A tribute to the late St. Paul jazz saxophonist Irv “Mr. Smooth” Williams is happening Sunday on a stage he knew quite well, the Dakota on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.

Billed as a Minnesota Musical Celebration of the Life and Music of Irv Williams, the event takes place at 7 p.m. Those interested in attending are asked to call the Dakota box office at 612-332-5299 to reserve a table. It’s a pay-what-you-can event, with all proceeds going to the Irv Williams Fellowship at MacPhail Center for Music.

Raised in Cincinnati and Little Rock, Ark., Williams started playing music at age 6. He took up the saxophone at 12, when he was old enough to join the school band. “I liked that you had to be creative to play jazz music,” he told the Pioneer Press in 2016.

He pursued music professionally and backed the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served on ships and played clarinet and sax in Navy bands. He came to St. Paul to play in a Navy big band, met the woman who would become his first of two wives and ended up making the city his home.

Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong are among the musicians who asked Williams to join them on the road, but he turned them down, citing a dislike of touring. He taught in the St. Paul Public Schools and played in venues all around town, including the Sherwood Supper Club, Cassius’s Bamboo Room, the Flame Bar, the Red Feather, Freddie’s, the Crystal Coach, the Top of the Hilton and Suzette’s.

After Lowell Pickett opened the original Dakota in 1985 at St. Paul’s Bandana Square, Williams became a regular. He followed Pickett to Minneapolis when he moved the Dakota to Nicollet Mall in 2003. “He started playing at the Dakota at an age when most people are retired,” Pickett said.

Williams started hinting at retirement in his mid-80s, but continued to play annual birthday shows as well as weekly happy hour gigs at the Dakota. In 2018, he celebrated his 99th birthday at the Dakota, but was too tired to make the trip last August for the big day. He did, however, still play for about an hour that afternoon for friends and family at Episcopal Homes. The following month, he went into hospice care and died on Dec. 14 at the age of 100.

“I don’t have retirement in mind, but the good Lord does,” Williams said in 2016. “Whenever he says stop, I’ll take the signal. I’ll continue to play as long as I don’t get tired, and I do get tired sometimes.”

Ed Ackerson benefit at First Avenue

Musician/producer Ed Ackerson, another local musical legend who died last year, will be honored with a benefit show on Feb. 15 at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.

The impressive lineup features acts associated with Ackerson — the Jayhawks, the Kraig Johnson Experience, Mark Mallman, Two Harbors — along with two of Ackerson’s own bands, with his pals taking his place in BNLX (Chris Pavlich and Kris Johnson from Two Harbors) and Polara (Johnson and John Strohm from Blake Babies). All proceeds from the $20 tickets will benefit the Ed Ackerson Family Fund and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

First Avenue is also auctioning off six packages which feature table seating and tickets for two. Bidding starts at $50, or a table can be purchased now for $500. (For details, see the event’s listing at first-avenue.com.)

And there will be new music available for purchase, a record from Ed’s final project Capricorn One and a limited-edition vinyl release of the first self-titled Polara record.

A native of Stillwater, Ackerson turned down a Yale scholarship to pursue music in Minneapolis. He played in the bands the Dig, the 27 Various, Polara and BNLX, a new-wave inspired group he formed with his wife, Ashley. At the end of the ’90s, he bought a former greenhouse and flower shop in Uptown and turned it into Flower Studios, which also served as his home.

Polara signed a deal with Interscope in the ’90s and while the group’s pair of major-label albums weren’t major hits, they did help establish Ackerson on a national level. He went on to produce albums from the Jayhawks, the Replacements, Soul Asylum, Motion City Soundtrack, Golden Smog and Mason Jennings. Hundreds of acts recorded music at Flower Studios including Lizzo, Brian Setzer, Hippo Campus, Craig Finn, Metro Station, Juliana Hatfield, Grant Hart and Rhett Miller.