Zel Friday, August 28 5:30PM-8:30PM No Cover | Pay What you can \ $10 Suggested Born and raised in St. Louis, Zel (Mary Porzelt) grew up in the choir before moving to Chicago, where she earned her music business degree from Columbia College and began carving out her place as an artist. Her sound fuses R&B, soul, and jazz inflections with hip hop–inspired energy and experimental pop edge. As Sweet Mary, she dropped her first EP My Road with a sold-out release show at Tonic Room, performing at venues like House of Blues and Martyrs, also touring with The Main Squeeze. Reinventing herself in LA as Zel, she released Overzealous with producer Teddy Roxpin. It was in LA that she truly honed in on her studio sound. After returning home during COVID, she relaunched on the STL scene with a nearly sold-out debut show at the legendary Dark Room. Since then, she’s collaborated with producer Gavin Duffy, performed with Moon Valley and Kullus on festival stages (including opening for Yonder Mountain String Band), and worked with local legends like Tef Poe, Stringz Emb, and Monkh. Zel has taken a bit of a live performance hiatus to work on her first full length album titled ‘RAW’, but is excited to step out from time to time to show her music family what’s been going on behind closed doors!