Photos: John Minnock Performs at 54 Below

Jazz vocalist John Minnock continued his annual residency at 54 Below with an incredible and memorable show last week. Flanked by his musical partner in crime, NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman, and accompanied by a stellar band of budding jazz greats, Minnock was in prime form, and showed off his skills as an improviser and emotive singer. The band featured rising jazz stars such as pianist Sean Mason (who recently joined the band of another spectacular vocalist and John’s label-mate, Catherine Russell), bassist Mark Lewandowski and drummer Pablo Eluchans. 

See photos below!

The evening began with a lively take on “Someone Else is Stepping In”, which took off with a rousing musical welcome from the band before our star took the stage. Minnock was welcomed with heaps of applause, which was met with an excellent scat solo. Much of the focus of the August 18 show was on the music of David Shire. Minnock has longed had an affinity for the veteran composer’s works, and this set featured a wide variety of Shire's tunes - some of which may even appear on Minnock’s new album, scheduled for next year. The first of these was “What About Today?”, which was originally made famous by Barbra Streisand. A particularly melodic tune, Minnock soared here, navigating the melodious landscape with ease.

Another Shire highlight was the thoughtful ballad “Starting Here, Starting Now”, before Minnock went into his famous rendition of Jay Brennan’s “New York, New York”. Featuring a searing saxophone intro, the band showed up here with intense solos by all. Two standards followed: “Angel Eyes” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” which began a cappella. Achingly emotional, Minnock’s delivery was perfectly in tune. Two more Shire tunes came next: the bouncy “Only Jazz” and “Autumn”, which was performed as a striking duo with Sean Mason. The set ended with “I Love Being Here With You”, and an encore performance of “He Was Brazilian” from his latest album ‘Simplicity’. 

Robert Buyuksal, Caris Liebman, Abraham Sahdo and Miray Sahdo

Pablu Eluchans

John Minnock

John Minnock