Legrand, Shindle, Bucchino, Stitt, Pedi & More Come to Birdland Jazz in March
By: Robert Diamond Feb. 20, 2009
Birdland (315 West 44th Street - between 8th & 9th Aves.) is pleased to announce an exciting line-up of extraordinary entertainment for the month of March. A detailed schedule follows:
The Broadway Boys
Producer Jesse Nager created the Broadway Boys in order to create a new sound for theater and non-theater audiences alike. By mixing pop, jazz, gospel, and funk elements to Broadways standards, the Broadway Boys have created what has been called, " a symphony of sound". The Broadway Boys include: Danny Calvert (Altar Boyz), Jesse Nager (Good Vibrations, Mary Poppins), Maurice Murphy (25th Annual...Spelling Bee), Daniel Torres (The Pirate Queen), Michael James Scott (Jersey Boys), and Josh Strickland (Tarzan).
Monday, March 2 @ 7pm ($25)
Michel Legrand: "Romance... with Strings Attached"
Legendary Composer, Pianist, Vocalist Michel Legrand with Jazz Trio, String Quartet & Harp. Featuring Catherine Michel (harp), Lewis Nash (drums), and David Finck (bass). Recreating the Sound of his Orchestral Recordings!
Virtuoso pianist, arranger, conductor, producer, singer, Oscar and Grammy winner, Michel Legrand has been astonishing audiences since the 1950s, when his very first album, I Love Paris, became one of the best selling instrumental albums ever released. Since then, his career has been a zephyr of innovation and collaboration. His work has crossed musical borders ranging from countless film and television scores to French "chanson," jazz, pop, and classical music. Legrand has performed with the innovators of these genres: Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald and many more. Needless to say, these performances are not to be missed! Produced in association with Pat Philips & Ettore Stratta.
Presented by Sofitel Luxury Hotels
Tuesday- Sunday, March 3 - 8 @ 8:30 & 11pm ($40 General Admission: Side, $50 General Admission, $60 Orchestra)
John Bucchino & Friends
Noted songwriter and pianist John Bucchino presents an evening of his work, performed by a surprise line-up of special guests! Bucchino will share songs from his CDs "Grateful," "It's Only Life," and "On Richard Rodgers' Piano," as well as material from his recent Broadway show "A Catered Affair." John Bucchino's songs have been recorded and performed by an array of incredible talents, including Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Art Garfunkel, Patti LuPone, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra MacDonald, Liza Minnelli, Deborah Voight, The Boston Pops, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many others in venues that include Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, and The White House. Among his numerous honors are The Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award, The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, The Jonathan Larson Award, The Kleban Award, and the first annual Fred Ebb Award. For more information, please visit www.johnbucchino.com.
Monday, March 9 @ 7pm ($25)
University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band
Interim Director: Steve Wiest
Saxophones: Sam Reid (Lead Alto), Collin Hauser, Sylvester Onyejiaka, Brian Clancy, Chris Mike Trumpets: James Blackwell (Lead), Matthew Timm, Thomas Davis, Clynt Yerkes, Pete Clagett Trombones: Dave Richards (Lead), Luke Brimhall, Carl Lundgren, Matt Jefferson, Jason Hausback Rhythm: Ryan Hagler (bass), Ben Haugland (piano), Ryan Davidson (guitar), Michael D'Angelo (drums).
Tuesday, March 10th @ 7pm ($25)
Steve Kuhn (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Al Foster (drums)
After making his mark as a sideman with John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, and others, pianist Steve Kuhn grew beyond the powerful influence of Bill Evans into a unique stylist with incredible technique and sense of dynamics and lyricism. With a unique style built on the foundations of melodic variation and inventive improvisation, Steve Kuhn returns to Birdland to lead a trio featuring jazz bass giant Eddie Gomez and master drummer Al Foster.
Wednesday-Saturday, March 11- 14 @ 8:30 & 11pm ($30 General Admission, $40 Orchestra)
Christine Pedi is "Winging it at Birdland"
Longtime Forbidden Broadway diva Christine Pedi returns to Birdland for her one-woman cabaret act "Winging it at Birdland." Pedi has appeared in companies all over the world including L.A., Tokyo, Singapore, Australia & London's West End (Albery Theatre), earning a Drama Desk nomination and an LA Ovation award. Through her work in New York cabaret, she has also received Show Business Weekly's 2005 Best Female Cabaret Singer of the Year award, a MAC award (Manhattan Assoc. of Cabarets) for her turn as Liza Minnelli in "Judy & Liza Live," several nominations for her one woman shows, as well as a guest spot on John McD's Cabaret Corner on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show."
Monday, March 16 @ 7pm ($25)
George Avakian 90th Birthday Celebration
Come celebrate George Avakian's 90th birthday at Birdland as a part of the regular Wednesday engagement of David Ostwald's Gully Low Jazz Band (aka the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band), which is now in its sixth consecutive year of performing Pops's music (and sometimes Duke's and Jelly Roll's), an engagement set up by George himself. The engagement celebrates the legendary Avakian, who produced the first jazz album (1939-40), the first series of annotated reissues of classic jazz (1940), the first 100 pop LP's (1948), and established popular albums as the industry's biggest source of income (1954), which continues into the CD era.
Wednesday, March 18 @ 5:30-8pm ($10)
George Coleman Quartet
No tenor saxophonist better epitomizes the robust muscularity of that heavyweight instrument of jazz expression than George Coleman. With brilliant technique and a deeply soulful tone firmly rooted in his hometown of Memphis, George has performed with many of jazz's most legendary figures and has influenced countless saxophonists during his half century in music. Growing up in Memphis' rich musical environment of the late 1940's alongside such notables as Booker Little and Hank Crawford, George Coleman was invited to tour with B.B. King at the age of 17. He went on to perform with jazz legends Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, Ahmad Jamal, and most notably in Miles Davis' groundbreaking quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Now at 68 years old, Coleman continues to be a prominent figure in jazz, recording and touring in the U.S. and internationally.
Wednesday-Saturday, March 18-21 @ 8:30 & 11pm (9 & 11pm on March 18 only) ($30 General Admission, $40 Orchestra)
Former Miss America, singer/actress/activist Kate Shindle has wowed audiences and critics on Broadway, starring as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and as the original Vivienne Kensington in Legally Blonde: The Musical, as well as on screen in films The Stepford Wives and Capote. In addition to a busy performing schedule, Ms. Shindle has written a novel, Crown Chasers (and is now working on a second), and is very active in raising AIDS awareness and funds for various service organizations. Conductor/composer/record producer/orchestrator and Grammy and two-time Emmy Award winner, John McDaniel lead the band daily on The Rosie O'Donnell Show for its entire six-year run. He also wrote the show's theme song and received five Emmy nominations for Outstanding Music Direction. Throughout his time on the show, John worked with top artists such as Tony Bennett, Dick Van Dyke, Neil Diamond, Madonna, Dolly Parton, Liza Minnelli, Barry Manilow, and Chaka Kahn. McDaniel has worked as producer, conductor and supervising Music Director on Broadway productions, arranged music for the Tony Awards and several television specials. Don't miss these two talents as they collaborate for this one-night-only Birdland engagement!
Monday, March 23 @ 7pm ($25)
Enrico Rava Quintet
Regarded as one of the most important composers on the European scene and the leading Italian jazzman, the prolific trumpeter is known for his broad musical language. Rava refers to jazz and swing configuration as much as he evokes Italian folk songs and his classical training. His first instrument, before coming to New York, was trombone, but after seeing Miles Davis and Lester Young in concert in 1956 in the city of Turin, he switched to trumpet, developing what writers now call a "burnished" tone. Rava will be joined by Mark Turner (sax), Ben Street (bass), Stefano Bollani (piano) and Paul Motian (drums).
Wednesday-Saturday, March 25-28 @ 8:30 & 11pm ($30 General Admission, $40 Orchestra)
Hailed by critics and loved by audiences across the country, jazz and cabaret singer Jack Donahue is a rare talent. With the release of A Small Blue Thing, his debut recording on Two Maples Music, Donahue furthered his reputation as one of the world's premiere young vocalists. "Possessed of a beautiful voice, taste beyond his years, and a wide-ranging intelligence, the handsome New Yorker shows that this sophisticated art form is not just alive and well but thriving," wrote Andrew Patner of the Chicago Sun-Times of Mr. Donahue.
Monday, March 30 @ 7pm ($25)
Composer and lyricist, Georgia Stitt returns to Birdland for an evening of her original works. Georgia has written several musicals for the theater, including The Water, written with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko, and Big Red Sun, written with John Jiler. She contributed nine songs to the American Music Festival in Tono, Japan and served as composer-in-residence for the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City. At present she is developing a musical revue with composer/lyricist David Kirshenbaum. She has recently recorded Alphabet City Cycle, a song cycle for soprano and violin with lyricist Marcy Heisler, which was premiered by the New Voices Collective, of which she is a founding member. Georgia is currently working as the on-camera vocal coach for the NBC reality TV show "Grease: You're The One That I Want." She also worked as the Production Music Coordinator for the Disney/ABC TV musical "Once Upon A Mattress" starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett. On Broadway she was the assistant conductor of the 2003 Little Shop of Horrors revival and was the associate conductor of the Encores! production of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone. Georgia lives in New York and Los Angeles with her husband composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown and their daughter Molly.
Monday, March 30 @ 9pm ($25)
*Please note that "Jim Caruso's Cast Party" will begin at 11:00pm on this date!
Jason Robert Brown: "The Last Five Years In Concert"
If you missed Jason Robert Brown's one night concert at Birdland this past fall, or if you caught it and couldn't get enough, you're in luck! Your favorite composer and lyricist will be back before you know it, and this time, he sums up his work from the past five years into a five-day run of the most exciting and original songs in town! Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his "extraordinary, jubilant theater music" (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. The New York Times refers to Jason as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical."
Tuesday-Saturday, March 31-April 4 @ 7pm ($40 General Admission, $50 Orchestra)
Jessica Molaskey with John Pizzarelli Quartet
Vocalist and Broadway veteran Jessica Molaskey returns to Birdland joined by her singer-guitarist husband John Pizzarelli in a quartet setting for this week-long engagement. Known to charm audiences with their seamless blend of swinging jazz, pop, cabaret, wit, and emotional range, Stephen Holden of The New York Times calls "The Pizzarelli-Molaskey duo... as good as it gets in any entertainment medium." Along with sharing the stage, the husband-wife team co-host the nationally syndicated weekly radio program "Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli," which invites listeners into their shared world through song and story.
Tuesday-Saturday, March 31-April 4 @ 9 & 11pm ($30 General Admission, $40 Orchestra)
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