Ryan Picone Quartet

The Ryan Picone Quartet plays Volstead's Emporium Uptown on Saturday, October 31, from 8:30 to 11:30 PM. It's a live jazz guitar set led by Ryan Picone, who's been working as a performer and guitar instructor for around twenty years. He's played Town Hall in New York, the Dakota Jazz Club here in Minneapolis, and South by Southwest in Texas.

His background is a long list of study and playing. He earned his Master's degree working with guitarist Frank Koonce at Arizona State University, studied with Lorenzo Micheli at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, and worked with jazz guitarist Howard Alden before moving to Minneapolis. He finished his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Minnesota in Spring 2023 and has been studying with film composer Stephane Wrembel since March 2020.

There are two recent releases to keep in mind. In 2023, he recorded his first album with the Ryan Picone Quartet at Wild Sound Studios, which came out on December 2, 2023. In 2024, he published The Compass Method, a new guitar method book. On the teaching side, he became a guitar professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in 2022, and took over as director of Jazz Studies there in Fall 2023.

The show is free, though reservations are recommended. It runs from 8:30 to 11:30 PM at Volstead's Emporium Uptown in Minneapolis.