The Smith Center for the Performing Arts to Present Cabaret Jazz Series

Overlooking Symphony Park, the beautiful club called Cabaret Jazz will spotlight some of the world's most gifted jazz artists and cabaret entertainers at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts beginning March 2012. Cabaret Jazz will showcase legendary names in entertainment and music history, including three-time Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year Clint Holmes, SFJAZZ Collective, three-time Grammy® winner and saxophonist Brandford Marsalis, and cabaret vocalists Barbara Cook and Andrea Marcovicci. Tickets will go on sale beginning January 27, 2012, at 10 a.m.

Patrons can purchase individual tickets for all shows at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts by calling (702) 982-7805 or by visiting www.thesmithcenter.com. Tickets for most shows in Cabaret Jazz start at $35.

Upon its opening in March, Cabaret Jazz will host a number of artists and entertainers. The addition of performances is ongoing and tickets are available to the public upon schedule confirmation. This is unlike other performances scheduled at The Smith Center, which are presented to the public season by season.

In addition, the club will offer a full-fledged food and beverage menu, complete with signature cocktails and a casual dining menu that will include everything from bourbon glazed short ribs to Baton Rouge style gumbo, as well as a list of lite bites.

Built with sophistication and elegance, the 258-seat Cabaret Jazz provides a truly unique and cool experience for music lovers to embrace.

Taking center stage in the stunning, two-story Cabaret Jazz inside the Boman Pavilion, the performance lineup will highlight the following entertainers:
· March 17-18, 2012 – SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie Wonder

· March 31, 2012 – Three-time Grammy®-winner Brandford Marsalis

· Beginning April 2012, performing the first weekend of every month - Clint Holmes

· April 13-14, 2012 – Andrea Marcovicci – Marcovicci Sings Movies

· April 15-16, 2012 – Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik

· April 20-21, 2012 – Joey DeFrancesco Trio

· May 11-12, 2012 – James Gavin's STORMY WEATHER: The Lena Horne Project

· May 18-19, 2012 – Jane Monheit

· May 24-27, 2012 – Barbara Cook

· June 8 & 9, 2012 – Emily Bergl

· June 15-16, 2012 – Lucy Woodward

· June 29-30, 2012 – Preservation Hall Jazz Band

The SFJAZZ Collective is comprised of professional instrumentalists with exceptional talent and creativity. Together, they will perform select hits from the one-and-only Stevie Wonder, as well as original compositions from each member

One of the world's most talented saxophonists, three-time Grammy®-winner Branford Marsalis, will deliver engaging performances from jazz to classical to funk, with exceptional precision and exuberance designed to excite the senses of audiences.

Beginning April 2012, Las Vegas headliner Clint Holmes will begin his monthly residency, bringing his charm and charismatic presence to the stage. The acclaimed singer, who was named Las Vegas "Entertainer of the Year" three times, Las Vegas' "Best Singer" four times by readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and honored with the Sammy Davis Jr. Foundation award will return in an exclusive engagement at Cabaret Jazz. Holmes' magnetic personality and high-energy performances, ranging from contemporary to jazz to Broadway, will light up the stage for an unforgettable night.

Renowned singer-songwriters turned music-theater composers Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik will team up to perform their most celebrated songs as well as new material based on their latest theatrical projects. Vega both wrote and stars in "Carson McCullers Talks About Love," which opened at the Rattlestick Theater in NYC in the Spring 2011. Sheik, best known for the hit song "Barely Breathing" and writing the Tony and a Grammy-award winning Broadway musical "Spring Awakening," also contributed music to the McCullers project. This is the rare co-bill where two artists will perform their new material together, exploring their uniquely narrative songwriting style.

Two-time Grammy® nominee, Joey DeFrancesco emerged onto the jazz scene in 1989 with the release of his first album, All of Me, bringing back the Hammond B-3 Organ sound to popular music. Selected as the top jazz organist by Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll every year since 2003, DeFrancesco will perform live at Cabaret Jazz with his trio to deliver a swinging night filled with harmonic depth.

Cabaret singer Andrea Marcovicci illuminates how movie music has scored our lives with a performance the New York Times raved as "beautifully written, erudite and expertly performed." With a dazzling array of movie songs from the 1930s to the 1990s with highlights such as The Way We Were, Thanks for the Memory, and As Time Goes By, "Marcovicci doesn't just sing songs, she embraces their history and emotion" as noted by the Los Angeles Times. With her captivating voice and radiant enthusiasm, Marcovicci will continue to shine and inspire on the stage at Cabaret Jazz.

Starring Mary Wilson of The Supremes, James Gavin's STORMY WEATHER: The Lena Horne Project is about Hollywood's first African-American goddess, reigning from MGM's "dream factory" to a nightclub seductress to a civil rights icon. Performed by renowned celebriTy Wilson, the legendary Supremes singer delivers a passionate and unsurpassed tribute to an outstanding American icon.

The delicate vocal styling of Jane Monheit has continued to hypnotize both the jazz and cabaret worlds, with the recent release of her tenth album. Monheit offers a mature and heartfelt sound perfectly suitable for Cabaret Jazz and audiences. With vocals at the peak of perfection, Monheit transforms each and every performance with ease and entertainment pleasure.

Commended as "the greatest theatrical singer in concert at the moment" by The London Times, Barbara Cook's silvery soprano and purity of tone has delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years. Cook has accomplished a successful career as a concert and recording artist and is considered "Broadway's favorite ingénue." In addition, Cook was recently selected by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Center as an honoree for the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors.

Emily Bergl is best known for her role on "Desperate Housewives," but her recent show received raves from sold out Oak Room audiences and the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News. "Kidding on the Square" is vintage entertainment told from the perspective of a modern girl, an old fashioned show with stunning costume changes, audience participation, and character songs that run the gamut from broad comedy to intense drama. Audiences are transported to a unique musical world that blends classic hits from Noel Coward to Fats Waller with modern favorites from Madonna to the Scissor Sisters. In the words of Stephen Holden, "Welcome to the second decade of the 21st century."

Lucy Woodward is an expressive vocalist and an insightful and witty songwriter, acclaimed as an "International Artist to Watch" by Italian Vogue. Woodward drew inspiration from a deep well of jazz and pop influences with the release of her third album Hooked!, earning her rave reviews from critics including USA Today, who called Woodward's music "A steamy, string-kissed slice of retro British pop by a versatile singer/songwriter."

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from their venerable music venue located in New Orleans' French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. Now celebrating their 50th Anniversary, the band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label.

About The Smith Center for the Performing Arts:

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is a public/private partnership that will become the centerpiece of cultural life in Las Vegas, offering a blend of performances by resident companies, as well as first-run touring attractions. The 5-acre cultural campus will feature three performance spaces, the 2,050-seat main performance area in Reynolds Hall and Boman Pavilion's 258-seat Cabaret Jazz and 250-seat Troesh Studio Theater, and will also be home to a 1.7 acre park, which can be used for outdoor concerts. Additionally, the campus will be the new location of the Discovery Children's Museum. The Smith Center will be the cultural center for Las Vegas – a place that will educate, entertain and excite the citizens of our great community. Located in downtown's 61-acre urban development, Symphony Park, The Smith Center broke ground in May of 2009 with a ceremonial carillon bell casting and ringing. In February 2010, it celebrated its "Topping Out" with the raising of 50 tons of steel. The Smith Center will open in March 2012. For more information about The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, please visit www.thesmithcenter.com.

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