Houston Person Quintet, Dave Stryker Organ Trio, and More to Play Birdland This Month

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater have announced programming running July 3 through July 16. 

Performers appearing at Birdland Jazz Club include Houston Person Quintet, Dave Stryker Organ Trio with special guest Bob Mintzer, Christian Wiggs, Monty Alexander and David DeJesus Con Siete. 

Downstairs at Birdland Theater, catch Chad LB Quintet, Ashley Pezzotti and Miss Maybell & the Jazz Age Artistes.  

Repeat engagements include Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band, Frank Vignola's Guitar Night, Birdland Big Band and Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. 
 

Jazz Programming at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater July 3 through July 16

July 3-4 (Monday-Tuesday) 5:30 & 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
Catch Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks every Monday evening in June at Birdland Theater! Giordano, the recipient of a GRAMMY Award for his work scoring the HBO show Boardwalk Empire, is a master composer and arranger whose 11-piece band, The Nighthawks, recreate the jubilant 1920s jazz sound with amazing definition, using violins, tubas, banjos, and collector's item drum sets. The band has provided soundtracks for film and television productions including The Cotton Club, The Aviator, Finding Forrester, Revolutionary Road, Cafe Society, Boardwalk Empire, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and many more. Not to be missed!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 3 (Monday) 7:00 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Houston Person Quintet
The 87 year-old jazz legend Houston Person has NOT slowed down. In fact, with one or two scattered exceptions, Person has continued to release at least one record per year as a leader for the past nearly 60 years. A jazz lover's jazzman, this great artist plays from his soul with a great mastery of affect, technique, and style. He has served as a sideman for Etta Jones (15 recordings), Joey DeFrancesco, Ron Carter, Horace Silver, Richard “Groove” Holmes, and too many others to name. This engagement is sure to be as swinging, blues-soaked, and robust as ever.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 4-8 (Tuesday-Saturday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (7/4-6); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (7/7-8) – Birdland Jazz Club
Dave Stryker Organ Trio w/ Special Guest Bob Mintzer
“One of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years,” states Village Voice, with “one of the most joyous feels around,” according to Pat Metheny. Dave Stryker is a fabulous guitarist who has served as the featured accompanist for Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, and hundreds of others, as well as leading 30 recording projects of his own. Stryker's latest recording, 2022's As We Are, features Brian Blade, John Pattitucci, Julian Shore, Sara Caswell and others,was named one of DownBeat's top albums of the year. “The jazz gods have alighted on the guitarist and elevated his playing, his composing, his soloing, and his music,” says Jazz Times's Ken Micallef. Meanwhile, Stryker heads into the studio soon with his Organ Trio, this time featuring special guest Bob Mintzer, the world-class saxophonist of Yellowjackets fame. It is this ultra-swinging group, which opened twenty dates in 2022 for Steely Dan, that the guitarist will bring to his week at Birdland. They'll deliver gritty, soulful sounds for contemporary ears.
$30 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 5 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Theater
David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band
Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Now in its 18th 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!
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 5 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater
Frank Vignola's Guitar Night
It's the best jazz guitar lover's show in the world. Frank Vignola's virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world's top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Les Paul, the Boston and New York Pops, and more. Every Wednesday at 8:30pm in the Birdland Theater, Frank leads “Frank Vignola's Guitar Night at Birdland.” Inspired by journeyman jazz guitarist John Pisano's now famous Los Angeles Guitar Night, the Frank Vignola Trio, featuring bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Vince Cherico, will perform tunes from the standard repertoire,  *Guitar Night streams live every week at YouTube.com/RadioFreeBirdland
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 7 (Friday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club
The Birdland Big Band
Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, 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 (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 why yelp.com proclaims, “If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it… and prepare to be blown away!”
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum


July 7-9 (Friday-Sunday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Chad LB Quartet
Celebrated as a saxophone prodigy from a young age, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown is now an internationally-recognized musician, seen on world stages with Taylor Swift, Chris Botti, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, and his own groups. Performances at Carnegie Hall, the Super Bowl, and Madison Square Garden have been highlights in his star-studded career, and his albums have met great critical acclaim: critic Doug Ramsey named Lefkowitz-Brown's debut album, Image Manifesto, “Debut Album of the Year,” and DownBeat named Onward, his May 2017 release, an Editor's Pick for 2017. His two 2021 releases—Open World, featuring greats Lionel Loueke, Randy Brecker, and other stars, and Quartet Sessions featuring his brilliant peers—were released on La Reserve recordings.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 9 (Sunday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Christian Wiggs
One of the emergent male vocalists singing jazz today, Christian Wiggs possesses a striking technique reminiscent of superstar and Birdland favorite, Kurt Elling. Wiggs has released three recordings under his own name: 2015's Wonderful You Came By; 2017's From Dusk Till Dawn; and 2020's Between Love and Fascination. His work with top swingsters Benny Benack III, Chad LB, Steven Feifke, and Bryan Carter places him amongst a young jazz in-crowd, devoted to the old swing feeling and committed to developing a new generation of listenership. Sharp-suited and with clean delivery, the powerful Wiggs brings his Christian Wiggs Big Band to the Birdland stage.   
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 9 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club
Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill—leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (The New York Times)—leads the GRAMMY award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world's most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O'Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music's most talented composers and arrangers.
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum


July 10 (Monday) 5:30 & 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
Catch Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks every Monday evening in June at Birdland Theater! Giordano, the recipient of a GRAMMY Award for his work scoring the HBO show Boardwalk Empire, is a master composer and arranger whose 11-piece band, The Nighthawks, recreate the jubilant 1920s jazz sound with amazing definition, using violins, tubas, banjos, and collector's item drum sets. The band has provided soundtracks for film and television productions including The Cotton Club, The Aviator, Finding Forrester, Revolutionary Road, Cafe Society, Boardwalk Empire, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and many more. Not to be missed!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 11 (Tuesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Ashley Pezzotti
Called a “performer to watch” by DownBeat Magazine, Queens-born Ashley Pezzotti takes an early set on the Birdland Theater stage four consecutive Tuesdays in August to deliver her trademark renditions of American standards. This 25-year-old rising star has performed with jazz icon Wynton Marsalis (on his 2020 recording The Ever Fonky Lowdown), country legend Keith Urban, and piano prodigy Joey Alexander. On her debut recording, We've Only Just Begun, she was backed by the Emmet Cohen Trio and other young lions. A vocalist indebted to the great jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Carmen McRae, Pezzotti offers listeners a chance to relax into the music they know and love, while bringing a freshness of presence that enchants her audiences..
$20 + $20 food/drink minimum


July 11-15 (Tuesday-Saturday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (7/11-13); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (7/14-15) – Birdland Jazz Club
Monty Alexander
A master pianist with 70 years in music, Monty Alexander is a jazz legend. Named the 5th greatest jazz pianist in history in Hal Leonard's Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time, Alexander's achievements have earned him the highest honors: native Jamaica granted him the title of Commander in the Order of Distinction; Institute of Jamaica awarded him the Musgrave Medal; and the University of the West Indies bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate. What makes this 23-time guest of the Montreux Jazz Festival such a beloved figure? According to him, it is his insatiable capacity “to build up the heat and kick up a storm”—a joyful skill that has been recorded on over 70 discs as a leader. He is sure to uplift his listeners this week at Birdland.
$40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 12 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Theater
David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band
Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Now in its 18th 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!
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 12 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM – Birdland Theater
Frank Vignola's Guitar Night
It's the best jazz guitar lover's show in the world. Frank Vignola's virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world's top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Les Paul, the Boston and New York Pops, and more. Every Wednesday at 8:30pm in the Birdland Theater, Frank leads “Frank Vignola's Guitar Night at Birdland.” Inspired by journeyman jazz guitarist John Pisano's now famous Los Angeles Guitar Night, the Frank Vignola Trio, featuring bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Vince Cherico, will perform tunes from the standard repertoire,  *Guitar Night streams live every week at YouTube.com/RadioFreeBirdland
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum
 

July 13 (Thursday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Miss Maybell & the Jazz Age Artistes
Miss Maybell and the Jazz Age Artistes play “old music for the young at heart,” and it's a sight to behold. Offering an exuberant mix of ragtime, early jazz, blues, and country classics, Maybell (the talented Lauren Sansaricq) and crew transport audiences to a different time, but in their expert hands, the music feels as fresh as ever. Vocalist/washboardist Sansaricq's lovely connection with pianist Charlie Judkins—called a “genius piano player” by the Syncopated Times—radiates an infectious energy. Their toe-tapping romps will leave audiences smiling. Brian Nalepka (bass and tuba) and Andy Stein (saxophone) round out the group, which was recently featured on The NPR Show “Person Place Thing” with Randy Cohen. Don't miss this delightful one-nighter!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 14 (Friday) 5:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club
The Birdland Big Band
Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, 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 (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 why yelp.com proclaims, “If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it… and prepare to be blown away!”
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum


July 16 (Sunday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
David DeJesus Con Siete
Alto Saxophonist David DeJesus is a master saxophonist, fluent across Latin, jazz and dozens of other styles. The director of the Birdland Big Band, he has been a fixture on the New York City music scene for three decades, performing with the best of the best: the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, Ron Carter's Great Big Band, and Jimmy Heath's Big Band; the Grammy-nominated Arturo O'Farrill Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Bobby Sanabria Big Band, Ruben Blades, Larry Harlow, and Gilberto Santa Rosa. DeJesus is a passionate educator, and serves as Professor of Jazz Studies at SUNY Purchase and directs the conservatory's Latin Jazz Orchestra.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum


July 16 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM – Birdland Jazz Club
Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill—leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (The New York Times)—leads the GRAMMY award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world's most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O'Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music's most talented composers and arrangers.
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum

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