BRUCE HENRY & DEAN MAGRAW Album Release Concert

Musical masters Bruce Henry (vocals) and Dean Magraw (guitar) celebrate the release of their new acoustic album A New Song with a special concert, welcoming Bruce back to his former Twin Cities home. Although the two artists have collaborated over the years, this is their first duo project and reflects an unexpected musical alchemy. Rooted in Black history, Bruce’s rich storytelling and three-and-a-half octave range weaves seamlessly with Dean’s spacious and soulful guitar stylings. Collectively Bruce and Dean have worked with the top folk, soul, pop and jazz greats (Roberta Flack, John Gorka, Jimmy Jam, Stephane Grapelli, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Greg Brown, Altan, Peter Ostroushko, Anthony Cox), but the magic they make together is truly something to experience.

Bruce A. Henry is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, composer, educator, and cultural historian whose three-and-a-half-octave range has thrilled audiences on five continents. Born in West Point, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago, he blends classical training with improvisational mastery, drawing on influences from Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye to John Coltrane. Described by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine as “a true master of the jazz art form,” praised by Andrea Canter (JazzInk) for a voice that “can swing like Goodman, spin like Parker, or levitate like Coltrane,” and hailed by Professor Mahmoud El-Kati as having “both his voice and mind as treasures,” Bruce inspires through concerts, lectures, youth programs, and community sing-alongs that celebrate Black music’s legacy and power to unite.

Minnesota master guitarist Dean Magraw has fine-tuned his tastefully unique style during years of performing and recording solo and with some of the finest musicians in North America, Europe and Japan – John Gorka, Darol Anger, The Big Wu, Peter Ostroushko, Nirmala Rajasekar, Steve Tibbetts, John Williams, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Martin Hayes, Anthony Cox and more. In addition to his work with the top folk, bluegrass and global roots acts, he has played with Celtic punk band Boiled in Lead, experimental jazz group Eight Head and now with gospel singer and songwriter Bruce Henry. As Altan’s Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh says, “Dean Magraw’s music transcends, transports and lifts the soul to a higher level as he weaves, cajoles and entices every note from his instrument.”