More Jazz at the Oxford

In the second installment of this year’s Jazz at the Oxford, the King Louie Portland Blues Review is presenting a sampling of some of the region’s most talented blues musicians. At the forefront is Lisa Mann. Singing self-effacing vignettes, Mann is delightful, a playful master of the blues. In her song “Someday,” she talks about a future time when she will “do all the good” and, like a litany of New Year resolutions, belts through a number of pledges she will undertake “some day”—leaving, of course, the implication that she isn’t doing any such positive-living things just yet. It is playful and fun song writing. And, skilled as a bass player (oh, she just won the Muddy Waters Award for Bass Player of the Year three times), Mann pulls out the big-bottomed notes from the background where they usually serve, and reassigns them a righteous place as the driving force for the songs—and Mann knows how to move these songs along at double time. Often partnered with the glee of a church organ, no, these aren’t stare-into-the-bottom-of-your-whisky-glass blues, but foot-tapping and good-natured sets.

Three shows: 8 pm Friday, Nov. 22; 5 pm and 8:15 pm Saturday, Nov. 23

Oxford Hotel, 10 NW Minnesota

$39

This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2013.