Max Von Essen, Marilyn Maye & More to Join Billy Stritch for BIRTHDAY BASH

Birdland Jazz Club will welcome back Grammy Award-nominated pianist, vocalist and songwriter Billy Stritch for an exclusive five-show concert engagement celebrating "Billy Stritch's Big Birdland Birthday Bash!" from Thursday, February 10 through Saturday, February 12. Special guests over the course of the run will include Marilyn Maye, Max von Essen, Sally Mayes, Klea Blackhurst, Gabrielle Stravelli, Jim Caruso, and more. This new show highlights Billy's unique mix of songs from the jazz canon and the Great American Songbook from writers such as Stephen Sondheim, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, George Gershwin, and Harold Arlen, in addition to personal favorites from his award-winning livestream series "Billy's Place." In addition to Stritch on piano and vocals, the Birdland shows will feature Tom Hubbard on bass and Eric Halvorson on drums. For tickets, please visit BirdlandJazz.com.

The run of concerts also helps celebrate The Sunday Set, the new album with Jim Caruso which boasts a new selection of urbane standards, jazz favorites and sly comedy numbers. The recording from Club44 Records, captured live at The Birdland Theater, was released last month.

Stritch's recent album Billy's Place - hailed as "causal, cool and charming" by Jazz Weekly - is the first piano-and-vocals album of his career, delivering a deeper level of intimacy and connection than his previous releases. "The song selection was born out of my weekly livestream show 'Billy's Place' that I started during the pandemic," comments Billy. "I've been able to learn and present music by a diverse group of composers, and the songs on the album are many of my favorites from these shows. I was able to include many special songwriters, including Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart ('Falling in Love with Love') and Hoagy Carmichael ('Skylark'), as well as more contemporary writers like Peter Allen ('Planes') and my friend Barry Manilow ('Meet Me, Midnight')."

The album's latest single - a lush symphonic version of the album's song "Ordinary Miracles," the Marvin Hamlisch and Alan & Marilyn Bergman standard also performed by Barbra Streisand and Nancy LaMott - boasts a 46-piece orchestra.

Billy Stritch will celebrate "Billy Stritch's Big Birdland Birthday Bash!" at Birdland Jazz Club on Thursday, February 10 at 8:30 PM; Friday, February 11 at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM; and Saturday, February 12 at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM. The cover charge is $30. Birdland Jazz Club is located at 315 West 44th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) in Manhattan. For reservations, please call (212) 581-3080 or visit www.BirdlandJazz.com

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