Experimental Jazz on Lafond Presents: Kinney / Broder / Seru / Cartwright

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, 7pm

Zion Community Commons: 1697 Lafond Ave., St. Paul

Tickets at the door – $15 / $10 students. Cash, check, Venmo, Paypal accepted

This show is not wheelchair accessible.

Andrew Broder is a producer and artist, who has lived and worked in the Twin Cities for over 20 years. He has made dozens of records, as Fog, under his name and other pseudonyms. He has collaborated across the stylistic spectrum, from hip hop to techno to noise to avant rock, jazz, and much in between. Recently, he has produced tracks for Dua Saleh, Denzel Curry, Open Mike Eagle, Jenny Lewis, Serengeti, FPA, Armand Hammer and has contributed to music by Bon Iver, Poliça, Lambchop, Marijuana Deathsquads, and much more. You never know what you’re gonna get.

George Cartwright is a Minnesota-based composer, performer, bandleader, producer and musical collaborator, with a prolific career spanning over 30 years. His career began in his home state of Mississippi, shaped by a childhood woven through with early memories of singing in church and learning songs at his grandfather’s knee. He grew up on rock-n-roll and fell in love with jazz after hearing Charles Lloyd’s iconic “Forest Flower,” and like the British bands that he listened to in high school, he was also heavily influenced by the blues being played literally in his own backyard of the Mississippi Delta.  

Davu Seru is an improvising musician, composer and scholar known primarily for his work on drums. For the past 20+ years he has worked with musicians such as Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Tony Hymas, David Boykin, Chris Bates, Catherine Delaunay, and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature at University of Minnesota.

Michelle Kinney’s career began in Minneapolis, MN, when she returned home after receiving a BA in music from Northwestern University. During this early phase in her career, she was recognized and frequently funded as a composer & cellist, collaborating with Twin Cities choreographers (Laurie Van Wieren), filmmakers (Chris Sullivan, Chicago) and theater artists (Michael Sommers), in addition to composing for her own new music ensembles (IMP ORK, Aphid Bloodbath Consort). In 1989, she moved to New York City to pursue an MA in Performance Studies at New York University. Michelle lived in NYC for 13 years, recording and touring Europe and the US with several of her mentors; bridging musical genres and scenes, from art music (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Myra Melford), to pop (Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant, Lou Reed); and composing for dance (Cyrus Khambatta), film (Debra Dickson) and theater (Richard Schechner). Michelle returned to the Twin Cities in 2002. In addition to again becoming very actively engaged in the community as a composer and performer, Michelle is the Musician in Residence for the Dance Program within the University of Minnesota’s Theater Arts and Dance Department.