NO COVER 4:30pm Show
Bassist Michael O'Brien will be back in town to celebrate his birthday with his dear old friends Jeremy Walker on piano and Jay Epstein on drums. They'll be playing original works as well as some favorite jazz classics.
Jazz drummer Jay Epstein has an extensive career as a performing, recording, and international touring artist. He studied with Barry Altschul, the drummer in Chick Corea’s Circle. He has lived in Hollywood, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Miami, and Minneapolis; been on seven European tours; and played in house bands for five years on cruise ship lines. Some of the notable artists he has performed with are the rock band Gypsy, Barney Kessel, Sheila Jordan, Terry Gibbs, Karrin Allyson, Toots Thielemans, Bob Dorough, Marc Ribot, and Sarah Vaughan.
Michael O'Brien holds a BA from the University of Minnesota with a major in the Spanish language. He studied bass under Anthony Cox and West African and Haitian percussion under Marc Anderson. He has been performing and composing internationally for over a decade, having collaborated with such notable artists as Harry Connick Jr., Ruben Blades, Toninho Horta, Gil Goldstein, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Gene Pitney, Christine Ebersole, Dave Samuels, Pablo Ziegler, Steve Wilson, Veronica Swift, Dave King, Matt Wilson, Victor Lewis, Gene Jackson, Alex Sipiagin, Portinho, Sachal Vasandani, Ted Nash, Lage Lund, David Binney, Ari Hoenig, the Jazz Mandolin Project, Robert Rodriguez, Marc Giuliana, Luba Mason, and Paul Bollenback, to name a few. Michael has performed at festivals in Russia, Belarus, Indonesia, Haiti, Peru, Mexico, Norway, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Japan. He has also performed for UNESCO International Jazz Day, Lincoln Center Festival, the Jazz Education Network, the International Association for Jazz Education conference, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and the American Composers Forum’s Sonic Circuits festival. His string quartet work "Pine" was performed at the Kennedy Center by the acclaimed string quartet Ethel. Michael has taught clinics and masterclasses throughout the United States, Central America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Japan. In 2020, he appeared in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary "More Than Just The Music.” Since 2022, he has been performing, teaching masterclasses, and holding clinics in Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola via the U.S. Department of State’s African Regional Service.
Jeremy Walker is a composer and pianist. His album of original jazz art songs, Haunted Blue (heard on APM’s Composers Datebook and MPR’s New Classical Tracks), features award-winning mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski. Walker’s suite 7 Psalms, performed at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, launched American Public Media’s Radio Choir conducted by Tesfa Wondemagegnehu. Other works include the oratorio The Rage of Achilles—for classical voice and jazz ensemble, and Alma Gentil—five pieces commissioned by Consortium Carissimi for chamber choir with early baroque and jazz ensembles. In 2014, Walker founded Jazz at Orchestra Hall in the Target Atrium, and he served as the program’s artistic director until 2019. He continues to be an active composer and performer and is working on an upcoming solo recording.
