After three long years, it’s time for THE RETURN of the one and only Mel Brown and his trio featuring pianest Jof Lee and bassist Tim Gilson! Mel Brown is known as Portland’s ultimate timekeeper and ‘Mister Groove.’ An Oregon icon in jazz, Mel Brown has been labeled the ‘Gentleman of Jazz’, with a career spanning over 40 years. Mel first made his mark as a Motown staff drummer, recording and touring with Martha Reeves, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and others. He subsequently spent ten years working with Diana Ross and other pop acts before giving up the road in 1991 and returning home to his first love – jazz. These guys are world class players and not to be missed. 

David Friesen and his Circle 3 Trio return to the lounge! David has performed and recorded with countless jazz legends, including Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, Chick Corea, and Philly Joe Jones, to name a few. And lest we forget the two other incredible players in this trio, powerhouse drummer Charlie Doggett and explosive saxophonist Joe Manis. Also as a special guest guitarist John Stowell will be joining them! Great musicians, terrific original compositions and unique arrangements! David and John first met in New York City in 1976, and they formed a duo that recorded and toured prolifically for seven years, with performances in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. Their 1978 collaborative album "Through the Listening Glass" was chosen as one of the "Ten Best Jazz Albums of the Decade" by the Los Angeles Examiner. "It’s been said of David Friesen that he does for the art of bass playing what Pythagoras did for the triangles." Patrick Hinely/Jazz Times "In the age of mediocrity and clones, John Stowell's uniqueness and originality are a breath of fresh air." Paul Horn 

Dmitry Matheny and his all-star band join forces with Holly Pyle for her west coast tour! Celebrated for her “soulfully graceful, liquid-like voice” (Phoenix New Times), the classically trained Los Angeles vocalist Holly Pyle tours and performs with leading jazz and Americana groups, and appears regularly as a solo a-cappella act using electronic looping to build masterful sonic creations. Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny has been lauded as “one of the most emotionally expressive improvisers of his generation” (International Review of Music). An honors graduate of Berklee College of Music, Dmitri Matheny vaulted onto the jazz scene in the 1990s as the protégé of jazz legend Art Farmer. Since then he has garnered critical acclaim and a loyal international following, releasing eleven CDs and touring extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The San Francisco Chronicle calls Matheny “one of the jazz world’s most talented horn players.” For a decade Dmitri and Holly have toured the western states, delighting audiences with their creative collaborations. Popular programs include The SnowCat, an original theatrical production for kids and families, Jazz From The Silver Screen, The Brazil Project: Bossa Nova & Beyond, and deep dives into the songbooks of Burt Bacharach, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Wonder. According to All About Jazz, the Dmitri Matheny Group is “an all-star jazz band featuring some of the most accomplished musicians in the western United States.” Holly Pyle on vocals, Joe Bagg on keys, Eric Gruber on bass, Tyson Stubelek on drums, Dmitri Matheny on flugelhorn. 

The 4 Kings are marching into town on a hot Saturday night! The kings in question are the one and only Sean Holmes on vocals, the sultan of saxophone Renato Caranto, boss of the B3 Louis Pain on the Hammond organ and master of backbeat Edwin Coleman III on drums. Organist “King Louie” Pain and vocalist Sean Holmes both moved to Portland from the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986, but they didn’t cross paths in either music scene until one afternoon in 2010 at Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival. The two got in a casual conversation that day and discovered that they shared a home town. But it also turned out that Sean’s mother—vocalist/violinist Carol Stallings—had gone to high school with Louis’ singer/songwriter brother Duncan, and that Duncan and Carol had later played with some of the same legendary Bay Area musical artists, including drummer Joe Provost (Maze) and Carol's saxophonist brother Ron "Rev" Stallings! Following that conversation at the blues festival, Louis began inviting Sean to be a part of his popular “Portland Soul All-Stars” soul tribute shows at Jimmy Mak’s. Several years later, Sean returned the favor, including Louis in a Ray Charles tribute set at the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival. Since then, Louis & Sean have been working together semi-regularly. This dynamic duo has great fun making music together, and audiences can’t get enough of them—whether they’re playing funky dance music or mellow background sounds! When the dynamic saxophonist Renato Caranto is added to the mix, the group is dubbed, "The Three Kings." And when exciting drummer Edwin Coleman III joins the group, they're "The Four Kings!" Sean grew up in San Francisco and the Los Angeles area in a family of working musicians – Mom, Dad, uncle, grandfather, cousins. Sean had some of his first recording sessions with his mom, Carol Stallings, at Hollywood Sound Studio in LA and at the Jackson Family's home studio in Encino, CA. (Carol recorded and toured with numerous famous artists, including Joe Cocker and Englebert Humperdink.) Sean arrived in Portland Fall of 1986 on a basketball scholarship at Concordia College. He soon traded in his hoop shoes for a choir robe, studied voice, and began working with local musicians. Sean has worked with many top local and national artists, including Linda Hornbuckle, the Portland Jazz Orchestra, David Byrne & The Oregon Symphony, Bobby Torres, Esperanza Spalding, Obo Addy, Brian Blade, Mel Brown, Thara & Tahira Memory, Liv Warfield, Curtis Salgado, Taj Mahal, Soul Vaccination, 5 Guys Named Moe, Steve Miller, and Jarrod Lawson. An Oregon Music Hall of Fame inductee dubbed "Portland's boss of the B-3" by The Oregonian, Louis actually hails from San Francisco, CA. Beginning in the 1970’s, Louis played and recorded with a wide variety of top Bay Area musicians, including members of Tower of Power, the Ray Charles Orchestra, Santana, Steely Dan, the Doobie Bros., the Edwin Hawkins Singers, and B.B. King. Since moving north in '86, Louis has continued the trend, working with visiting legends including Martha Reeves, Solomon Burke, Phil Upchurch, and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, as well as with a “who’s who” of local blues & jazz artists, including Mel Brown, Curtis Salgado, Lloyd Jones, and the late great “Sweet Baby” James Benton, Paul deLay, and Linda Hornbuckle. He’s performed dozens of times at the Safeway Waterfront Blues festival and innumerable times at other NW venues, including approximately 1,500 performances at Portland’s Jimmy Mak’s. In the 1990’s, Louis played on and co-produced four Paul deLay Band CDs released on the Evidence Records label. In recent years, he’s produced and performed on a series of critically acclaimed CDs on his own Shoug Records label, including “Rock Me Baby” with vocalist LaRhonda Steele, “Live at Riverhouse Jazz” with a trio of vocalists, and the all-instrumental, all-original release “It’s About Time,” featuring the King Louie Organ Trio. All three CDs received 4-star reviews in Downbeat and were featured in the magazine’s annual “Best Albums of the Year” issues. 

The Galen Clark Organ Trio brings a genre bending approach to the classic organ trio instrumentation, exploring entropic soundscapes, psychedelic funk and groove heavy electronic tinged jazz. The music ranges from organ trio classics to soaring originals and takes influence from legends such as Jimmy Mcgriff, John Scofield and The Meters. The lineup features Charlie Doggett on drums and Trent Baarspul on guitar. Galen Clark is a keyboardist, songwriter, producer, and educator based in Portland, OR. He leads the soul funk collective Outer Orbit and the genre bending group Trio Subtonic and he is 1/3 of the NW collaboration Patterns Fly with D'Vonne Lewis and Andy Coe. He has toured and collaborated with artists such as Anna Tivel, Sarah Clarke, Sleater-Kinney, A Love Electric, Jessica Lurrie and more. 

Trumpeter & bandleader Cyrus Nabipoor is bringing fantastic New Orleans musicians guitarist Max Bronstein and bassist Amina Scott to the PNW for his New Orleans Quartet! A distinctive voice both on the horn and in his writing, Cyrus Nabipoor's singular sound has garnered him international acclaim. He has been a featured festival artist at PDX Jazz, Cathedral Park, Montavilla Jazz, New Orleans French Quarter, and Chicago Instigation. To date, he has released 2 albums under his own name, and collaborated on numerous more. In addition to his self-titled work, Cyrus runs the Puddletown Stompers, is a member of Reb & The Good News, and works as a freelance trumpeter & music director. An in-demand composer/arranger, Cyrus has had several works commissioned by Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble, and has produced horn tracks for major artists including Nicky Youre, Grace Enger, Maggie Koerner, Peach Tree Rascals, and David Hugo. He has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with a wide variety of artists including Jamison Ross, Elle King, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson, James Singleton, Jason Marsalis, Steve Masakowski, Mike Dillon, Stanton Moore, Amina Scott, Nicole McCabe, and more. Born and raised in Portland OR, Cyrus began his studies with Derek Sims & Alan Jones. He holds a B.M. from Loyola University New Orleans, where he graduated magna cum laude and was awarded outstanding undergraduate in both Jazz and Brass. While at Loyola, he studied with Nick Volz, Tony Dagradi and Jimbo Walsh. In 2015, Cyrus was awarded the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Scholarship. Cyrus Nabipoor, trumpet Max Bronstein, guitar Amina Scott, bass Micah Hummel, drums