Brian De Lorenzo Plays The Metropolitan Room Tonght

Award-winning singer Brian De Lorenzo swings into The Metropolitan Room to celebrate the artistry and remarkable career of one of America's favorite singers, Nat King Cole tonight, August 24 at 7 p.m. De Lorenzo presents songs for which Mr. Cole is well known - songs such as "Nature Boy," "Mona Lisa," and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" - plus stories and anecdotes about Mr. Cole's personal and professional lives. De Lorenzo will also interweave memories and anecdotes from his own experiences of Nat King Cole's music.

2013 marks the 65th anniversary of the release of "Nature Boy;" the 70th anniversary of the Nat King Cole Trio's signing with Capitol Records ("The House That Nat Built"); and the 50th anniversary of Cole's recording of "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer." As we approach the 50th anniversary of the passing of this iconic performer, De Lorenzo feels that Mr. Cole deserves to be honored for his talent as a singer and for his importance to entertainment and race relations in the 20th Century.

Talent America's 2001 "Performer of the Year" Brian De Lorenzo is equally at home in cabaret rooms, concert halls, and theatres including venues in New York (Birdland, The Iridium, Eighty Eight's, Town Hall, Don't Tell Mama), Boston (Scullers Jazz Club, Club Café), Provincetown (the Crown & Anchor), Chicago, San Francisco, and cruise ships in Alaska, the Mediterranean, and crossing the Atlantic. Brian has performed at the prestigious Mabel Mercer Cabaret Conventions in New York and Chicago and at three Boston Cabaret Festivals. He has appeared in IRNE- and Elliot Norton Award winning theatre productions including The Wild Party and On the Twentieth Century. Other theatre credits include "Bob Cratchit" in A Christmas Carol at North Shore Music Theatre; "Max" in Lend Me a Tenor; "Zangara" in Assassins at Lyric Stage (voted best theatre production of 1998 by The Boston Globe); "Jinx" in Forever Plaid; and a tour of Esther in Europe. His CD "Found Treasures" was nominated for the 2000 "Recording of the Year" Award by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC). Brian can also be heard extensively on the Original Cast Recording of Made in America: Vaudeville Songs. He is also featured on the world premiere recording of the musical Smooth Sailing. He has been nominated three times for an IRNE Award for "Best Cabaret Show." Brian is well known for finding wonderful songs that aren't so well known; and for his interpretations of standards from the Great American Songbook and musical theatre.

Bill Duffy has been entertaining audiences on both coasts and in Europe for 35 years. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, Bill was house pianist at the Park Hyatt in San Francisco, and later had a seven-year residency at the Four Seasons Boston. His recording career began with the San Francisco-basEd Martini Brothers, and continued on CD's by Overall Junction, Krisanthi Pappas, and Dane Vannatter, among others. Bill has toured nationally with Senegalese guitarist Pascal Bokar, and as a civilian player in the U.S. Air Force "big band." Especially noted for his warm and supportive style, Bill accompanies singers throughout the Northeast, while maintaining a busy schedule of jazz trio dates and private teaching. Bill was accompanist for the critically acclaimed Brian De Lorenzo... & Friends and The Nat King Cole Songbook at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston.