Livestream Concert Series, Keep Music Live, Produced at Crooners Supper Club for At-home Audiences Begins April 3

April 2 update (via a MinnPost article):

Crooners, which until yesterday morning planned to launch a monthlong streaming concert series, “Keep Music Alive,” this Friday, has put that on hold. After Gov. Tim Walz announced his stay-at-home order, which took effect Saturday, musicians started contacting Crooners saying they wanted to postpone.

Crooners and its partners – the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Jazz88 and Jazz Central Studios –agreed to delay the shows. Meanwhile, artists will be paid. Jazz Fest ED Steve Heckler said in a statement, “What we have decided to do is pay all of the artists who agreed to be in the series and who were announced last week, and re-book them for the series when we feel safe to do so.” Payment will be made from a start-up fund that now exceeds over $25,000.

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Via a March 26 Press Release:

Livestream Concert Series, Keep Music Live, produced at Crooners Supper Club for at-home audiences begins April 3. Twin Cities Jazz Fest, Jazz88 and Jazz Central Studios Partnering with Crooners to support music community sidelined by COVID-19

Crooners Supper Club - in partnership with the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Jazz88 and Jazz Central Studios - is launching a new livestream concert series Keep Music Live, with the near-term goal of giving Twin Cities musicians impacted by COVID-19 policies an opportunity to perform and earn desperately needed income. The series launches on April 3, and, as of April 8, will offer five distinct concerts a week, livestreamed and broadcast for at-home audiences only, Wednesday to Sunday at 7pm (with some variations). SEE PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE BELOW.

A fund administered by the non-profit Twin Cities Jazz Festival will underwrite the free concerts with the help of viewers willing to contribute. Spearheaded by a group of local music supporters led by Mike and Donna Wolsted, the Keep Music Live fund is beginning with a start-up amount of $25,000, to which livestream audiences can contribute in order to make the fund self-sustaining over time.  All artists performing in the series will receive market-rate payments. Excess funds (if any) will go into a trust administered by the Twin Cities Jazz Festival for the support of local musicians in dire need of financial help.  The initiative’s overarching goal is to provide a mechanism during the current period of closures to keep audiences and artists connected, and to provide an income source to numerous top-tier Twin Cities musicians who find themselves completely sidelined by the Coronavirus pandemic.  Donations will be taken on-line at www.twincitiesjazzfestival.com in a fund earmarked for this initiative.

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

Crooners Supper Club is providing its staff and facilities at no cost to the effort and will derive no income from the livestream performances, as they will be performed without an audience. “We are asking all concert participants to follow our health protocols,” says Crooners owner Mary M. Tjosvold, who owns Mary T. Inc., a health care line of businesses. “Staff and musicians will be screened when they arrive, and we will observe social distancing on stage and off when the shows are produced.”

Jazz88 (KBEM 88.5 FM) is serving as a primary sponsor for Keep Music Live and will broadcast on the radio and livestream most of the concerts on the schedule and will archive all the concerts on the schedule. The shows will also be available for on-demand viewing on a later date, proceeds of which will be directed to the artists involved, with a smaller portion earmarked for the Keep Music Live Trust. 

The concerts will be broadcast and livestreamed at no cost to viewers, After the April 3 launch, the shows will air five nights a week starting Wednesday April 8. The musicians and shows being programmed for Keep Music Live come from Crooners expansive palette of musical styles. “The artists we are programming are among our favorites at the club,” says Crooners music director Andrew Walesch. “They perform with us regularly, are familiar with our operation, and are beloved in town. As we move forward, we are going to add a few national names who have played the club, as long as they can safely make it here. As with our regular programming, we thrive on a mix of styles, sensibilities and generations. That diversity is what we’re striving for with Keep Music Live.”

Leveraging Crooners’ quintessentially Minnesota setting, the shows will be broadcast from the Dunsmore Jazz Room stage, framed by appealing views beyond the stage of the wooded shores of Moore Lake. The 60 to 80-minute-long programs will often include interviews with artists, as well as Q&A’s with artists, bands and cultural leaders in the Twin Cities. Ian Walesch is the series producer.

The Keep Music Live series helps kick off Minnesota Music Month, which is being observed by numerous organizations including The Current which was forced to postpone this year’s Minnesota Music Summit but is actively promoting local bands throughout the month.

photo credit Crooners

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE*

WEEK 1

Fri Apr 3, at 7pm - "Sibling Revelry" with Jennifer Grimm and Reed Grimm featuring Joe Cruz

Fri Apr 3, at 8:30pm - “Friday Night Jazz” with The Sightless Quartet featuring Cody Steinmann, Graydon Peterson, Joe Strachan and Ben Ehrlich

Sat Apr 4, at 7pm - "Stream Songs" with Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson

Sun Apr 5, at 7pm - "Get Happy!" The Harold Arlen Songbook with a Wizard of Oz Sing-Along with Prudence Johnson and Dan Chouinard

WEEK 2

Wed Apr 8, at 7pm - Pat Donohue and Friends From Along the Way

Thur Apr 9, at 7pm - "Tableaux: Works of Ravel, Debussy and More Get Jazzed" with Laura Caviani, David Milne, Chris Bates and Dave Schmalenberger

Fri Apr 10, at 7pm - "Arne Sings Andy" Arne Fogel interprets the Andy Williams Songbook

Fri Apr 10, at 8:30pm – “Friday Night Jazz” with Adam Harder Nussbaum Quartet, with Adam Nussbaum, Nelson Devereaux, Ted Godbout and Ted Olsen

Sat Apr 11, at 7pm -  “Moonshadow: Michael Monroe Sings Cat Stevens”

Sun Apr 12, at 7pm - “Easter Sunday with Robert Robinson” featuring Sam Reeves  

WEEK 3

Wed Apr 15, at 7pm – “An Evening of Show Tunes” with Tyler Michaels King, Sasha Andreev, Aimee K. Bryant, Evan Tyler Wilson and Suzie Juul with Louis Berg-Arnold on piano

Thur Apr 16, at 7pm - Miss Myra and the Moonshiners

Fri Apr 17 at 7pm – “Mick Sterling Presents an Acoustic Night of Billy Joel”

Fri Apr 17, at 8:30pm – “Friday Night Jazz” with Paul Harper's Shrewd Quartet featuring Paul Harper, Kevin Daley, Charlie Riddle and Dean White

Sat Apr 18, at 7pm - "I Am Women, Hear Me Roar" with Lori Dokken, Patty Peterson, Debbie Duncan, Judi Vinar and Rachel Holder

Sun Apr 19, at 7pm - An exciting headliner to be announced soon 

WEEK 4

Wed Apr 22, at 7pm - "The Music of Patsy Cline" with Joyann Parker

Thur Apr 23, at 7pm - To be announced

Fri Apr 24, at 7pm - The Debbie Duncan Quartet
Fri Apr 24, at 8:30pm – “Friday Night Jazz” with the Steve Kenny Quartet featuring Steve Kenny, Levi Schwartzberg, Ted Olson and Miguel Hurtado

Sat Apr 25, at 7pm – “Songs of Spring” with Andrew Walesch featuring Dave Karr and Special Guests

Sun Apr 26, at 7pm -- To be announced

*Schedule is subject to change

The five-year old Crooners Supper Club is located just north of the Minneapolis border, on Central Avenue (6161 Highway 65) in Fridley. With its definitive no-side-conversations listening policy and retro supper club ambiance, Crooners programs an eclectic mix of jazz, R&B, gospel, soul, funk, folk, roots-rock and country.  In addition to its three distinct concert stages – The MainStage, The Dunsmore Jazz Room and the Lakeside Café (in warmer months) - Crooners recently added a piano lounge in its bar area, Maggie’s, with vest-pocket stage for informal late-night lounge shows. Many shows postponed since the State-mandated shut-down of public assembly businesses on March 17 have been temporarily rescheduled for May. To watch, or for more info visit www.croonersmn.com, www.facebook.com/croonersmn, or call 763-760-0062.