Julie Halston, Billy Hart Quartet & More Set for Birdland, Week of August 19

Birdland Jazz Club is pleased to announce their line-up of talent for August 19 - August 25, 2013.

Birdland will kick-off their exciting week of programming with the following acts:

August 19 (Monday) at 7PM
Broadway at Birdland Presents Julie Halston in "Classical Julie"
"Classical Julie," which debuted one year ago, was such a smashing success that Birdland invited Ms. Halston back for a month-long run of Mondays. The run was a sell-out, and a critical hit! As before, the two night engagement combines classic Halston rants with brand new material, including her inimitable take on Ibsen and other highly literate writers.
$25 Side Seating, $35 Center Seating, $10 minimum

August 19 (Monday) at 9:30PM
Jim Caruso's Cast Party
Jim Caruso's Cast Party is a wildly popular weekly soiree that brings a sprinkling of Broadway glitz and urbane wit to the legendary Birdland in New York City every Monday night. It's a cool cabaret night-out enlivened by a hilariously impromptu variety show. Showbiz superstars hit the stage alongside up-and-comers, serving up jaw-dropping music and general razzle-dazzle.
$20 all seats, $10 minimum

August 20 - 24 (Tuesday-Saturday) at 8:30 & 11PM
Billy Hart Quartet
With Ethan Iverson (piano), Mark Turner (sax) and Ben Street (bass)
Legendary drummer Billy Hart has been a fixture on the jazz scene for over fifty years, performing and recording along the way with jazz legends Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz and MiLes Davis. At Birdland -- along with iconoclastic pianist Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus), saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street (both members of Kurt Rosenwinkel's Quartet among other acclaimed groups) -- Hart leads a quartet formed in 2003. Since the group's 2005 recording for hard-bop label High Note landed on many critics' best-of-the year lists, the ensemble has recorded again for the ECM label and their music has gotten more free and spacious. All of the members contribute material including a modern blues, a Coltrane tribute and an Iverson-penned homage to Paul Bley, the wonderfully-titled "Nostalgia for the Impossible."
$30 Side Seating, $40 Center Seating, $10 minimum

August 21 (Wednesday) at 5:30-7:00PM
David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Centennial Band
"Tubaist David Ostwald's fabulous early-swing band is about as good as it gets. Known for their energetic treatment of Louis Armstrong's repertoire, these cats like to entertain as much as they like to swing." (Time Out NY)
$25 all seats, $10 minimum

August 22 (Thursday) at 6PM
Trumpeter Tex Allen Sextet
With Joe Ford (alto sax), Patience Higgins (tenor sax), Ronnie Burrage (drums),
Ugonna Okegwo (bass) and Lafayette Harris (piano)
Produced by The Tamm E Hunt Agency
$25 All Seats, $10 minimum

August 23 (Friday) at 5:15-7PM
The Birdland Big Band
Every Friday 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 yelp.com proclaims, "if you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it... and prepare to be blown away!"
$25 all seats, $10 minimum

August 24 (Saturday) at 6PM
Bassist & Vocalist Jay Leonhart Duo
Combining the skills of an old school entertainer and virtuoso jazz man, bassist, vocalist and composer Jay Leonhart has been a fixture of the New York scene for over forty years. When Jay was fourteen he started playing the bass in The Pier Five Dixieland Jazz Band in Baltimore and never looked back. After studying at The Peabody Institute, Jay attended The Berklee School of Music and The Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto, before leaving school to start touring with the traveling big bands of the late 50's and early 60's. Upon moving to New York, Jay eventually began playing for many of the great jazz musicians, big bands, and singers who were to be found in New York - artists like Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Tony Bennett, Marian McPartland, and Jim Hall. Jay became a very busy studio musician in New York City, visiting every musical genre from James Taylor to Ozzy Osbourne and Queen Latifah. Between 1975 and 1995 he was named The Most Valuable Bassist in the recording industry three times by the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences. Jay has now recorded 15 solo albums. His first one-man show "The Bass Lesson" is being received warmly by critics and audiences. Jay's next show "Nukular Tulips" is in the works.
$30 all seats, $10 minimum

August 25 (Sunday) at 6PM
The Birdland Jazz Party
Featuring the Birdland Quartet
$25 all seats, $10 minimum

August 25 (Sunday) at 9PM & 11PM
Trumpeter Tim Hagans Quartet
Featuring Vic Juris (guitar), Rufus Reid (bass) and Jukkis Uotila (drums)
Grammy-nominated Composer and Trumpeter Tim Hagans is one of the most unique and influential modern voices in jazz. Tim Hagans performs and records with the Tim Hagans Quartet. THE MOON IS WAITING, his latest CD just released on Palmetto Records, features his quartet performing all original compositions by Hagans. THE MOON IS WAITING has been heralded by JazzTimes as "scrumptious madness," and Downbeat as "an artistic success," and described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "free jazz with constant drive and passion." He was nominated for Grammy awards for Best Instrumental Composition for "Box of Cannoli" from THE AVATAR SESSIONS (2010 Fuzzy Music); Best Contemporary Jazz CD for Re: Animation (2000 Blue Note) and Animation*Imagination (1999 Blue Note). In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Tim Hagans has performed and recorded with Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins and Dexter Gordon. Tim Hagans is the featured soloist on the soundtrack by Howard Shore for the movie The Score, starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando.
$25 All Seats, $10 minimum

Purchase tickets at: www.BirdlandJazz.com. For more information and reservations call 212-581-3080.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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