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ACCLAIMED SINGER/PIANIST ERIC COMSTOCK CONTINUES RESIDENCY AT BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB ERIC COMSTOCK (www.ericcomstock.net), the pianist/singer called “smart, suave & utterly delightful … a dispenser of cabaret caviar” (The New York Times) for his “extraordinary repertoire” (Terry Gross, NPR’s Fresh Air), continues his residency at Birdland Jazz Club in June and July – June 4, 11, 18 and 25; July 2, 9, 16 and 23 at 5:30pm. Joining Comstock will be vocalist Barbara Fasano and bassist/composer Sean Smith. (Bassist Boots Maleson fills in for Smith on June 4.) There is a $30 music charge. Birdland Jazz Club (www.birdlandjazz.com) is located at 315 West 44th Street in New York (212.581.3080). Eric Comstock IS the American Songbook, then and now. He has been praised for his “expert musicianship & joie de vivre” by The New Yorker. Every bit as entertaining as he is musically savvy, his repertoire runs a wide gamut of material that brings the generations together, from Cole Porter to Paul Simon; Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan; Sinatra to Sondheim. It’s a new set each week, and Comstock makes all of it spontaneous, and fun. His audiences feel they've been to a terrific party where the music and the stories have been equally great. Author and Nat King Cole biographer Will Friedwald writes, “Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano consistently put the lie to the old adage that you can’t improve on perfection. With their astutely programmed sequence of great songs, classic and contemporary, it all comes to the fore in their Saturday evening series at Birdland. Joined by the formidable bassist Sean Smith, they celebrate iconic songwriters from Cole Porter to Duke Ellington to Stephen Sondheim, Dylan to Springsteen to Sting, arranged in a seamless blend that proceeds as if driven by an unstoppable force.” Bassist/composer Sean Smith has been an integral part of the international jazz scene for over 25 years, and has performed with Gerry Mulligan, Phil Woods, Benny Carter, Art Farmer, Flip Phillips, Clark Terry, and many others. His works have been played and recorded by Phil Woods, Mark Murphy, Bill Charlap, Gene Bertoncini, Leon Parker and Bill Mays. His music has been featured in several films, and Smith’s compositions are frequently included in the Birdland sets. www.seansmithjazz.com Award-winning vocalist Barbara Fasano’s recent CDs WRITTEN IN THE STARS and BUSY BEING FREE have garnered praise from Jazz Times, NYC Jazz Record and Huffington Post (“intelligent, lush and sexy”), and were each awarded the MAC Award for Major Recording of the Year. Fasano has been praised as “a gorgeous, soulful singer who has an actor’s intensity in whatever she sings” (New York Post) and “a lyrically sensitive interpreter” (The New York Times). Married musical partners Comstock and Fasano are the recipients of the 2021 Donald F. Smith Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation. They appear in concert halls and festivals across the country and in London. During the pandemic, Comstock & Fasano’s weekly series #72andsong streamed music from their New York apartment on social media -- 71 episodes in all. On July 30, Fasano and her trio will make their third appearance at Music Mountain’s Jazz Festival in Falls Village, CT. www.barbarafasano.com A co-creator of the Off Broadway hit OUR SINATRA, Comstock has headlined at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. A Harbinger Records artist, his most recent CD is “Bitter/Sweet, ” a collaboration with guitarist Randy Napoleon. He has appeared as a performer and commentator on PBS, CNN, Sirius/XM’s Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center, BBC, Radio France, CBS’s Early Show, and NPR’s Morning Edition, Fresh Air and JazzSet. “I was raised in New Jersey -- the Mayonnaise Belt, we called it -- and began piano lessons at ten, ” Comstock recalls. “Once I heard Rodgers and Hart, Chopin and Mozart never had a chance!” Trips from his NYU dorm to Cafe Carlyle to hear Bobby Short showed him the way. “It’s my life’s passion to bring these songs & their creators to life, and I could not be more excited that Barbara, Sean & I are carrying on at Birdland, ” Comstock says. “I know audiences will hear at least one song they didn’t know they loved.” |
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