Anika Noni Rose, Joan Osborne, et al. Featured in AMERICAN SONGBOOK at Lincoln Center, 2/2-5

By: Jan. 14, 2011
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Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook, which explores the best of the golden age of musical standards through to the best in current songwriting, will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song.  Week Three is a Grammy Awards fest, as three of the four acts are current and past nominees. On February 2nd one can experience life in the Piedmont hills of the Carolinas via the vibrant sound of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. This three-piece string band plays old-time roots music with virtuoso playing of the banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, jug and more. Next up is the crown princess of bossa nova, Bebel Gilberto. Gilberto has taken classic bossa nova rhythms and mixed them with modern pop - for a sound that is up for a Grammy this year.  On February 4th perennial Grammy nominee Joan Osborne will perform an emotionally-charged work she has written with Jack Petruzzelli: Love and Hate - A Song Cycle. On February 5th, actress/singer Anika Noni Rose, a Tony winner for Caroline, Or Change, will make her eagerly-anticipated solo concert debut.
 
Pfizer is a proud sponsor of Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2011.

American Songbook will be presented in the spectacular Allen Room of Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.  The Allen Room possesses one of New York's greatest settings - a stunning vista of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline that provides an evocative backdrop for the performers. 

TICKETS can be purchased online at Lincoln Center's website www.AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office.
 
Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2011 Week Three
February 2 - 5, 2011
The Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street 
 
Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 8:30 pm:  Carolina Chocolate Drops This group plays the sound of the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, a sound in which the lead melodic instrument is the banjo, played by Rhiannon Giddens. The fiddle, which often serves as lead in Appalachian music, follows the banjo. The spare but often propulsive sound is embellished by a variety of percussive instrumentation - "the insanity factor," as singer and multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons calls it - the jugs and bones and even the human beat-boxing of vocalist-fiddle player Justin Robinson. Their repertoire is centered around the traditional music of the early twentieth century but also includes more contemporary interpretations and original material.  As Robinson says, "Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians." Their album, Genuine Negro Jig, was recently nominated for a 2010 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Thursday, February 3, 2011, 8:30 pm: Bebel Gilberto As a member of bossa nova royalty - she is the daughter of João Gilberto and Mi?cha - Bebel Gilberto has taken classic Brazilian bossa nova rhythms and mixed in modern electronic pop to create a warm, sexy sound all her own.  Her latest release, All in One, mixes original songs with imaginative covers.  The songs thump with irresistible beats or soothe with soft rhythms, and they all are about the wonders of love.   It has been nominated for a 2010 Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

Friday, February 4, 2011, 8:30 pm: Joan Osborne: Love and Hate - A Song Cycle Osborne is a music adventurist, someone who is curious about all kinds of music and who writes and performs all kinds of music - from rock to country to soul and R&B.  She has received eight Grammy nominations and continues to seek new musical muses.  With Jack Petruzzelli she has written and produced an emotionally-charged song cycle entitled Love and Hate which combines music, dance and film to expose those two most vivid emotions.
 
Saturday, February 5, 2011, 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm: Anika Noni Rose While Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose has distinguished herself in film (Dreamgirls, Disney's The Princess & The Frog), television (The Good Wife, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency), and on Broadway (Caroline, or Change, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this American Songbook concert will be her New York solo concert debut. She will bring with her the voice, beauty, sass and grace that has marked her career thus far.
 
 
Since it was launched in 1998, American Songbook has been dedicated to celebrating the extraordinary achievements of the popular American songwriter from the turn of the 20th century to the present day.  Spanning all styles and genres from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway to the eclecticism of today's songwriters working in pop, cabaret, rock, folk and country, American Songbook traces the history and charts the course of the American song from its past and current forms to its future direction.
 
Artists who have appeared on the American Songbook series include Andy Bey, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Betty Buckley, Ann Hampton Callaway, Calexico, Liz Callaway, Neko Case, Rosanne Cash, Michael Cerveris, Kristin Chenoweth, Peter Cincotti, Eric Comstock, Victoria Clark, Rodney Crowell, Alan Cumming, Dean & Britta, Mos Def, Dirty Projectors, Christine Ebersole, Kurt Elling, Marianne Faithfull, Sutton Foster, The Fountains of Wayne, Michael Friedman, Mary Cleere Haran, Darius de Haas, Joe Henry, Fred Hersch, Jane Krakowski, Judy Kuhn, LaChanze, k.d. lang, Gabriel Kahane, Bettye Lavette, Amos Lee, Patti Loveless, Rebecca Luker, Patti LuPone, Nellie McKay, Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, Del McCoury, Audra McDonald, Lori McKenna, Nellie McKay, Alan Menken, Jane Monheit, Megan Mullally, Kelli O'Hara, Tonya Pinkins, John Pizzarelli, Martha Plimpton, Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Steve Ross, Stephin Merritt with The Magnetic Fields, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nico Muhly, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Jimmy Scott, Patti Smith, Todd Snider, Sufjan Stevens, Stew, Billy Stritch, Elaine Stritch, St. Vincent, Paulo Szot, They Might Be Giants, Leslie Uggams, Suzanne Vega, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Deborah Voigt, Lillias White, Dar Williams, Lizz Wright, David Yazbek and John Lloyd Young. The series has also presented concerts highlighting the music of composers and lyricists such as Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Harold Arlen, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Leonard Bernstein, Jason Robert Brown, William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein, John Bucchino, Michael John LaChiusa, Cy Coleman, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez, Frank Loesser, Alan Menken, Cole Porter, Andy Razaf, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, Duncan Sheik, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Strayhorn, Charles Strouse, Jule Styne, Jimmy Van Heusen, and David Zippel.
 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos



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