Dennis Coffey

His own group has a weekly residency at the Northern Lights Lounge; he's also played numerous headline gigs in and around the city at prestigious venues such as Baker's Keyboard Lounge and Dirty Dawg Jazz Cafe and played national festivals and showcases. Coffey and his production partner Theodore remain active writing and recording new music. On Record Store Day 2016, in collaboration with the non-profit Resonance Records label, Coffey released Hot Coffey in the D: Burnin' at Morey Baker's Showplace Lounge as a limited-edition LP. The live trio album was compiled from 1968 recordings at the famed Motor City institution with organist Lyman Woodard and drummer Melvin Davis (and was originally recorded by Theodore, whose own studio was down the street at the time. The set saw wide release in other formats in January 2017. A year-and-a-half later, Omnivore issued another vintage recording from Coffey's archive at the same venue entitled One Night at Morey's: 1968. The relationship with the label allowed Coffey to issue Live at Baker's -- in this case, from the legendary jazz venue Baker's Keyboard Lounge from 2006 -- in 2019 with an all-star band that included keyboardist Demetrius Nabors, Grammy-nominated drummer Gaelynn McKinney, and bassist Damon Warmack. Coffey's performance included readings of tunes by Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Jimmy Smith, and the Temptations, and standards such as "Moonlight in Vermont" and his own "Scorpio." ~ Jason Ankeny