Jim Caruso and Matt Baker To Begin Bemelmans Bar Residency At The Carlyle Hotel

Jim Caruso & Matt Baker BEGIN RUN AT BEMELMANS BAR AT THE CARLYLE HOTEL

SUNDAYS IN MARCH, APRIL, MAY & JUNE

For the eleventh year in a row, singer Jim Caruso will croon the nights away at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel. For this engagement, Caruso will be joined by acclaimed pianist/singer Matt Baker. The two, along with bassist Tom Hubbard, will perform an evening of swinging standards on Sundays in March, April, May, and June, from 9 pm to midnight. An exciting addition to Caruso's Bemelmans appearances has always been the spontaneous performances given by his superstar friends, including Liza Minnelli, Bono, Michael Feinstein, Jane Monheit, Clint Holmes, Ariana DeBose, Marilyn Maye, Stephanie J. Block, Steve Ross, Linda Lavin, Darren Criss, Tony Danza, Megan Hilty, Liliane Montevecchi, Christine Ebersole, and Steve Tyrell. You just never know who will storm the stage on Sundays at Bemelmans!

Bemelmans Bar is located in The Carlyle Hotel (35 East 76th Street @ Madison Avenue). Bar seating is $15 per person and table seating is $25 per person. Reservations are not accepted; tables are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For additional information, call 212 570 7120 or visit www.thecarlyle.com.

Jim Caruso made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award-winning Liza's At The Palace!, singing, dancing, and celebrating the music and arrangements of Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. He began his nightclub career in Dallas, Texas, where he formed the vocal/comedy trio Wiseguys. He has won seven MAC Awards and nine BroadwayWorld Awards for his nightclub and virtual performances. He's performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops celebrating Kander & Ebb, with Rosemary Clooney honoring Bing Crosby, and singing the songs of Hope & Crosby with Michael Feinstein. Jim was honored to sing with Barbara Cook, Lauren Bacall, and a bevy of Broadway stars at President Clinton's First State Dinner at the White House. For nineteen years, he has hosted the weekly showbiz bash "Jim Caruso's Cast Party" at Birdland, Jazz at Lincoln Center and across the country, and has produced over 1000 Broadway at Birdland concerts. For eleven years he's crooned most Sunday nights at Bemelmans Bar at the iconic Carlyle Hotel. During the pandemic, he created and hosted "Pajama Cast Party," a star-studded virtual variety show that ran for 83 consecutive weeks. His two solo CDs, "The Swing Set" and "Caruso Live and In Person" are available online, and his latest duo cd with Billy Stritch, "The Sunday Set," was released on the Club 44 record label. Follow Jim on Instagram @JimCaruso1.

Australian-born Jazz Pianist Matt Baker has called New York City home since 2010. He performs regularly as a sideman at jazz venues including Birdland and The Blue Note, tours both within the USA and internationally as a bandleader and sideman, and has released 6 albums, his latest, a DVD album "Live at Birdland." In 2019 Matt premiered his new project "A Rhapsody of Gershwin" at Birdland Jazz Club New York, presenting a new spin on the music of one of America's most celebrated composers, with an all-star lineup from the heart of New York's jazz scene, including Endea Owens on bass, Curtis Nowosad on drums, and 2019 Grammy nominee vocalist Nicole Zuraitis. The project - Gershwin arranged like never before and fusing jazz with classical, comprises music from Porgy and Bess, "An American in Paris," "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Concerto in F," plus other exciting gems from the classical and popular worlds of George Gershwin! Matt Baker's sideman credits include touring and performing with vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway, Jennifer Holliday, Vanessa Williams, Patti LaBelle, Veronica Swift (2015 Monk competition winner), Tierney Sutton, Arianna Neikrug (2015 Sarah Vaughan competition winner), guitar icon Bucky Pizzarelli, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, and Judy Collins. Matt Baker was an award winner himself in the 2003 Montreux International Solo Jazz Piano competition and a semi-finalist in 2004 and 2005. A student of Taylor Eigsti's since moving to New York, Matt watched Oscar Peterson perform live for an entire week at the Blue Note, from which a friendship between the two formed in the remaining years of Peterson's life. Baker has also studied with Mulgrew Miller, Benny Green, Jacky Terrasson, and Ella Fitzgerald's lifelong accompanist Paul Smith.

Photo by Matt Baker

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