Tall Tales is Dean Granros plus some Minneapolis heavy-hitters: Zacc Harris (guitar), Chris Bates (bass), Jay Epstein (drums). This will be a very special set for the Chippewa Valley. Come check it out!
Guitarist and composer Zacc Harris is best known for his work with Atlantis Quartet, winners of the 2015 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians and City Pages Best Jazz Artist of 2011. He has toured throughout the US and UK, and released or performed on more than two dozen records. With American Reverie, Harris sets out to explore songs that evoke the nostalgia of an America gone by, with modern jazz inflected interpretations of classic folk songs like Shenandoah and the Tennessee Waltz, along with music by Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, The Ronettes, Woody Guthrie and more. Joined by bassist Matt Peterson and drummer Lars-Erik Larson, Zacc Harris’ American Reverie brings the past and present together.
Zacc Harris – guitars
Matt Peterson – bass
Lars-Erik Larson – drums
Josh Gallagher is a native of Eau Claire, WI. In 2002, he went to Berklee College of music in Boston, MA on full scholarship. After two years, he was selected as the pianist in the Brubeck Institute Jazz Sextet during the 2004-2005 school year, where he performed with guest clinicians Bobby Watson, Rufus Reid, Jimmy Heath, Artistic Director Christian McBride, and Institute founder Dave Brubeck, among others. He has studied with Geoffrey Keezer, Joanne Brackeen, Hal Crook, Greg Hopkins, Phil Wilson, and Laura Caviani. He is music director and organist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Altoona, WI, and continues to work as a jazz pianist wherever possible.
Colin Heshmat is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied jazz piano under the guidance of Chip Stephens and received a bachelors of science in mechanical engineering. Heshmat has played at numerous jazz venues around the country, including the Velvet Note and Churchill Grounds in Atlanta, Georgia and the Green Mill and Andy’s Club in Chicago, Illinois. Heshmat is based in Eau Claire, WI where he continues to compose and develop his craft.
