Mike Dillon with Earl Harvin and James Singleton | Cafe Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa | September 2025

Cafe Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa | September 9, 2025: Mike Dillon with Earl Harvin and James Singleton Cafe Paradiso welcomes back Fairfield favorite Mike Dillon. Mike has played with a dizzying array of luminaries, most recently long-time cohorts Ricky Lee Jones and Les Claypool. Dillon’s masterfully exuberant vibraphone and percussion will be augmented this time by drummer Earl Harvin and legendary New Orleans upright bassist James Singleton. Mike met Earl at North Texas State University where they were both percussion students and their musical journeys have crisscrossed on stage and in the studio ever since. James Singleton is no stranger to the Paradiso stage, nor innumerable others with an endless list of legends. Buckle your seatbelts or be thrown from the spaceship. Mike Dillon Turns 60 on September 15 and he is celebrating by bring his best mates on tour with him. The great Earl Harvin arrives from Berlin to start the tour with bass maestro James Singleton. --------------- Mike Dillon (a.k.a. Mike D) is an American percussionist, vibraphonist, bandleader, and vocalist born in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of Critters Buggin, Les Claypool's Fancy Band and Garage A Trois. He has performed with many musicians including Ani DiFranco, Galactic, Brave Combo, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Marco Benevento, Clutch, Claude Coleman Jr., and New Orleans musicians Kevin O'Day, Johnny Vidacovich and James Singleton. Dillon's love of playing percussion was born out of his love for the band Rush as a teenager. He originally performed in the 1980s with local Dallas and Denton favorites Ten Hands. In the 1990s he led Dallas-based Billy Goat, In the late 1990s, Billy Goat disbanded and he performed in the Kansas City-based Malachy Papers and the Austin-based Hairy Apes BMX (HABMX). ---------------- James Singleton is an American acoustic bassist, composer, and producer. He is a member of the New Orleans–based jazz group Astral Project with Johnny Vidacovich, Tony Dagradi, and Steve Masakowski. He has been described as one of the best and most sought-after bassists in New Orleans. Career Singleton has performed with John Scofield, Stanton Moore, and John Medeski as well as John Abercrombie, Art Baron, Ellis Marsalis, Earl Turbinton, Eddie Harris, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Lionel Hampton, Arnett Cobb and Banu Gibson among others. He has recorded with Chet Baker, Alvin "Red" Tyler, James Booker, Johnny "Tan Canary" Adams, Charlie Rich and Zachary Richard among others. ------------------ Earl Harvin is an American drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and is now residing in Berlin, Germany. Harvin studied at the University of North Texas College of Music where he was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band for one year, beginning 1989. Throughout most of the 1990s, he led the jazz band Earl Harvin Trio (including Fred Hamilton and Dave Palmer) and led the rock band rubberbullet.[4] Earl Harvin Trio won the Dallas Observer category of "Jazz" in 2003. Harvin also performed or recorded with various Texas-based artists including James Clay, Chao, Ten Hands and Billy Goat. He has since performed or recorded with MC 900 Foot Jesus, Seal, Joe Henry, The The, The Psychedelic Furs, Trevor Horn, Pet Shop Boys, Art of Noise, The Frames, Richard Thompson, Jeff Beck, Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, Hikaru Utada, and many others. Harvin's contribution to Seal's Human Being includes drums, bass and guitar as well as co-writing on "Latest Craze". Harvin has toured extensively with the French duo Air. Recently he has performed and recorded with Berlin- and London-based Warren Suicide. As of 2010 he has recorded and toured as a member of the English band Tindersticks. Ari Hoenig has cited him as a major influence. ---------------------------------- Video produced by Werner Elmker Audio-Visual Studio Werner Elmker is an independent Danish/American multimedia artist specializing in videography, photography, graphic design and piano/keyboard/vocal music. In his visual and musical creations, Werner emphasizes the importance of improvisation as the primary source of all great art forms. YouTube -    / wernerelmker   Facebook -   / elmker   Website - http://elmker.com