Twin Cities Jazz Fest at Mears Park (June 20, 2026)
It was time to go and weather-wise it couldn’t have been a more perfect day for an outdoor music festival. Live Nation was kicking off its first season at the brand new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee, but I was heading in the other direction, east to St. Paul to catch the second day of the 28th Twin Cities Jazz Fest at Mears Park. Seven bands, two stages, over eight hours of music, all of it free.
As I meandered through the streets of St. Paul, I rolled down my car windows and pulled up a hip hop playlist. And right after The Roots “Adrenaline” and before “That Night” from Blackalicious was “Cantaloop” from Us3, a funky song girded by Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island” a song that was being played as a warmup song by the first band at the AARP Stage when I arrived at Mears Park.
Lucia Sarmiento is a local musician who came to the Twin Cities from her native Peru to study jazz at the McNally Smith College of Music. What she didn’t realize is how diverse a musical scene her new home was and she looked to absorb as much as she could.
Lucia plays the tenor sax and has toured with Pitbull and Karol G. She released her debut solo album, Escape, in 2025 and started off her set with songs from it like the smooth jazz “Morning Delight” and even smoother “Signal Flow.” Then during “Look Up” she turned to her drummer, Pete James Johnson, the two with a nice interplay, back and forth, having a conversation like a soft-shoe dance easing into the day.
At the Bigos Stage was Nancy Bierma and her husband, Jim, on drums and friend, Nathan Norman, on bass. The Bigos stage was not big at all but more of a raised tent that could sleep four and cozy enough for a trio of musicians.
Like Lucia Sariemento, Nancy ended up in the Twin Cities wanting to learn jazz. She had a degree in classical music and was told that if she really wanted to learn to play jazz she needed to jam with local musicians, which is how she met her future husband and friend.
“I was born and raised on a farm in Iowa,” Nancy told the crowd. “If I can learn jazz, anyone can.”
The Nancy Bierma Trio can be found playing at local spots like the Dakota and Crooners. They are also the perfect fit for private parties and hotel lounges or outside under a tent playing the classics like “I Thought About You” and “What a Wonderful World.” Jim and Nathan even had a nice moment during “Start All Over Again” when they had a conversation, a quick tap, back and forth, Jim switching from sticks to brushes with mallets within reach.
Zacc Harris has been playing the guitar professionally in the Twin Cities since 2005 while teaching music at Carleton College and Hamline University. Although local, his music has gathered national recognition with his debut album, Small Wonders, landing on DownBeat’s Best Albums of the Year list in 2021.
Zacc was joined on stage by Brandon Wozniak on tenor sax, Bryan Nichols on piano, Chris Bates on bass and Pete James Johnson doing double duty on drums for the day.
Zacc and his group kicked off their set with the low-key, funky “Ominous Skies” from their debut album. Then played the self-titled song from their latest album, Chasing Shadows before moving onto “World’s Apart.” Their refined and polished tone was as smooth and refreshing as the weather of the day.
Choro is a music genre from Rio de Janeiro and Borealis is Latin for “northern” which is the perfect description of a group of gentlemen who definitely do not have a Latin American name among them but still have devoted close to thirty years studying its music. The gentlemen are Pat O’Keefe on clarinet, John Croarkin on flute, Robert Everest on guitar, David Burk on cavaquinho and Tim O’Keefe on percussion.
Lively is the best description of the music they played, which gave many in the crowd their first chance of the day to get out of their lawn chairs and start dancing. The area around the Bigos stage was starting to fill up with the outdoor tables at The Bulldog already taken, someone shouting from the patio for the group to play “Freebird.”
Tim laughed, “We already played that one.”
It was the first national act of the day and Sullivan Fortner was not having any of it when it came to the laidback vibe from a crowd that never left their seats after Zacc and his band played.
“Wasup,” Sullivan responded to the polite (tepid) applause. “You sound too depressed for a Saturday. We’ll play a few songs and I’ll check back to see if you are still breathing.”
And just like that 45 minutes, maybe an hour went by as Sullivan with Tyrone Allen on bass and Kayvon Gordon on drums formed a perfect triangle, smiling, keeping an eye on each other, laughing, Tyrone and Kayvon, waiting on Sullivan to see where he would lead them next.
Sullivan is from New Orleans. He started playing the piano at four. He has played with Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon and Diane Reeves. He’s won Grammys with Samara Joy and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as receiving a nod for his 2023 solo debut, aptly named Solo Game. And what a rare treat it was to see him and his bandmates move through some original music, songs which felt like starting off points as he noodled through a showtune-stride-inspired cadenza, later moving through endless variations of Duke Ellington’s “Beginning to See the Light.”
Then Sun Ra’s “Watusa…”
Throughout the day the musicians on stage thanked the crowd for coming out. And the reason most made their way to a crowded downtown park was to experience something like this: A song starting off like Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” but in double or triple time. This wasn’t a herd of camels stretching across the vast Sahara, but a mad dash of Arabian horses to where? I don’t know. All I knew for sure: It was thrilling as the crowd gave an extended, robust round of applause as if never wanting the moment to end.
I made my way back to the Bigos stage. Again it didn’t look like it was going to accommodate the next band. In fact it didn’t look big enough for Hal Longley and his towering sousaphone. But after some light stretching, Bob DeBoer on trumpet and Zach Zins on trombone eased onto the stage to join Hal and Andy Deckard on drums.
BrassZilla is a brass band in the best sense and they base their musical north star around Hal and his sousaphone.
We caught them this year on Fat Tuesday at the Turf Club, Thaddeus writing, “… the sousaphone as the equivalent of bass guitar was such a delight and made things more festive just for being that sound.”
Festive indeed for New Orleans had come to 6th and Wacouta as people started dancing with an interesting contrast forming in front of the stage: an elderly gentleman who looked one misstep from ending up in the emergency room dancing along-side a girl in a hot pink top who seemed to have an endless dance moves. I’m not kidding. The girl couldn’t have been more than seven, but she had more dance steps than Sullivan Fortner had variations on a Duke Ellington song. She stole the show and it became apparent that no one else needed to be dancing in front of the stage. So she had the spotlight to herself as she went toe-to-toe with Andy’s drum solo, a musical conversation, one with sticks, the other with tennis shoes.
JazzMN Orchestra with Michael Mayo
What a perfect way to end a perfect day: To finish with a big band sound. Having been in the Twin Cities for decades, it was my first time seeing the JazzMN Big Band. The band doesn’t play much. It’s more of a loose collection of professional musicians who get together throughout the year to put on a show, which usually involves a headliner. In the past they have played with national acts like John Pizzarelli, Diane Schuur and Arturo Sandoval. To end the 28th Twin Cities Jazz Festival they invited Michael Mayo onto the stage.
Michael is from Los Angeles. He comes from a musical family and was only the third vocalist to be accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz NKA Herbie Hancock Institute, studying with Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Dianne Reeves. His debut album, Bones, came out in 2021 and his latest, Fly, was Grammy-nominated for best Jazz Vocal Album.
“Hey Twin Cities. Let’s get into it!”
And just like that it was one of his original songs, “I Wish” followed by a jazz standard “Just Friends” a song about friends who are more than just friends.
Michael has a bright, nimble delivery. Even though he sings songs about the complications of love, there is an exuberance in his voice that cannot be diminished. A fan favorite was “You and You” that had him bopping and swinging and made you believe that maybe this relationship will work out.
“I like a great outdoor music festival,” Michael said. And like many before, he thanked the crowd for coming out and experiencing live music, especially with AI making inroads into the music industry.
“Let’s give up for humans,” he cheered.
Let’s give up for the Twin Cities Jazz Fest for putting on another great weekend of jazz music.
