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Event
The Birthday Club with Dan Chouinard Feat. Debbie Duncan
Most Sunday nights, Dan Chouinard brings in a stellar guest singer to toast the music birthdays and anniversaries of the month. Some familiar, some not, all worth celebrating. A dose of history no prerequisites or homework required, singing along optional.
DEBBIE - Debbie Duncan may be considered the upper Midwest's "best-kept-musical secret", but she has become a local legend and treasure in her home of Minneapolis. Her personality, vitality, and versatility all contribute to that fact. She is a terrific entertainer, and this is certainly part of her appeal. Most importantly, however, "she's a superb vocalist, probably the finest in the area." Bob Protzman, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Debbie hones her skills through years of experience. She studied classical voice for 14 years, including 4 years at Wayne State University. In Detroit she recorded back-up vocals for Mitch Ryder and Bob Seger. She then spent several years in the Los Angeles music scene recording back-up vocals for various artists and performing with her own jazz groups in popular nightclub settings.
She started collecting awards; Best Female Jazz Vocalist, Best Jazz Vocalist, Best Female Performer, Best Jazz Group, Best Jazz CD: Minnesota Music Awards; Best Female Jazz Vocalist: Minnesota Black Music Awards.
As her reputation grew, touring musicians began to learn about her and inviting her to sit in on their performances.
Debbie has sung with Bobby Watson and Horizon, Roy Hargrove, Bobby Lyle, Jack McDuff, John Hendricks, Mark Murphy, Chicago's legendary Von Freeman, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Rececca Paris. She received rave reviews opening for greats such as Herbie Hancock, Stephan Grapelli, Miles Davis, Lou Rawls and Joe Henderson. She also sang on Jimmy McGriff's CD, "In a Blue Meed", where her track of Dr. Feelgood was the most-played tune on that CD.
DAN - For nearly three decades Dan Chouinard has been pianist and accordionist for a long and distinguished roster of artists that includes Maria Jette, Prudence Johnson, Peter Ostroushko, Kevin Kling, and Philip Brunelle and Vocalessence. Hes appeared all across the upper Midwest and turns up occasionally on Garrison Keillors A Prairie Home Companion.
In 1994 he created an acclaimed radio series The Singer's Voice, broadcast live Sunday nights from the Dakota Jazz Club, then in St. Paul, hosting song-spiked conversation from the piano with a different singer each week, over 200 in the six years of the shows tenure.
As a writer and host he's often asked to create special live programs for Minnesota Public Radio, the MN Historical Society, the Rose Ensemble and others. His show Civil War Homecoming played at the Fitzgerald Theater in March, was broadcast on MPR in April, and televised in November on Twin Cities Public Television. Last year his show Steerage Song was on tour throughout Minnesota, a show co-authored with Peter Rothstein about the Ellis Island era of immigration to the US, depicted in folk songs, newspaper clippings and Tin Pan Alley tunes. In 2014 his show Cafe Europa was broadcast statewide, about bicycling with an accordion from Naples to Normandy in search of Minnesota WWII stories.
As a writer his work has been published in Minnesota Monthly, Saint Johns Magazine, the Minnesota Orchestras Showcase magazine and in the Minneapolis StarTribune.
Hes traveled extensively in France and Italy, with bicycle and without, and has presented French and Italian sing-alongs at the Alliance Française in Minneapolis. This past summer he spent two months working in Italy on an independent Hollywood film to be released early next year, a movie with the working title, Smitten!
Hes a musical consultant and sometime bandleader at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in South Minneapolis, and leads monthly community sing-alongs in downtown Minneapolis and St. Anthony Park.
He grew up in a big musical family near Lindstrom MN, attended St. Johns University in Collegeville MN and spent four years as a teacher of French and Italian as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.
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LocationTHE DUNSMORE ROOM at Crooners Lounge and Supper Club (View)
6161 Hwy 65 NE
Minneapolis, MN 55432
United States
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Kid Friendly: Yes! |
Dog Friendly: No |
Non-Smoking: Yes! |
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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