Jazz@StBarney's kicks off their 13th concert season with the Mary Louise Knutson Trio, featuring pianist Mary Louise Knutson, bassist Gordon Johnson, and drummer Phil Hey. Seating is casual (at tables). Free snacks, lemonade, and coffee provided.

Minneapolis-based jazz pianist and composer, Mary Louise Knutson (k’NOOT-sen), has been called "one of the most exciting artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some time." Her warm, inviting tone, broad range of emotional expression, and distinctive compositions have brought her much recognition on the national music scene.

Knutson tours regularly with former Tonight Show bandleader trumpeter Doc Severinsen, as well as with her own group, the Mary Louise Knutson Trio.  Off-tour she can be heard with her trio or as a soloist in the Twin Cities; with vocalists Connie Evingson and Debbie Duncan; and with a variety of instrumental groups including the JazzMN Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra.  Knutson has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Kevin Mahogany, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Nicholas Payton, Slide Hampton, and many more.  

Knutson's latest jazz trio CD, In the Bubble, made JazzWeek's Top 10 and stayed in the Top 50 for 19 consecutive weeks.  Her debut jazz trio CD, Call Me When You Get There, charted in JazzWeek's Top 50 and earned Knutson the award for Top New Jazz Instrumentalist in 2001. In 2005, she was a Finalist in the Kennedy Center's International "Women in Jazz" Pianist Competition, and in 2006, Knutson was a Minnesota Music Awards nominee for both Jazz Artist of the Year and Pianist of the Year.