Jesse Held is the so-called "Earl" of Earl Giles, a Minneapolis-based elixir company. He also runs the bar program at places like Parlour Bar, Constantine and Mercado. He joined Jazz88's foodie, Matt Gundrum, on today's Morning Show.

Howard Levy will play harmonica and piano, joined by guitarist Chris Siebold, at Crooners Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019. He talked to the Morning Show.

Space is a Twin Cities Jazz group whose players are young veterans. jack Courtright plays the trombone; Will Schmid on the guitar, the keyboardist is Patrick Adkins, bassist and cellist is Alma Ingebretson and Luke Peterson plays the drums. Patrick and Luke got together with Phil Nusbaum to talk about the band ahead of its CD release event at Jazz Central Studios in Minneapolis, Friday August 9. Doors open at 8pm.

Tom Cornish, Russ Rayfield and Mark Briere. This acoustic trio has been singing and playing together for decades. The group plays Tuesday nights at the Riverview Café from 7:30-9:30, and always plays a broad swath of styles. Tom Cornish and Russ Rayfield got together with interviewer Phil Nusbaum to talk about this most unusual acoustic group, and they were talking about one of their songs, My Home is on the Prairie.

John Penny is a local guy who has a multi-faceted career in music. These days he is doing a lot of playing, and John leads his group, Equatis, into the Maplewood Library, 7-8 PM Wednesday August 14. A short time ago, John spoke with Phil Nusbaum about where John gets the Latin-African synthesis so prominent in John’s jazz.

Lila Ammons lives in Minneapolis and travels the world singing blues and Jazz. Lila happens to be the dranddaughter of jazz pianist Albert Ammons and the niece of saxophone player Gene Ammons. Through her family and her travels, Lila has heard many kinds of jazz, and all those influences come out in Lila’s new CD, Geneology. Lilas’ CD release party is at the Dakota, Sunday August 4 at 7PM. She talked to Phil Nusbaum about the project.

The Tropics Steel Drum Band is a duet that shares music that comes originally from Trinidad and Tobago and features the steel pan or drum. Guitarist Jahbee Bennett had been part of the group for decades and Chris Belich plays the steel pan. The duet performs at the Maplewood Library, Wednesday July 31 at 7PM. When Phil asked group members about their backgrounds in Caribbean music, Jahbee was first to respond

Momokusu Iwata performs "Jongara-bushi" a traditional shamisen melody, live at KBEM's Studio 1.

Japanese Shamisen virtuoso Momokusu Iwata visited the Jazz88 studios to play for us and talk about his concert.

Lori Dokken, the great all around musician has two great things coming up. Friday July 26, right after work from 6 till 8, Lore hosts a piano bar at the Black hart of St Paul. And Next Monday, she leads a big cast in a major production called Shout Sister Shout. In a conversation with Phil Nusbaum, Lori first addressed the piano bar at the Black Hart.