NO COVER 4:30pm Show
Bassist Calvin Caron and pianist Patrick Adkins will perform a 60-minute set of cerebral, elegant modern jazz. Then, bantu-jazz musician and composer Nyttu Chongo will perform his own hour of original works, accompanied by renowned percussionist Tim O'Keefe. This show is an official Twin Cities Jazz Festival event!
Patrick Adkins is an inventive, empathetic Minneapolis-based pianist and composer. An in-demand band leader and sideman all over town, Patrick has made his mark on the Twin Cities jazz scene, performing at jazz festivals across the Midwest and sharing the bandstand with luminaries such as JT Bates, Dean Magraw, Davu Seru, Michelle Kinney, and Brandon Wozniak. Patrick is a member of the modern jazz collective SPACE (which has released the albums "The Approaching Coast” and "Non-Trivial Problem"), and he branches out from piano to synthesizers for the indie glam-pop band d'Lakes.
Calvin Caron is a bassist and composer working out of the Twin Cities. Calvin has performed as a bandleader and sideman at many venues around Minnesota, including Orchestra Hall, Jazz Central Studios, and Green Room. Calvin spent the formative years of his musical life in Duluth, MN, while he studied at the University of Minnesota under Ryan Frane. He spent the post-pandemic years of 2020–2024 working in the Duluth music scene. Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2024, he has played and studied with many of the area's great musicians and worked on new music inspired by his new surroundings.
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Nyttu Chongo is a bantu-jazz musician and composer from Maputo, Mozambique, now residing in Fridley. He builds, repairs, and plays a wide range of traditional Mozambican, Rwandan, and West African instruments. His mission in life is to make the voices of his ancestors heard through these instruments.
Since moving to Minnesota in 2016, Nyttu Chongo has made a name for himself on large stages and in community settings across the Midwest. Chongo has performed at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts (Phulani, 2024), Orchestra Hall (2023), the Cedar Cultural Center (Cedar Commissions, 2022), the Guthrie Theater (Familiar, 2018), and more. In 2021, Chongo released his first full-length album, Libandzuwa (“The Power of the Sun”).
Chongo is a 2024 Knight Foundation grantee and a 2024–2025 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals program participant, launching his new community experience: Ancestral Connections. He has taught music through the MPR Class Notes program (2021–2024 and 2025–2026) and was a MacPhail Global Music Initiative Artist in Residence in 2022. Chongo was also a 2020 Minnesota State Arts Boards Initiative grantee.
