This Week in MKE Music: March 12-18, 2026

Four chances to catch composer and trumpeter Russ Johnson, Jimmy Ray & The Hippsters @ Ope! Brewing Co., TAKAAT (of Mdou Moctar) @ Cactus Club, JD Simo & Luther Dickinson and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

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Thursday, March 12

MRS. FUN & Russ Johnson @ The Jazz Estate, 7:30 p.m.

Best known as a singular duo, MRS. FUN augments the group with trumpeter Russ Johnson for this show. The MRS. FUN sound is derived from Connie Grauer’s funky bass-driven keyboard playing, combined with Kim Zick’s skillful in-the-pocket drumming. Johnson, a local treasure gets spotlight treatment this week with gigs at The Estate, across the river at Bar Centro and a pair of workouts at UW-Parkside’s Jazz Week.

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Friday, March 13

Jimmy Ray & The Hippsters @ Ope! Brewing Co., 7:30 p.m.

Before they took on the alias Jimmy Ray & The Hippsters, Jim Ohlschmidt, Craig Panosh and Steve Cohen’s approach to a noon show at Summerfest didn’t rush a damn thing in a set that was a history lesson as well a primer in how to keep the music fresh.

Recalling ‘80s-era Summerfest performances of the great Carl Perkins, Ohlschmidt reinvented “Blue Suede Shoes” as a slow-burn swampy blues. They relocated “That’s All Right Mama” somewhere between a gentle samba and the theme from Midnight Cowboy with Cohen’s atmospheric harmonica on full display.

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Russ Johnson Quartet @ Bar Centro, 8 p.m.

“My entire career has been built on playing music in the cracks between ‘modern jazz’ and more ‘improvised’ musics,” says composer and trumpeter Russ Johnson. “I do not draw a distinction between the two.”

He’s performing a book of new compositions for an upcoming recording following the critically acclaimed Reveal, released in 2023 on Calligram Records. His music has been described as slyly unveiled interconnected themes and infectious grooves. The chord-less quartet — an unusual front-line of Johnson’s trumpet and Mark Feldman’s violin with drummer Timothy Daisy and bassist Ethan Philion—revels in a vast palette of sonic combinations and permutations. Along the way Johnson and associates navigate an impressive range of material, from the funky odd-meter groove that suddenly emerges in “Skips” to a masterful plunger elegy for Jamie Branch (“The Long Branch”) and a synthesis of the structured freedom of the AACM with lush post-Romantic harmonies (“The Slow Reveal”).

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Saturday, March 14

Nivrana: Tribute to Nirvana @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Tribute band Nivrana brings an authentic Nirvana experience with original stage performance, gear and sound just as it was in the 1990s. Once again, you can hear the music that made the era special.

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Sunday, March 15

Sons of Legion – Soul to SØL Tour w/ Brother Elsey @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.

At its core, Sons of Legion is a powerhouse of rock and soul, seamlessly fusing the raw, unbridled energy of rock with the deep, emotive currents of blues and the timeless allure of soul. Known for their electrifying performances and thought-provoking lyrics, Sons of Legion has built a reputation with songs “Brand New Day,” “Power” and “Firestarter.”

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Monday, March 16

TAKAAT (of Mdou Moctar) @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.

Back in 2019 at a concert at The Cooperage, Mdou Moctar and his three-piece band eased into their opening song, offering instructions to the sound mixer as they gradually ramped up the sound. Satisfied, they offered a set of face-melting sheets of sound broken only by Moctar’s keening vocals. Dressed in long robes and tagelmust turbans the Tuareg band headlined Milwaukee Psych Fest’s warm-up show with a largely instrumental set of music that built on tension and dynamics, rising and falling only to begin again.

TAKAAT, the trio of Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun and Souleymane Ibrahim—the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar, traffics in sonic chaos, improvisation, freedom of exploration and the punk styles of bands such as Fugazi and Unwound, all mixed together with the guitar music from the Sahel.

TAKAAT started during soundchecks while on the road with Mdou Moctar when the trio indulged their shared love for amps cranked to 11 and the sound of blown out speakers. The music is intense, dark and energetic; it follows in the spirit of the independent music culture that birthed hardcore basement shows, bedroom tape labels and generator-powered pick-up wedding bands.

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Jazz Week @ UW-Parkside – The Rita (900 Wood Rd.

Kenosha)

One week. Six concerts. World-class musicians on the cutting-edge of today’s scene. Jazz for all palates from avant-garde to R&B, to straight ahead jazz. Damon Locks & Ken Vandermark Project kicks things off. Their material is based on their collective histories, which include decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists that have taken place during hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad. Their performances are a unique combination of pre-recorded materials, improvisation, electronics and reed instruments, and are focused on spontaneous interaction and creation.

Other performances include Jennifer Allen and the Heart of Alchemy, Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets and two more chances to catch Russ Johnson—he is part of the trumpet section on Thursday’s concert by The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra and again on Friday at noon with a UW-Parkside Jazz Faculty performance that includes James Sodke, piano; Tim Ipsen, bass; David Bayles, drums and Dustin Laurenzi, saxophone.

More info www.uwp.edu/therita/jazzweek.cfm

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Tuesday, March 17

Roxy Toxin Presents Sickening: Death in the Disco @ X-Ray Arcade, 8 p.m.

A live drag show featuring Roxy Toxin, Xica, A'ryiah Jackson St. Klare, Angelique and Bella Del Mar.

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Wednesday, March 18

JD Simo & Luther Dickinson - Do the Rump Tour @ Vivarium, 7 p.m.

In 2021, Luther Dickinson stormed the South Milwaukee PAC as part of a show that included Cedric Burnside, Rebirth Brass Band and his North Mississippi Allstars. Dickinson was tutored under his father, the legendary James Luther Dickinson (he played piano on “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones, sessions with Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan and collaborated with Alex Chilton and Panther Burns). He received direct knowledge of north Mississippi hill country blues, as exemplified by the great Junior Kimbrough, whose song “Do the Rump!” provides the name for this tour. JD Simo has toured with Chris Issak and recently worked on the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere.

The collaboration of Dickinson and Simo’s sound has been described as “raw, hypnotic, and thrillingly alive—equal parts Hill Country trance, psych-soul and electrified jam. These trio shows are rare. The music is greasy.”