Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Week Two runs January 18-21, 2012 at The Allen Room, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, located at Broadway at 60th Street.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 8:30 pm The Works: Jonatha Brooke Celebrates Woody Guthrie at 100
2012 marks the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie, singer, songwriter, poet, novelist, painter, rambler, and activist. From the years of the Great Depression through to the postwar 1950s Guthrie gave voice to this country’s disenfranchised. In 2009 singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke was given lyrics by Guthrie’s daughter that she then turned into songs for an album. Now in Guthrie’s centennial year, Brooke celebrates the songs of Woody Guthrie once again, along with new songs of her own. Singer/songwriter Dar Williams will be among Brooke’s special guests.
Thursday, January 19, 2012, 8:30 pm La Chanze
Broadway veteran singer, dancer, and actress La Chanze is celebrated for her many luminous portrayals on Broadway, from Once on This Island (Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination) to Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Drama Desk nomination) to Dessa Rose (OBIE Award and Drama Desk nomination) to her triumphant portrayal of Celie in The Color Purple (Tony Award), along with her recent role in the hit movie The Help. She will be performing a variety of songs including some from shows she has appeared in, displaying the beauty of her voice and her dramatic skill with a lyric.
Friday, January 20, 2012, 8:30 pm Ozomatli
Three-time Grammy Award-winners Ozomatli’s music has been described as urban-Latin-hip-hop-salsa-dancehall-samba-funk, with the sounds of reggae, Indian raga and New Orleans second line thrown in. It is playful, happy and terrifically danceable, and its mash-up of styles can transport listeners around the world. This LA-based group, who have been designated as State Department Cultural Ambassadors, have taken their party sound into the global arena, playing not only free concerts but giving classes to local musicians in Nepal, Jordan, India, and Tunisia, and extending humanitarian outreach in Vietnam, Thailand, and earthquake-ridden China. Their message is simple: different instruments but one rhythm, with music uniting us all.
Saturday, January 21, 2012, 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm Michael Cerveris: An Idea of South
What this night will be, very simply, is a great singer doing great songs. Cerveris, long a favorite of Stephen Sondheim having starred in Sondheim’s musicals Assasins (Tony Award), Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion, also has an entire other career as an indie singer/songwriter and guitarist. He can sing pretty much anything, from German lieder to Italian love songs to Tommy in The Who’s rock opera of the same name. On January 21st he will present “An Idea of South,” a genre-defying recital/cabaret/hootenanny of songs ranging from the Carter Family and Johnny Mercer to Vic Chestnutt and Samuel Barber. Guest musicians include vocalist Laura Cantrell, three-time New Orleans’ Songwriter of the Year Paul Sanchez, Cajun fiddler Linzay Young, Big Easy pianist Jonathan Batiste, and composer/pianist Timothy Andres.
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 Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Kate Baldwin, Andy Bey, Stephanie Blythe, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Betty Buckley, Ann Hampton Callaway, Calexico, Liz Callaway, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Neko Case, Rosanne Cash, Michael Cerveris, Kristin Chenoweth, Peter Cincotti, Victoria Clark, Barbara Cook, Eric Comstock, Rodney Crowell, Alan Cumming, Dean & Britta, Mos Def, Dirty Projectors, John Doe, Christine Ebersole, Kurt Elling, Raúl Esparza, Marianne Faithfull, Sutton Foster, The Fountains of Wayne, Bebel Gilberto, Mary Cleere Haran, Darius de Haas, Joe Henry, Fred Hersch, Jane Krakowski, Judy Kuhn, LaChanze, k.d. lang, Bettye LaVette, Amos Lee, Patti Loveless, The Low Anthem, 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, Alexi Murdoch, Kelli O’Hara, Joan Osborne, 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, Anika Noni Rose, 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, Shara Worden, 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 Friedman, Gabriel Kahane, Michael John LaChiusa, Cy Coleman, George and Ira Gershwin, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez, Lance Horne, Frank Loesser, Alan Menken, Cole Porter, Andy Razaf, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, Duncan Sheik, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Strayhorn, Charles Strouse, Jule Styne, Jeanine Tesori, Jimmy Van Heusen, and David Zippel.
