Linda Lavin, Anita Gillette and More Set for Birdland in September

Birdland (315 West 44th Street – between 8th & 9th Aves.) has announced entertainment for the month of September, 2012.

· Grace Kelly Quintet
CD Release Celebration
Monday, September 3 @ 7:00 p.m. ($20)

· Oregon featuring Ralph Towner
Celebrating more than 40 years as an ensemble, the multiple Grammy nominated jazz/classical/world music fusion quartet "Oregon" has inspired audiences worldwide, from Carnegie Hall to Vienna's Mozartsaal. The music by this American quartet, composed mostly by guitarist, pianist, trumpeter Ralph Towner is without boundary, an adventurous merging of jazz, chamber music textures and folkloric sounds coming from various latitudes and longitudes. Yet Towner, along with founding members Paul McCandless (woodwinds) Glen Moore (bass) and later addition Mark Walker (drums) always manage to strike the perfect balance between composition and improvisation, accessibility and expression.
September 4 – 8 @ 8:30 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30 Side Seating, $40 Center Seating)

· Michael Pedecin Quintet
CD Release Celebration
Thursday, September 6 @ 6:00 p.m. ($20)

· Dave Liebman Group
Dave Liebman (woodwinds) Vic Juris (guitars) Tony Marino (bass) Marko Marcinko (drums)
Saxophonist Dave Liebman, a 2010 "NEA Jazz Master," learned directly from jazz icons, spending extensive periods as a member of groups led by MiLes Davis and Elvin Jones. As a leader Liebman has been associated since 1970 with a succession of extraordinary groups from Open Sky Trio to Lookout Farm to Quest, each of whom has framed a distinct phase of his musical evolution. The Dave Liebman Group, "one of the most accomplished in jazz today," (Chicago Tribune) has been together for over twenty years, recording fifteen CDs, with only one change in personnel. They cover a panoply of contemporary styles, mixing original compositions with adaptations of jazz standards.
September 11 – 15 @ 8:30 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30 Side Seating, $40 Center Seating)

· Michael Feinberg "Elvin Jones Project"
CD Release Celebration
featuring Tim Hagans (trumpet) Donny McCaslin (sax) Leo Genovese (piano) Ian From an (drums)
Thursday, September 13 @ 6:00 p.m. ($20)

· Broadway at Birdland: "Portrait of an Artist" Steve Bakunas with Linda Lavin
Broadway at Birdland is proud to announce a new series called "Portrait of an Artist," in which actor/director/painter Steve Bakunas interviews musical and theatrical icons while painting their portrait before the audience's eyes! These famous folks will share their successes, failures and lessons learned in a very intimate one-on-one chat on the historic Birdland stage. Online media partner BroadwayWorld.com will also be on hand to film the event, which will air exclusively on the site at a later date. Steve Bakunas kicks off this unprecedented series with an intimate no-holds-barred conversation with his wife, Tony and Golden Globe winning actress Linda Lavin. The audience will be privy to Lavin's personal and professional life while Steve's portrait unfolds. By his count, Steve Bakunas has had about 70 jobs throughout his life. The Connecticut native has done everything from selling Fuller brushes and used cars to driving for the Grateful Dead and working in Circus Vargas. Ultimately, he became a stage actor before discovering his creative bent as a painter, sculptor, set designer, carpenter, builder and jazz drummer. Married to actress Linda Lavin, he now buys and restores older homes and is revitalizing low-income neighborhoods in the couple's North Carolina hometown. A sophisticated folk-inspired artist, his portraits have been shown at galleries in Wilmington, NC, and New York City. This past season, Linda Lavin was celebrated with a Tony and Drama Desk nomination for her performance in The Lyons at the Cort Theater. Last year, she earned raves as the alcoholic aunt in Jon Robin Baitz's Off-Broadway hit Other Desert Cities, then went on to belt the show stopping tune "Broadway Baby" in the Kennedy Center's production of Follies. New York audiences have seen Lavin in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Gypsy, The Diary of Anne Frank, Collected Stories, Broadway Bound (Tony Award), Last of the Red Hot Lovers and It's a Bird…It's a Plane…It's Superman. Of course, the world knows her as Alice Hyatt in the long-running TV series, "Alice." Linda began her career in New York City nightclubs like The Showplace and Downstairs at the Upstairs, and has recently been performing in concert halls and cabarets across the country. A regular at Birdland, she recently released her first solo CD, Possibilities.
September 16 @ 1:00 p.m. ($25)

· "Coltrane Revisited" Featuring Steve Kuhn (piano) Tom Harrell (trumpet) Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone) Andrew Cyrille (drums) Lonnie Plaxico (bass)
Pianist Steve Kuhn first made his mark during a brief stint with John Coltrane's quartet. He recently released a critically acclaimed ECM recording exploring Coltrane's repertoire. At Birdland, Kuhn leads an annual all-star gathering in celebration of the legendary saxophonist and jazz innovator's birthday. Born in North Carolina in 1926, John Coltrane emerged on the jazz scene in the 1950s, playing tenor and soprano sax with Dizzy Gillespie, MiLes Davis and Thelonious Monk. A pioneer of "hard bop" in the 1960s, he led his own groups and reinvented jazz with experimentation and improvisation, his later recordings reflecting his belief that music was a form of spiritual expression. The all-star quintet, which this year explores some of Coltrane's late 1950's hard-bop repertoire recorded for the Blue Note and Atlantic labels, includes trumpeter Tom Harrell, saxophonist Eric Alexander, drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Lonnie Plaxico.
September 18 – 22 @ 8:30 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30 Side Seating, $40 Center Seating)

· Andy Ezrin Quartet
CD Release Celebration
Thursday, September 20 @ 6:00 p.m. ($20)

· Broadway at Birdland: "After All" with Broadway and Television star Anita Gillette
The Broadway at Birdland concert series is thrilled to announce that Tony Award Nominated actress and singer Anita Gillette will be presenting two wonderful evenings of music and memories while taking an intimate, touching and hilarious look behind the scenes from Broadway to Hollywood in her new autobiographical one-woman show "After All" that takes audiences backstage with Gillette as a young showgirl starting out in the original cast of Gypsy with Ethel Merman, and into the worlds of David Merrick and Gower Champion in Carnival. Gillette also reminisces through a career that includes a Tony nominated performance in the Neil Simon comedy Chapter Two. In major feature films, she's played roles such as Ms. Mona in Moonstruck, and on TV shows, including "30 Rock," in which she plays Tina Fey's mother!
September 24 & October 1 @ 7:00 p.m. ($25)

· Bouncin' with Bud: Music of Bud Powell
Featuring Tim Hagans (trumpet) Greg Osby (alto sax) Matt Wilson (drums) Dan Tepfer (piano) Lonnie Plaxico (bass)
Along with our namesake Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) is considered to be one of the creators of the style of modern jazz known as bebop. Despite his tragically short life, including bouts of mental illness, alcoholism and a self-imposed period of exile in Paris, Powell helped to define modern jazz piano technique while his brutal life story went on to inspire the Oscar winning film "'Round Midnight." This all-star birthday tribute will feature influential bebop compositions that Powell left behind including "Bouncin' with Bud," "Dance of the Infidels," "Budo," "Tempus Fugit," and "Un Poco Loco."
September 25 – 29 @ 8:30 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30 Side Seating, $40 Center Seating)

· Broadway at Birdland Presents Youtube Sensation "Miranda Sings"
Thursday, September 27 @ 6:00 p.m. ($25 Side Seating, $35 Center Seating)

· "Urban Dreams" An All-Star Tribute to Pepper Adams
Double Bill: Arturo O'Farrill & Lew Tabackin Quartet + George Mraz and Gary Smulyan with String Quartet arranged by Bevan Manson & David Amram
Sunday, September 30 @ 9:00 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30)

REGULAR SEPTEMBER MONTHLY ENGAGEMENTS

· The Birdland Jazz Party hosted by vocalist Cyrille Aimée (*Guest host Natalie Douglas, 9/2)
Join the party with vocalist Cyrille Aimée and a rotating line-up of New York's finest jazz musicians playing an early set on Sunday nights. Jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée (pronounced: "Surreal Emmay") has a culturally rich background -- Dominican and French Gypsy -- and conservatory training (SUNY Purchase) that help to form the rhythmic and expressive foundation by which a jury of legendary vocalists including Al Jarreau, Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater judged her to be a finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition in 2010. At the young age of twenty-six, Cyrille has since become one of the hottest young artists on the New York scene. She has already released four CDs with a variety of ensembles and performed at the top venues around the world. The New York Times dubs her, "one of those singers whom non-singing musicians call 'a musician.'"
Sundays, September 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 @ 6:00 p.m. ($25)

· Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Grammy Award winning pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill - leader of the "first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz" (The New York Times) - was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Son of the late, great composer Chico O'Farrill, Arturo was Educated at Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He playe piano in Carla Bley's Big Band from 1979 through 1983 and earned a reputation as a soloist in groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Freddy Cole, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. After leading his late father's orchestra for many years, Arturo formed his own band, The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra in order to explore his and other compositions in the panoply of Afro Latin music. Birdland is pleased to host Arturo and the ALJO in a Sunday night residency.
Sundays, September 2, 9, 16, 23 @ 9:00 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. ($30)

· Jim Caruso's "CAST PARTY"
"No one can be called a true New Yorker until they've been to the 'Cast Party,' which is to Broadway what the Conde-Nast cafeteria is to publishing. Divas and dapper-dans insouciantly sip cocktails whilewatching each other sing and perform at the open-mic event during Broadway's dark night," says Next Magazine. Broadway impresario Jim Caruso hosts a combination open-mic, networking event and party in which the biggest stars on Broadway relax on their night off by performing their favorite songs in an informal setting.
Mondays, September 3, 10, 17, 24 @ 9:30 p.m. ($20)

· David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Centennial Band
Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Gully Low Jazz Band (also known as the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band) breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Legendary record producer George Avakian decribes the Gully Low Jazz Band in this way: "There has never been a band quite like the Gully Low Jazz Band. Most groups, past and present, stick to one style. Some current groups attempt to recreate early recordings in their entirety. These guys do neither. Inspired by divergent bands of the 1920s and 30s, you'll hear them swing a variety of styles in music by a wide range of composers, always try to the joy and heart of the music." Now in its 11th 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! "Tubaist David Ostwald's fabulous early-swing band is about as good as it gets. Known for their energetic treatment of Louis Armstrong's repertoire, these cats like to entertain as much as they like to swing." (Time Out New York)
Wednesdays, September 5, 12, 19, 26 @ 5:30 p.m. ($20)

· The Birdland Big Band
Directed by Tommy Igoe with Guest Conductor Rob Middleton Every Friday 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 ("Late Show with 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 yelp.com proclaims, "if you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it... and prepare to be blown away!"
Fridays, September 7, 14, 21, 28 @ 5:00 p.m. ($25)