Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch will celebrate the release of their new CD Dreaming Of A Song: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael with two weeks worth of performances at the Metropolitan Room. (34 West 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) from October 14 – 17 and November 19 – 21. Show times are Tuesday, October 14 at 7:00 PM; Wednesday, October 15 – Friday, October 17 at 9:45 PM; Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30 PM; Thursday, November 20 and Friday, November 21 at 9:45 PM. There is a $30 cover and a two beverage minimum. Please call (212) 206-0440 for or visit www.metropolitanroom.com for reservations.
Blackhurst took New York by storm with her acclaimed tribute to
Ethel Merman, Everything the Traffic Will Allow; Stritch is an award-winning composer, arranger, vocalist and jazz pianist. Their first artistic collaboration mines the catalogue of one of America's most treasured songwriters, who wrote such standards as "Skylark," "Georgia On My Mind" and "Star Dust." The recording was produced by Grammy Award winner
Joel Moss and was released by GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS, a division of Sh-K-Boom Records, June 17, 2008.
Hoagy Carmichael, the celebrated American composer, pianist, singer, actor and bandleader, wrote some of the most lasting and influential pop songs of the twentieth century. Collaborating with lyricists that range from
Frank Loesser,
Mitchell Parish and
Johnny Mercer to
Ned Washington,
Paul Francis Webster and
Harold Adamson, his contributions to Hollywood films and the Hit Parade are invaluable to the Great American Songbook. Klea – called "a huggable performer with a positive attitude, a sunny voice and a refreshing sense of humor" by Variety – and Billy, praised for a voice "beguiling in its warmth, delicacy and clarity of diction" by The New York Times, perfectly capture Hoagy's signature blend of easygoing American charm and Tin Pan Alley sophistication.
Klea's ebullient delivery complements Billy's suave crooning on a remarkable range of Carmichael's compositions. Selections range from standards loved around the world – such as "Star Dust," "Heart and Soul" and "Skylark" – to lesser-known songs "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" (first performed by
Betty Hutton in the 1945 film The Stork Club) and "My Resistance Is Low" (a hit in London from the film Las Vegas Story, but relatively obscure in the states) to the virtually unknown, like "Walk It Off." Klea and Billy take turns on solos, such as her rollicking take on the rarity "Come Easy Go Easy Love," and his impassioned, powerful "Georgia On My Mind."
Two seldomly-performed songs were written for
Marilyn Monroe and
Jane Russell for the film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: "When Love Goes Wrong" and "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love." Though successful in Hollywood, Carmichael only wrote one Broadway musical: I Walk With Music. The title song, with a
Johnny Mercer lyric, is delivered as a plaintive ballad by Klea.
"
Hoagy Carmichael's melodies don't always go where I expect them to, but they always sound just right," says Klea. "He provided a treasure chest of gold for us to play with. What strikes me most is a phenomenon that Hoagy himself recognized: 'You don't write melodies,' he said 'you find them. They lie there on the keys waiting... They have always been there.' His songs do indeed seem to have always been there. Can you imagine a world that didn't have 'Heart and Soul'? This project has brought so much joy into my life. I hope listeners will feel the same."
Stritch, who provides Musical Direction and arrangements, is featured on piano. He is joined by
Steve Doyle on bass, Mike Berkowitz on drums and Blackhurst on ukulele.
Klea Blackhurst is best known for her acclaimed tribute to
Ethel Merman, Everything the Traffic Will Allow, which earned her the Special Achievement Award from Time Out New York, among many accolades. Her follow-up show, Autumn in New York:
Vernon Duke's Broadway, debuted at the Café Carlyle and also played in New York at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater.
Klea's concert appearances include
Jerry Herman's Broadway with
Angela Lansbury at London's Palladium Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Hall with
Michael Feinstein, Oklahoma! at London's Royal
Albert Hall, New York's 92nd Street Y (
Leo Robin &
Cole Porter), New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the Chicago Humanities Festival.
Klea made her screen debut in the award-winning short film, Andy Across the Water. Klea's television and radio appearances include "The
Rosie O'Donnell Show", "Sesame Street", "Law and Order: SVU", and "A Prairie Home Companion". Other recordings include "
Jule Styne in Hollywood", "Lost in Boston IV" and "Unsung
Irving Berlin" and the original cast recordings of Bingo and Radio Gals. Her solo recordings "Autumn in New York" and "Everything the Traffic Will Allow" are also available through Ghostlight.
Billy Stritch, a musician of extraordinary range and sophistication, is known for breathing new life into the Great American Songbook. Billy's career started with the acclaimed vocal trio Montgomery, Plant & Stritch, which performed at the JVC Jazz Festival with Mel Tormé at
Carnegie Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival, in addition to supper clubs across the country.
After later moving to New York, he was discovered by
Liza Minnelli, who hired him to arrange for her "Steppin' Out At Radio City" extravaganza. This led to international performances on stage at The Palais de Congres in Paris, The Russiya in Moscow, NHK Hall in Tokyo and The Royal
Albert Hall in London. He served as associate producer, pianist and arranger for Minnelli's Gently CD, which earned two Grammy nominations. As a composer, Stritch and Nashville writer Sandy Knox penned the 1994 Grammy Award-winning country song, "Does He Love You?," recorded by
Reba McEntire and Linda Davis, which has sold over four million copies nationwide, and also appears on
Patti LaBelle's CD, Flame, and was performed on "American Idol" by
Reba McEntire and
Kelly Clarkson.
After co-starring with
Christine Ebersole in the Broadway revival of 42nd Street, Billy and Christine collaborated on the nightclub act "In Your Dreams" which they performed around the country. Billy's TV appearances include "Sondheim: A Celebration at
Carnegie Hall," NBC's "Today," "
Charlie Rose," "The
Oprah Winfrey Show" and "The
Rosie O'Donnell Show." His solo recordings include
Billy Stritch, Waters Of March: The Brazilian Album, Jazz Live, and his latest release,
Billy Stritch Sings Mel Tormé. His two CDs with
Christine Ebersole, In Your Dreams and Sunday In New York, are also available from Ghostlight.
ABOUT GHOSTLIGHT:
It is a standing practice in the theatre that a ghostlight – a floor lamp holding a single bare light bulb – be lit on stage after everyone has left for the night, so that the theatre never goes dark. In the same spirit, Ghostlight Records, created by Sh-K-Boom co-founders
Kurt Deutsch & Sherie Rene Scott, ensures that music of the theatre by composers old and new will always be enjoyed. Ghostlight Records honors the past while shining a light toward the future. Ghostlight Records was honored with a special 2006 Drama Desk Award for dedication to the preservation of musical theatre through cast recordings, as well as Grammy Award nominations for Best Musical Show Album: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hair (The Actors' Fund Of America Benefit Recording), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and most recently The Drowsy Chaperone. Other recent CDs include the original cast recordings of Passing Strange,
In The Heights,
Legally Blonde,
Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, High Fidelity, See What I Wanna See and Bernarda Alba by
Michael John LaChiusa,
Irving Berlin's
White Christmas,
Patti LuPone's The Lady With The Torch and LoveMusik. Ghostlight Records is distributed by Razor & Tie Entertainment. For more information, visit
www.GhostlightRecords.com or
www.sh-k-boom.com.
Photo Credit Mark Rupp
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