Hump night was for club hopping in downtown Minneapolis. First stop, the Dakota for Luba Mason, the Broadway star (Chicago, Capeman, Jekyll & Hyde), pop/jazz recording artist and wife of Latin superstar Ruben Blades.

The statuesque blonde emphasized material from “Krazy Love,” her new Brazilian-flavored jazz-pop album featuring mostly originals. Although she has a striking voice, she seemed more like an actress than a singer on many of those tunes. (Plus she explained what each song was about before she played it, which diminished the impact.) However, she impressed on covers of “Skylark” (a cappella), “The Look of Love” (seductive in Spanish) and Jobim’s “Cuernavaca.”

Second stop was the Fine Line for a tribute to Twin Cities guitarist Jeff Hill, co-owner of the influential Knut-Koupee Music Store in the ’70s and early ’80s that outfitted Prince, the Hypstrz and many other local bands. Jeff also played in the Youngsters, Underbeats and other groups. He died last month of esophageal cancer at age 57. Many local musicians performed in his honor. A highlight: Curtiss A doing James Brown’s “Cold Sweat.”

Finally, it was First Avenue and Jenny Lewis. The Rilo Kiley frontwoman focused on material from her two solo albums. The ever-charismatic singer wisely varied the textures of her alt-country/pop/rock tunes by using different combinations of musicians and instruments (including having her opening act(s) as well as her harmonica-playing dad, Eddie Gordon, sit in). Highlights: the haunting “Jack Killed Mom” (with her dad on harp); the sadly sung “Happy,” and “Acid Tongue,” with just her voice, acoustic guitar and five harmony singers.Â

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 3:17 am and is filed under Concerts, Local, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.