Prudence Johnson & the Halcyon Jazz Quartet

Dinner and drinks service starts 1 hour before showtimes. Jazz with an Understated Vibe Versatility can be rewarding but some music just feels like home. Vocalist Prudence Johnson returns to her jazz roots with the Halcyon Jazz Quartet, following their sparkling debut at Crooners last spring. With an “off the beaten path” approach to repertoire and featuring the amazing Dave Hagedorn on vibes, and top-shelf rhythm section Joe Pulice and Kevin Clements, Halcyon takes the “less is more” approach and reaches for the emotional and musical depths of a song with a controlled intensity. Prudence Johnson: Voice Dave Hagedorn: Vibraphone Joe Pulice: Drums Gary Raynor: Acoustic Bass Prudence Johnson is well known to Crooners audiences, appearing with Lush Country, with Rio Nido, in duos with Dan Chouinard, Tim Sparks or Dean Magraw, in shows featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein and Randy Newman, singing in French and Italian, or with Latin-jazz sensation Yazmin. But her reputation as a jazz singer lives on, and, in a new venture, she joins forces with three of the region’s finest instrumentalists to form the Halcyon Jazz Quartet. “(Johnson’s) lush, precise, expressive voice, with its pearls of vibrato, is best unadorned.” Pamela Espeland, MinnPost