March 11, Pop performs with the Hampdon Rounders. Pop talked to Phil Nusbaum about the show, and first about the individual Rounders.

Jazz88's Peter Solomon speaks with Sarah Fornace from the Chicago-based performance collective "Manual Cinema." Fornace is the director of "Leonardo: A Wonderful Show about a Terrible Monster," a show based on two stories by Mo Willems. It's running January 8th - March 9th at Children's Theatre.

The American Roots Revue, with a cast that includes Robert Robinson, Billy Steele, Tonia Hughes and Fiddln’ Pete Watercott, returns to the Dakota in Minneapolis with two shows Friday January 3. Larry Long is the curator of the Revue, and after listening to a bit of Robert Robinson’s Everybody’s Chains Came Off, Larry told Phil Nusbaum about the theme for this edition of the American Roots Revue, Songs of Freedom, Freight Trains and Hope.

Kinda country, kinda jazzy, and certainly Americana. Sarah Morris and the Sometimes Guys. Regardless of which genre label you give it, the sound is based on Sarah’s strong songwriting and the musical sensitivity of the boys in the band. Phil Nusbaum caught up with Sarah at her Minneapolis studio. Their conversation started off with Sarah talking about her musical genre.

Sarah Navratil leads her group into jazz Central Studios This Friday night from 8 till 9:30. Sarah plays the tenor sax, and she duets with Sophia Kickofel who plays the alto. The evening’s music pays tribute to jazz composers Lenny Tristano, Warren Marsh and Lee Konitz. When Sarah talked about the show with Phil Nusbaum, she referenced the saxophone duet on the Tristano composition, Background Music.

Before Stanley Jordan was a household name he was getting his career started with Madison, Wisconsin as his homebase. The young player made routine trips up to the Twin Cities and he credits the Twin Cities as the first major metro area where he built up a fanbase. Even though Jordan can now command a crowd in every corner of the planet he's quick to come back to the Twin Cities, specifically the Dakota. He's holding court there on Thursday and he took the time to chat with Sean McPherson about his love of the Twin Cities, his approach to playing solo and his celebrated and unorthodox guitar technique.

Rose Lewis was a member first of an award winning Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music. She went on to perform with major artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Diane Reeves, teaching school based bands, and has freelanced with a greater number of groups than can be listed here. Way back in 1991, Rose won the Minnesota Composer’s Forum’s Composer Commissioning Project, and that opened the door to performing her work. Unfortunately, Rose was on the shelf due to illness for 16 years, and she is back, teaching and composing. Rose got together to talk about her composing with Phil Nusbaum.

Pianist Bryan Nichols is embarking on a new chapter in his musical life. On Saturday he launches a new quintet to navigate his original compositions. He'll be joined by Sophia Kickhofel (sax), Jake Baldwin (trumpet), Dan Carpel (bass) and JT Bates (drums). The group premieres at Berlin and he was nice enough to stop by Jazz88 and chat with Sean McPherson about the new lineup and his approach to collaborating with new players and how to stay committed to being a lifelong student of music.