Billy Strayhorn News

An All Star Celebration of the music of Billy Strayhorn, featuring Roni Ben-Hur, guitar, Ray Drummond, bass, Lewis Nash, drums, and Amy London, vocals, is set for tonight and tomorrow, August 9 & 10 at Jazz at Kitano, at the Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Ave (E.38th St), New York, NY.

An All Star Celebration of the music of Billy Strayhorn, featuring Roni Ben-Hur, guitar, Ray Drummond, bass, Lewis Nash, drums, and Amy London, vocals, is set for August 9 & 10 at Jazz at Kitano, at the Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Ave (E.38th St), New York, NY.

Given the insular and in-clubby world that is the New York cabaret scene (by nature, not by design), it can be a struggle for non-celebrity, out-of-town performers to generate an audience when they mount shows in Manhattan. One singer facing that dilemma is lovely, Boston-based Lynda D'Amour, a terrific talent who is popular in the Beantown area but hasn't built enough of a following in the Apple to pack a room. Her crowd was again sparse on Sunday afternoon July 28 for the opening of her new show, The Hungry Years (she'll be making the commute again on August 11 and 25, both at 4pm at Don't Tell Mama), which is a shame because D'Amour possesses a strong vocal instrument that would rank her among this area's most accomplished female singers if only she was a New Yawker.

Theatre Aspen is presenting a staged reading of the new musical Cross That River today, July 28th, at the Hurst Theatre in Aspen, Colorado. The musical is subtitled 'a new musical about the black west' with a book by Allan & Pat Harris and music and lyrics by Allan Harris (based on an original story by Allan & Pat Harris). Regge Life is the director.

To kick off its 20th Anniversary Season, Smuin Ballet will head to Montana, the home state of late founder Michael Smuin, to present a tour that includes Smuin's much-loved Sinatra ballet Fly Me to the Moon, as well as the acclaimed Dear Miss Cline from company Choreographer-in-Residence Amy Seiwert and Jazzin', a saucy and seductive work by Darrell Grand Moultrie. Smuin Ballet's Montana tour will play September 8 - 9 in Michael Smuin's hometown of Missoula at the Montana Repertory Theatre and September 13 at the Mansfield Theatre, Great Falls. Tickets are available by calling each venue's box office (see info at the end of the release). The Great Falls performance will benefit McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, with which Smuin Ballet shares a close connection.

Theatre Aspen is presenting a staged reading of the new musical Cross That River on Sunday, July 28th, at the Hurst Theatre in Aspen, Colorado. The musical is subtitled 'a new musical about the black west' with a book by Allan & Pat Harris and music and lyrics by Allan Harris (based on an original story by Allan & Pat Harris). Regge Life is the director.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein have announced the upcoming lineup- including newly added performers Jack Jones, Missi Pyle and and Ariana Savalas - at the all-new Feinstein's at the Nikko for the months of July, August, and September.

Bringing artists from all over the world, and from most every genre, the Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College - formerly known as Three Stages at Folsom Lake College - will offer literally hundreds of performances in 2013-14. Beginning in late July, 2013 and extending into spring 2014, the new season includes world-class performers like Kenny Loggins, Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, and Savion Glover; Broadway productions such as Peter and the Starcatcher, The Addams Family and Bring It On: The Musical (all of which are appearing in the capital region for the first time ever); and an unprecedented season of dance in Folsom which kicks off with Alonzo King LINES Ballet and also features Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Bellydance Superstars, Ballroom with a Twist, and return visits of the popular Moscow Festival Ballet's Swan Lake and Diavolo Dance Theatre; and many more, all on the stages at the Harris Center.

The Crazy Coqs has announced its July 2013 lineup. Full de

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein have announced the upcoming lineup- including newly added performers Jack Jones, Missi Pyle and and Ariana Savalas - at the all-new Feinstein's at the Nikko for the months of July, August, and September.

The Crazy Coqs has announced its July 2013 lineup. Full de

This fall Shoshana Bush will appear in her East Coast album release show for 'Shoshana Bush and Friends - Live at Catalina Jazz Club' at a venue TBD. In the meantime, she will host Birdland's Jazz Party on June 2nd from 6-7:15pm (doors5:00pm). Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street, NYC between 8th and 9th Avenues.

This fall Shoshana Bush will appear in her East Coast album release show for 'Shoshana Bush and Friends - Live at Catalina Jazz Club' at a venue TBD. In the meantime, she will host Birdland's Jazz Party on June 2nd from 6-7:15pm (doors5:00pm). Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street, NYC between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein are proud to announce the upcoming lineup at the all-new Feinstein's at the Nikko. Located within Hotel Nikko (222 Mason Street, San Francisco), Feinstein's at the Nikko will present a wide range of entertainers - including Nicole Henry, Faith Prince, Emily

It's taken me two weeks to write this review of Ann Hampton Callaway's recent 8-shows-in-four-days run at Dizzy's Jazz Club at Lincoln Center, where she paid musical tribute to the late, great Sarah Vaughan, and I hope you buy the reason for such procrastination. Since late September last year, I've now seen four different Callaway cabaret shows at three different venues and reviewed two of them and, well, writing about how terrific Ann is on a cabaret/nightclub stage is getting a bit difficult as well as boring. I mean, I'm running out of words in my personal thesaurus to describe Callaway's consistent excellence, not to mention how she seems to provide a periodic master class in cabaret performance. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to prove I was up to this reviewing challenge, and a show as wonderful as From Sassy to Divine: A Celebration of Sarah Vaughan deserved more kudos on what Rachel Maddow calls, 'The Internet Machine.'

Town Hall was the setting in 1968 of the legendary dual concert of America's leading cabaret performers, the great international club and recording artist Mabel Mercer and the reigning prince of cabaret Bobby Short. In a tribute to these great artists, The Mabel Mercer Foundation presented a lineup of today's leading practitioners of the intimate and enduring art of cabaret. Check out photos from the concert below!

Town Hall was the setting in 1968 of the legendary dual concert of America's leading cabaret performers, the great international club and recording artist Mabel Mercer and the reigning prince of cabaret Bobby Short. In a tribute to these great artists, The Mabel Mercer Foundation will present a lineup of today's leading practitioners of the intimate and enduring art of cabaret. KT Sullivan, Artistic Director of the Foundation, will host the evening.

Smuin Ballet ends its season with an invigorating lineup of fresh choreography, presenting the West Coast premiere of the bright ballet Petal by acclaimed choreographer Helen Pickett, set to music by Philip Glass and Thomas Montgomery Newman. In addition, Bay Area audiences will get their first look at Darrell Grand Moultrie's JAZZIN', a sultry ballet set to music by Wynton Marsalis, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Andy Razaf. The bill also includes Michael Smuin's romantic and pastoral Chants d'Auvergne. Smuin Ballet's Spring Program will play today, May 10-19 at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, May 22-26 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, May 31-June 1 at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts, and June 7-8 at Carmel's Sunset Center.

This April, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival will again present the unique concert and theatrical performance Such Sweet Thunder, a jazz suite composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn inspired by works by Shakespeare.