|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| What's Coming Up at Birdland: Jazz Programming July 4 - July 17 July 4 (Monday) 7:00 - Birdland Jazz Club Anaïs Reno At 18 years old, Anaïs Reno is a graduate of Laguardia High school in drama, and just finished her freshman year in the jazz program at Suny Purchase. Winning the Forté International Competition, Michael Feinstein Competition, The Mabel Mercer Competition, the Julie Wilson award and being a winner and Finalist in YoungArts, Anais has performed in New York at important venues such as Birdland, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, The Django, Chris' Jazz Café in Philadelphia, and many others. Her album, "Lovesome Thing: Anaïs Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn", which was recorded with Emmet Cohen when Anaïs was 16, received critical acclaim and rose to number 6 on the jazz chart. She was featured in the "New York State of Mind" video with Idina Manzel and Stephen Colbert and was on national television singing "America the beautiful" for the Mets/Yankees 9/11 game last year. Anaïs recently recorded an album of all Tadd Dameron songs with Gary Smulyan, which will be released in the fall. She performed in Houston, Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and London this spring, and opened the baseball season on April 15th at Citi Field for the Mets. Additionally, Anaïs is currently working on her second solo album. Most recently, Anaïs completed a week long headlining run at Birdland with the Tierney Sutton Band. She will be joined by the Esteban Castro trio for this engagement. $40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 4 (Monday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater Houston Person Quartet The 87 year-old jazz legend Houston Person has NOT slowed down. In fact, with one or two scattered exceptions, Person has continued to release at least one record per year as a leader for the past nearly 60 years. A jazz lover's jazzman, this great artist plays from his soul with a great mastery of affect, technique, and style. He has served as a sideman for Etta Jones (15 recordings), Joey Defrancesco, Ron Carter, Horace Silver, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and too many others to name. This engagement is sure to be as swinging, blues-soaked, and robust as ever. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 5 (Tuesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater Gabrielle Stravelli Trio Award-winning vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli was featured Tuesday nights at Birdland Theater in June—and this July, she returns with her trademark vocal style and her trio of Pat O'Leary (bass) and Michael Kanaan (piano). Together, they explore both familiar classics and lesser-known gems of the canon that highlight the diversity of creators behind the Great American Songbook—black Americans, immigrants, woman composers and more—and show that the Songbook is for everyone. For her part, Stravelli's clear tone, gutsy rhythm, impeccable scat-singing and contagious joy have delighted audiences the world over. Her recent honors include the Bistro Award for Outstanding Recording (2020); the Broadway World Cabaret Award for Best Jazz Vocalist (2019); the MAC Award for Best Female Vocalist (2015); and the Bistro Award as a Jazz Vocalist (2015). Expect a swinging, engaging set of music. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 5-9 (Tuesday-Saturday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (7/5-7); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (7/8-9) – Birdland Jazz Club Dave Stryker - John Patittucci - Brian Blade Quartet: As We Are Album Release Celebration "One of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years, " states Village Voice, and "one of the most joyous feels around, " according to Pat Metheny. Dave Stryker is a fabulous guitarist who has served as the featured accompanist for Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, and hundreds of others, as well as leading 30 recording projects of his own. But on As We Are, "the jazz gods have alighted on the guitarist and elevated his playing, his composing, his soloing, and his music, " says Jazz Times's Ken Micallef. Joined by master musicians John Patittucci, Brian Blade, and Julian Shore on bass, drums, and piano—as well as by a string section that includes violinist Sara Caswell—Stryker is the leader of a special project that develops beautifully and patiently through extensive musical terrain. The album release week at Birdland will give audiences a chance to experience this one-of-a-kind project live and in person. Stryker has done it again! $40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 6 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Theater David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Now in its 18th year of residency at Birdland, the weekly post-workday engagement is the city's best musical bargain! Tuba player David Ostwald leads a rotating lineup that features talents such as clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist/vocalist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ehud Asherie, drummer Marion Felder and more! $30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 6 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater / Livestream Event Frank Vignola's Guitar Night It's the best jazz guitar lover's show in the world. Frank Vignola's virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world's top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Les Paul, the Boston and New York Pops, and more. Every Wednesday @ 8:30pm in the Birdland Theater, Frank leads "Frank Vignola's Guitar Night at Birdland." Inspired by journeyman jazz guitarist John Pisano's now famous Los Angeles Guitar Night, "The Frank Vignola/Jimmy Bruno Quartet" featuring bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Vince Cherico, will perform tunes from the Standards repertoire + special guests: John DiMartino (4/6), Aaron Weinstein (4/13), Olli Soikkeli (4/20, Dave Stryker* (4/27), Martin Taylor (5/4). *The last Wednesday of the month is "Solo Guitar Night, " a Round-Robin of unaccompanied solo, duo, and trio guitar performances. $30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 7 (Thursday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater Gabrielle Stravelli Trio Award-winning vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli was featured Tuesday nights at Birdland Theater in June—and this July, she returns with her trademark vocal style and her trio of Pat O'Leary (bass) and Michael Kanaan (piano). Together, they explore both familiar classics and lesser-known gems of the canon that highlight the diversity of creators behind the Great American Songbook—black Americans, immigrants, woman composers and more—and show that the Songbook is for everyone. For her part, Stravelli's clear tone, gutsy rhythm, impeccable scat-singing and contagious joy have delighted audiences the world over. Her recent honors include the Bistro Award for Outstanding Recording (2020); the Broadway World Cabaret Award for Best Jazz Vocalist (2019); the MAC Award for Best Female Vocalist (2015); and the Bistro Award as a Jazz Vocalist (2015). Expect a swinging, engaging set of music. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 8 (Friday) 5:00 PM – Birdland Jazz Club The Birdland Big Band Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, the "BBB" roars into action playing a thrilling and original mix of jazz, funk, Brazilian, Latin and world music for sold-out audiences. Featured weekly guest artists drop in from television bands (David Letterman, Saturday Night Live) and pop music touring bands (Rob Thomas, Rod Stewart). Come see for yourself why Time Out New York called the BBB "A completely unique experience… there isn't another band like this anywhere, " and why yelp.com proclaims, "If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it… and prepare to be blown away!" $30 + $20 food/drink minimum July 8-10 (Friday-Sunday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM - Birdland Theater Dominick Farinacci and Triad (New York Premiere) You’d best not let the impeccable three-piece suit fool you. Sure, Dominick Farinacci may blow trumpet cool like Miles on Porgy and Bess, but this visionary artist’s daring stylistic palette and ever-expanding conceptualism explode out from every neat box or category. Armed with a venerable technique and a penchant for bringing large-scale grandeur to his arrangements, Farinacci—who launched his career in 2005 after graduating Juilliard and releasing a prodigious 8 albums in Japan—composes powerful records with world-class casts and genre-bending orchestrations. A successful career has seen him featured in Vanity Fair and on ABC’s Good Morning America, as well as giving a TED Talk in 2014 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts; dates at the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and festivals and clubs throughout the world have made Farinacci a force to be reckoned with in the jazz world. This engagement marks the New York debut for his new group, Triad—a tapestry of orchestral, blues, jazz, and world musics combining Farinacci’s trumpet with accordion (Michael Ward-Bergeman) and marimba (Christian Tamburr). Special guest vocalist, the dazzling Shenel Johns, also joins. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 10 (Sunday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club Mariel Bildsten Septet The talented jazz trombonist Mariel Bildsten is a gutsy improviser whose vocalistic sound delights audiences and whose concept spans from reflections on early New Orleans-based styles to more contemporary innovations. The lead trombonist in the Birdland mainstay Arturo O’Farill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and in the rock band Brass Against, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Chicago Jazz Festival, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Smalls Jazz Club, and many other prestigious venues. Throughout her work, excellence shines through: on her debut album Backbone, for example, featuring some of New York’s finest in both young and veteran jazz artists, she creates tonal pictures that evoke a variety of eras and emotions, all invested in the romance of swing music, its raw but restrained energy, and the colors which can emerge from a band that values Duke Ellington as much as it does making modern statements. $30 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 10 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O’Farrill—leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (The New York Times)—leads the GRAMMY® award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world’s most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O’Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music’s most talented composers and arrangers. $30 + $20 food/drink minimum July 12 (Tuesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater Gabrielle Stravelli Trio Award-winning vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli was featured Tuesday nights at Birdland Theater in June—and this July, she returns with her trademark vocal style and her trio of Pat O’Leary (bass) and Michael Kanaan (piano). Together, they explore both familiar classics and lesser-known gems of the canon that highlight the diversity of creators behind the Great American Songbook—black Americans, immigrants, woman composers and more—and show that the Songbook is for everyone. For her part, Stravelli’s clear tone, gutsy rhythm, impeccable scat-singing and contagious joy have delighted audiences the world over. Her recent honors include the Bistro Award for Outstanding Recording (2020); the Broadway World Cabaret Award for Best Jazz Vocalist (2019); the MAC Award for Best Female Vocalist (2015); and the Bistro Award as a Jazz Vocalist (2015). Expect a swinging, engaging set of music. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 12-17 (Tuesday-Sunday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (7/12-4); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (7/15-7) – Birdland Jazz Club The Django Reinhardt NY Festival / Livestream Event Thursday, July 14 at 9:30 Headed into its 24th successful year, the Django Reinhardt Festival appears once again this October at its home: Birdland Jazz Club. The festival—which tours prestigious venues across the United States such as Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., The San Francisco Festival, and many others—brings the music of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt fully into the contemporary moment, featuring the world’s best in hot jazz. From its world-class ranks, the Django Festival All-Stars are the best of the best: Guitarist Samson, violinist Pierre Blanchard, accordionist Ludovic Beier, rhythm guitarist Michael Harris, and bassist Antonio Licusati. Special guests will include Ken Peplowski, clarinet (7/12&16); James Carter, sax (7/13); Edmar Castaneda, harp (7/14); John DiMartino, piano (7/15); and Houston Person, sax (7/17). $40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 13 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Theater David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America’s own great art form. Now in its 18th year of residency at Birdland, the weekly post-workday engagement is the city’s best musical bargain! Tuba player David Ostwald leads a rotating lineup that features talents such as clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist/vocalist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ehud Asherie, drummer Marion Felder and more! $30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 13 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater Roni Ben-Hur Quartet A guitarist’s guitarist, Roni Ben-Hur is widely recognized as a master of many styles, including straight ahead jazz, samba/bossa-nova, and really anything else that comes his way. Years spent playing with Barry Harris, Frank Wess, Leny Andrade and Marcus Valle honed his abilities across these multiple musical worlds, and with Tunisian and Israeli background, the colors that appear in his musical palette are wide-ranging. On his latest release, Stories (Dot Time, 2021) Ben-Hur employs the talents of trumpet icon Ingrid Jensen, master drummer Victor Lewis, piano legend George Cables, and bass warrior Harvie S. Together they conjure “songs I loved since my childhood, ” says the guitarist, “and ones that speak to social issues that are important to me.” Spend an evening in company with these world-renowned musicians! $30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 14 (Thursday) 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater Staci Griesbach Cross-pollinating jazz styling with country music lyrics and melody, Staci Griesbach’s albums—My Patsy Cline Songbook (2019), My Shania Twain Songbook (2020), and her latest, My George Jones Songbook (2021)—are pioneering works presenting jazz and contemporary styles as one. With beautiful renditions of these country legends’ hits—Cline’s “Crazy, ” “I Fall to Pieces, ” and Cline’s first national hit, “Walkin’ After Midnight”; Twain’s “The Woman In Me (Needs the Man In You) and “No One Needs to Know”; and Jones’s “You’re Still On My Mind” and “The Grand Tour”—Griesbach stands comfortably in the middle of two American traditions: the Nashville Sound and the Great American Songbook. Paying equal respect to legends Hank Cochran, Willie Nelson, Cole Porter, and Ella Fitzgerald, and backed by a band that brilliantly delivers her sprawling stylistic vision, the charming, charismatic vocalist is certain to tug at the heartstrings of her audience. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 15 (Friday) 5:00 PM – Birdland Jazz Club The Birdland Big Band Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, the “BBB” roars into action playing a thrilling and original mix of jazz, funk, Brazilian, Latin and world music for sold-out audiences. Featured weekly guest artists drop in from television bands (David Letterman, Saturday Night Live) and pop music touring bands (Rob Thomas, Rod Stewart). Come see for yourself why Time Out New York called the BBB “A completely unique experience… there isn’t another band like this anywhere, ” and why yelp.com proclaims, “If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it… and prepare to be blown away!” $30 + $20 food/drink minimum July 15-17 (Friday-Sunday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM – Birdland Theater Lew Tabackin Trio + Guests Jazz legend Lew Tabackin is a true original. Since the late 1950s, he has cultivated an expression at once raw, passionate, technically masterful and boundlessly imaginative. Adept as both a flautist and saxophonist, Tabackin’s early career included work with jazz luminaries Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, Billy Higgins, and Clark Terry in the 1960s, as well several years with The Tonight Show band. He formed small and large ensembles with his wife, the masterful pianist and arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi, which toured the world for three decades. Tabackin’s playing remains remarkably vibrant, and he continues to perform regularly. For this three-night engagement, Tabackin’s trio is powered by the ever-swinging Jason Tiemann on drums and the master Peter Washington on bass—plus special guests Toshiko Akiyoshi on piano (7/15), Joe Magnarelli on trumpet (7/16) and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana (7/17), with whom he will share the stage each night. This bunch is sure to cook up soulful, unbridled jazz for the modern moment. $30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 17 (Sunday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club Kellin Hanas Quintet An adept 20 year-old trumpeter and composer hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Kellin Hanas has quickly amassed an internet following: her audience of 150, 000 on TikTok and 30, 000 on Instagram have given Hanas a platform to share her music widely, inspiring young women to pursue their goals in the music industry and fight discrimination. Only at the beginning of her career, Hanas’s technique is finely honed and her love for the music evident in every note. Currently, she studies at the Manhattan School of Music while performing with artists such as Emmy and Golden Globe Award Winning Actor Darren Criss and Garrett Clayton, or playing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Birdland Jazz Club, and the Beacon Theatre. A member of the Grace Fox Big Band, she was a featured soloist on the band’s debut album Eleven-O-Seven. Hanas brings a quintet to Birdland for this Sunday early evening performance. $30 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum July 17 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O’Farrill—leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (The New York Times)—leads the GRAMMY® award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world’s most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O’Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music’s most talented composers and arrangers. write your comments about the article :: © 2022 Jazz News :: home page |