Louis Cole Big Band —12/17/25
Minaret Records brought its third annual Winter Jazz Festival to Lodge Room, and night one packed the venue tighter than any show this year. The two-night celebration of progressive jazz opened with Grammy-winning trombonist Kalia Vandever's quartet delivering patient, lyrical compositions inspired by Carmen Maria Machado's memoir In the Dream House. Vandever spoke between songs about working toward something only to discover its darker reality, her trombone carrying that weight alongside guitar, upright bass, and drums. The band was tight, extremely talented.
Salami Rose Joe Louis (aka Lindsay Olsen) brought the energy shift. Her three-piece featuring Luke Titus on drums and Tone Whitfield on bass turned Lodge Room into a sweat-drenched dance floor. Olsen's voice soared over electronic production that felt like Bjork meeting Brainfeeder, tasteful and wild at once. The crowd locked in.
Louis Cole Big Band closed with 12+ members on stage, Cole conducting from behind the kit while jumping between drums and synth. The syncopation hit like marching band funk at its finest, the kind of groove that makes you move without thinking. Multi-generational crowd, old heads and young, all dancing. Minaret's Winter Jazz Festival turned Lodge Room into a party.
