Steve Cole 2027

Craft cocktails and small plates begin at 6:00 pm.  General Admission seating available on a first-come basis, with preferred seating for our Baby Grand members. 

With Steve Cole’s 12^th solo album, “Sleight of Hand,” Steve pulls no punches, combining the sounds of two cities, Chicago and Minneapolis, that have come to define his musical identity. Partnering with producer David Mann for a collection of 10 new original songs and featuring guitar phenom Cory Wong (Vulfpeck, Fearless Flyers), Will Lee (from the David Letterman band) and Ricky Peterson (from Stevie Nicks and The David Sanborn Band) The album is both familiar and adventurous, exploring the world of jazz within the pulse of disco, energy of house music and influence of the Minneapolis sound. It also features, Mel Brown: Bass , Eric Valentine: Drums, Bernd Schoenhart: Guitar, Trevor Neumann: Trumpet and David Mann: Keyboards

Saxophonist Steve Cole is one of the most celebrated players in contemporary jazz.  The Chicago native exploded onto the scene in 1998 with the album “Stay Awhile” that was produced by fellow Chicagoan Brian Culbertson. The disc scored multiple #1 hits and earned Cole the Oasis Smooth Jazz Award for best new artist shortly before his sophomore set, “Between Us,” was released in 2000. His catchy singles made him an instant radio favorite and he cranked them out with regularity on subsequent albums “NY LA” (2003), “Spin” (2005), “True” (2006), “Moonlight” (2009), “True” (2013), “Turn It Up” (2016), “Gratitude” (2019) , “Without A Doubt” (2023) and his newest in release “Sleight of Hand” (2026)

In addition to his work as solo artist, Steve has performed/recorded, with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Boz Scaggs, Larry Carlton, Jeff Lorber, Jim Peterik, Freddie Cole, Cyrus Chestnut, and KMFDM, and has been a featured soloist with the City of Prague Orchestra, and The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Steve is also a founding member of The Sax Pack, a stellar sax trio completed by Kim Waters and Jeff Kashiwa.

When he’s not on the road, Dr. Cole teaches music industry entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota where he is a Clinical Professor and Teaching Fellow.