NO COVER 4:30pm Show
BluLuna was formed by four veteran musicians out of their love for myriad genres of the jazz idiom without restraining themselves to one specific branch of the music. By focusing on familiar melodic compositions, this bias-free approach has allowed them to concentrate on playing very fresh and sparkling ideas honoring the wide range of America's first original sonic art. The result is a startlingly warm delivery of a strong yet hyper-sensitive mélange of enchanting moments.
Jazz drummer Jay Epstein has had an extensive career as a performer, recording artist, and touring artist. He has been on seven European tours with pianists Bill Carrothers & Giacomo Aula. He has also performed with the rock band Gypsy and jazz artists Barney Kessel, Richie Cole, Manfredo Fest, Sheila Jordan, Karrin Allyson, Kenny Werner, Howard Levy, Toots Thielemans, Bob Dorough, and Sarah Vaughan. His CDs featuring bassist Anthony Cox and pianist Bill Carrothers have garnered luminous reviews in the international press. His current bands include Red Planet, Framework, StableMates, Firebell, Gypsy Mania, and BluLuna.
Dean Magraw studied at the University of Minnesota and Berklee College of Music in Boston. He spent five years in Beantown, playing professionally and teaching. Since returning to his hometown St. Paul, he has had a life of music—playing, composing, arranging, producing, and recording. Magraw’s music is impossible to pigeonhole. For 15 years, he was half of a duo with mandolinist Peter Ostroushko. He has collaborated with Masahiro Nitta, who plays the traditional Japanese shamisen; with Nigel Kennedy, Britain’s bad boy of the classical violin; with Nirmala Rajasekar, South Indian vocalist and player of the vina; with the singers Bruce Henry, Ruth MacKenzie, and Claudia Schmidt; and with the Irish supergroup Altan. As a jazz cat, he leads his own trio, has been performing with Chris Bates and Jay Epstein as Red Planet since 2002, and more recently formed BluLuna.
Steve Pikal is a highly regarded bass player from the Minnesota jazz scene. He has had the pleasure of backing legendary performers such as Cab Calloway, Bob Hope, and Margaret Whiting. Some of his additional playing credits include the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, Butch Miles, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, the Barbary Coast Dixieland Show band, Dick Hyman, Delfeayo Marsalis, Jon Weber, Danny Coots, Brian Holland, the Wolverines Big band, Butch Thompson, Hal Smith, John Cocuzzi, Jeff Barnhart, the Midiri Brothers, and the Bill Evans New Orleans Jazz Band.
