Contacts: Connie Shaver 612-308-5785 ~ connieshaver@charter.net

Kevin Barnes 612-668-1735 ~ kbar264@aol.com

Jazz Noir Returns on Jazz88 KBEM with an Original Radio Drama Live Broadcast from Vieux Carré Sunday, April 26

Created by the Award-Winning Playwrights Christina Ham, Dominic Orlando and Josh Wilder and Composers Chris Bates, Steven Hobert and Solomon Parham

Minneapolis, March 30, 2015 -- Radio station Jazz88 KBEM 88.5 FM will host its original radio drama series Jazz Noir in front of a live audience from the new Dakota venue Vieux Carré in the Historic Hamm Building in downtown Saint Paul on Sunday, April 26, with shows at 5 and 8 p.m. The 8 p.m. performance will be broadcast live on Jazz 88.5 FM. Tickets are $25 and available at www.jazz88fm.com.

For those who long for "the grand old days" of radio, Jazz88 KBEM has once again answered the call. Jazz Noir is an original radio drama series complete with live voice actors and musicians in front of a live audience, just like in the days of radio's infancy. The next episode is Near North, an original radio drama in which playwrights Christina Ham, Dominic Orlando and Josh Wilder have been commissioned to collaborate and explore the rich Minneapolis jazz club scene between 1946 and 1956. The playwrights will collaborate with composers Chris Bates, Steven Hobert and Solomon Parham who will create and perform an original jazz music score for the drama. The remarkable cast includes Ansa Akyea, Bruce Bohne, Jane Froiland, Carolyn Pool, Eric Sharp and Edwin Strout. Ed Jones, veteran actor and Jazz88s morning show host will direct the production.

The Playwrights' Center and American Composers Forum partnered to assist with the call and jury process for the writers and composers for this Jazz Noir production.

Jazz Noir is made possible through funding provided by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Legacy Fund.

Originated and produced by Kevin Barnes, Jazz Noir debuted in 2013 with Charles & Avon, an original radio drama set in Saint Pauls Rondo neighborhood in 1929, written by Alex Lewin with an original jazz score by composer George Maurer. In 2014, playwright Christina Ham collaborated with jazz composer John Penny on Hams original drama The Black Hand Side That Feeds You, set during the pulsating period of the 1960s in the North Side neighborhood of Minneapolis. The production was performed and broadcast live from The Dakota in downtown Minneapolis.

In addition to sold out houses at the AQ and Dakota, thousands of Jazz88 listeners locally, nationally and internationally have experienced the Jazz Noir broadcasts at 88.5 FM or at the web stream at www.jazz88fm.com. Im delighted to have the opportunity to bring a team together to produce another edition of Jazz Noir, says Barnes. Im particularly excited to bring three award-winning playwrights together with three gifted composers to play and collaborate on the radio drama.

The Dakota is excited to partner once again with KBEMs Jazz Noir in their soon-to-be open space in Saint Paul: Vieux Carré. Get a preview of the room in progress before the unveiling. This type of collaboration in the arts community is exactly what we like to see happening in the community, says The Dakota founder Lowell Pickett, and we are thrilled to partner with KBEM on this project. We are excited to see how the theme develops both musically with the direction of Chris Bates, Steven Hobert and Solomon Parham and theatrically from the gifted Ms. Ham, Mr. Orlando and Mr. Wilder. This will be a unique experience for everyone involved.

Plot Summary-Near North
Cutty Franklin is a leading man in his own tragedya decorated World War II hero and ex-con who is struggling to start over after a blackmail scheme that went awry. Muzzy Atkins is an amateur screenwriter hired by a famous local mobster-turned-film producer who wants to turn Cuttys tragedy into a major motion picture. The mobsters girlfriend wants the film for herself and will do whatever it takes to get it. Over a three-year time span, Morning Follows Night captures the cut-throat 24-karat jazz clubs of the Near North Side to the mint movie houses of Minneapolis as the lines blur between fiction and reality in this violent game of blackmail, greed and revenge.

About the Playwrights
Christina Ham's plays have been developed and produced both nationally and internationally with the Center Theater Group, The Goodman Theater, The Guthrie Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Off-Broadway at the Summer Play Festival, SteppingStone Theatre, and the Tokyo International Arts Festival among others. Her play Four Little Girls played to a sold-out audience at the Kennedy Center directed by Phylicia Rashad as part of the 50^th Anniversary commemoration of the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in addition to being produced in 45 states. Christina is a two-time recipient of a McKnight Fellowship for Playwrights and a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights' Center, the Marianne Murphy Women & Philanthropy Award in Playwriting, and a nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She has received commissions from The Guthrie Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Park Square Theatre among others. Her play Nina Simone: Four Women will have its World Premiere at Park Square Theatre in March 2016. Her plays are published by Dramatic Publishing, Heinemann, PlayScripts, Inc., and Smith and Kraus. A graduate of the University of Southern California and a MFA in Playwriting from The UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, Christina is an Affiliated Writer at the Playwrights' Center, a member playwright of the Workhaus Collective, and The Dramatists Guild of America. www.christinaham.com.

Dominic Orlando is a two-time Jerome fellow and McKnight Fellow through The Playwrights Center. Recent Commissions: screenplay adaptation of his Danny Casolaro (Caliber Media/Aviation Films), adaptation of Don DeLillos Hammer & Sickle (Arts Emerson, Boston), World Without End (Guthrie Theater/University of Minnesota). Danny Casolaro recently had its Midwest premiere at TimeLine Theater in Chicago. Dominic devised and wrote text with Theatre Forever for The Nature Crown which premieres at The Guthrie Theater in March 2015. Locally, hes worked with History Theatre, Red Eye, The Jungle, and Off-Leash Area. Elsewhere: HERE, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Kitchen Dog, Crowded Fire, NNPN, The Tokyo Festival of the Arts. Hes a co-creator with Workhaus & Theatre de La Jeune Lune of Fissures: Lost and Found, commissioned by the Playwrights Center and Actors Theatre of Louisville, premiered at The Humana Festival of New American Plays, and published by Dramatic Publishing.

Josh Wilder is a playwright and actor hailing from South Philadelphia. He was the first national Jerome Many Voices Fellowship recipient at the Playwrights Center during the 2013-14 season and is thrilled to come back as one of this years Jerome Fellows. His play Gravity was recently presented at the 5th annual Fire This Time Festival in New York and is published by IndieTheatreNow. Joshs works have been developed and read at The Classical Theatre of Harlem, the Playwrights Center, Pillsbury House+Theater, The Alchemical Theatre Lab, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, The Drama League and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. https://pwcenter.org/profile/josh-wilder

About the Composers
Bassist and Co-Composer Chris Bates plays and works in the Twin Cities in the award winning Atlantis Quartet, the guitar trios Red Planet & Framework and with many other collaborators. Chris released his debut album New Hope, an all original affair featuring his quintet RED5, in the fall of 2012. Compositionally Chris is known for a melodic modern jazz sensibility that draws heavily on African music and free improvisation. Two recently commissioned works debuted in 2014 'Relay Transmission performed by Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble and Friar Monk by the Macalester College Jazz Ensemble. www.doublebates.com

Steven Hobert s genre-blending piano, accordion and vocal music has been described as delightful, innovative and viscerally inspiring that dazzles audiences with sincerity and playfulness to open up hearts and fire imaginations. Based out of Minneapolis, he tours as a soloist, leads the world beat-driven ensemble FireFlyForest, performs with the chamber-jazz ensemble Lulus Playground, and works as a free-lance producer, composer and instrumentalist for countless shows with vocalists and ensembles doing jazz, klezmer, sacred music, Americana, classical, rock and Latin American music. Recent commissions include the scoring and foley creation for the film Know Your Rights in 2014 (United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants). stevenhobert.com

Solomon J. Parham, a native of Detroit, is a trumpet performer, composer, instructor, Jazz band ensemble director, music educator and producer in digital music. His repertoire list is extensive, including everything from Hip Hop to Jazz. Currently, Solomon directs jazz ensembles at Walker West Music Academy and Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He has played on stages with musicians such as Delfeayo Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Anthony Cox, Saxophonist Eric Alexander, Wess Anderson, and Bassist Christian McBride, to name a few.. Solomon is a dedicated music educator and continues to uplift his music endeavors throughout the community. http://www.solomonparham.com

About Jazz88 KBEM 88.5 FM
Since 1970, KBEM has served the Twin Cities as the unique voice for Education, and Jazz, broadcasting at 88.5 FM. KBEM is licensed to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. From its inception as an innovative distance learning resource project conceived in the mid-1960s, to a curriculum based school program located at North Community High School, KBEM has evolved to be recognized as the Twin Cities public radio voice for Jazz and Education, reaching nearly 100,000 devoted listeners weekly. As the Twin Cities mainstream jazz station and exclusive source for traffic reports broadcast from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville, KBEM indeed reaches well beyond students and parents from North High School and the Minneapolis Public Schools.

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