Bob Dylan News

After a sold-out engagement last February, renowned San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalist, Paula West, returns to Feinstein's at the Nikko for a six-week engagement - February 12 - March 22, 2015. Known for her rich, powerful contralto voice, West will present an all-new show featuring an eclectic range of songs - from memorable jazz standards to contemporary American classics by Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Harry Nilsson and more! Accompanied by her four-piece band, West will take San Francisco audiences on a musical journey through the ages. Tickets for Paula West range in price from $35-$50 and are available now by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

Following her critically acclaimed show Hard Rain at 59E59 Theaters, Britain's top song stylist and international cabaret singer Barb Jungr just presented the American premiere of a special concert, originally created for London Festival of Cabaret 2013, at 54 Below.

With the official results of the voting for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards to be revealed later this week, BWW and New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks have announced this year's special “Editor's Awards” for special achievement in categories that were not subject to online voting. The winners will receive their Awards and most will perform at the 3rd Annual BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards show on February 23 (6:30 pm) at Joe's Pub. Tickets are already on sale and can be purchased here.

"Mad About the Boy?!" The rabble-rousing thespian with get down dance moves, and elastic, back-trilled voice is going to sing Noel Coward? At 54 Below? Mea Culpa. Britain's Barb Jungr performs one of the most truthful renditions of the song perhaps any Coward purist has heard. Sure, it's prefaced by a sharp comic turn on aging, but the moment Jungr begins to confess, she's proud, eager, and though gimlet-eyed, ready to risk it all. " . . . Misery and joy, misery and joy, misery and joy," she repeats weighing probabilities in one hand, then the other. A muted, wah-wah scat sustains focus in tandem with Tracy Stark's age inappropriate, sashaying piano.

When Barb Jungr takes the stage tonight for her debut at 54 Below (she also be at the club tomorrow night and Sunday night; all shows at 7pm), the acclaimed British chanteuse will have conquered another major New York nightclub venue, having in past years performed critically acclaimed shows at the Café Carlyle, Joe's Pub, the Metropolitan Room. She even knocked them dead at the 59E59 theater twice in less than a year, with her show Dancing the Dark (read my review here) in December 2013 and Hard Rain (review here) this past November. While Jungr is still performing the latter--amazing interpretations of some of the most intensely political Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs—throughout Europe and has earned enormous praise for the CD of the same name, her 54 Below show, Mad About the Boy and No Regrets, will be an amalgam of Jungr's greatest hits from past shows and CD, plus some songs she'll be doing for the first time.

In my recent very extended assessment of cabaret shows I never reviewed during the second half of 2014, there were two significant omissions. I didn't leave these out of my critical mix because they weren't strikingly significant. In fact, it was just the opposite. The new variety game show, Tune In Time, which dubs itself the “Musical Theater Olympics,” and the musical theater piece/song cycle, New World Waking, were among the most original and entertaining productions I witnessed this year and deserved more of a feature treatment than a quickie review. My take on Tune In Time (which will begin a new monthly run at the York Theatre on January 5) should beat the clock before the next show. So by simple process of elimination, this commentary will be on New World Waking, which when performed on December 6 was one of the highlights of the recent annual 12-day, 20-show Winter Rhythms Festival at Urban Stages.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

97.3 KBCO and the Boulder Theater will present an Evening with Big Head Todd & the Monsters to the Boulder Theater tonight, December 27th, 2014. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, September 19th for $45.00 for general admission tickets.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce that Joe Lauro will be hosting the LEGENDS OF ROCK & ROLL, VOLUME 6 film on Saturday, January 17 at 8 pm. The ALL NEW film will include RARE live vintage performances by THE BEATLES, ROLLING STONES, CREAM, JOHNNY WINTER, GRATEFUL DEAD, and many others! Tickets are $15 and available online at www.baystreet.org or by calling the Bay Street Theater Box Office at 631-725-9500, open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5 pm.

Singer-guitarist Wendell Ferguson is the anti-Claus. And I was reminded how much I enjoy his Yuletied parodies earlier this month at the CBC taping of this year's Royal Canadian Air Farce New Year's Eve comedy special. Remember the kid in the horror movie 'The Omen' who turns out to be the anti-Christ? Gregory Peck checked the lad's scalp and found three sixes - the sign of the beast - in a circle? Well, if you were to check Wendell's scalp, you'd find three 'Hos' in a circle instead!

This January and February 54 BELOW presents an exciting lineup of the brightest talent from Broadway and beyond. Located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54thStreet. For a detailed schedule of upcoming performances at 54 Below and to purchase tickets, visit www.54Below.com.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the lineup for the 15th edition of Film Comment magazine's essential, eclectic festival, taking place February 20 - March 5, 2015.

Warner Music Group (WMG) and Interlude, the premier interactive media company, today announced a strategic partnership.

Monty Python's tale of the fellow born in the stable next to Jesus' has gone from blasphemous to delightful family fun.

?Z2 Entertainment is proud to present Horse Feathers with Special Guests at the Fox Theatre on Wednesday, March 4th, 2015.

The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts announces the AEG Live tour of Elvis Costellocoming to the Walt Disney Theater on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 for a 7:30 p.m. performance.

The Recording Academy announced its Special Merit Awards recipients today, and this year's honorees are: the Bee Gees, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Flaco Jimenez, Louvin Brothers, and Wayne Shorter as Lifetime Achievement Award recipients

Café Carlyle will welcome back iconic R&B songstress Bettye LaVette for a two-week engagement, January 27–February 7, where she will showcase her inimitable style, gut wrenching vocals and songs from throughout her five decade career, as well as the world premiere of selections from her new album, Worthy.The album, which Cherry Red releases on January 27, features Bettye's reflective, visceral interpretations of classic tracks by Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones amongst others.

KC and The Sunshine Band dominated the 1970s, ruling the airwaves with a unique meeting of Caribbean, pop, R&B and latin styles that inspired infectious grooves and the distinctive Sunshine Sound, producing such #1 hits as "Get Down Tonight," "That's the Way (I Like It)," "Boogie Shoes," 'Shake Your Booty," and many more. Before he impacted the world, teaching them how to boogie, Harry Wayne "KC" Casey was, like the rest of America, being shaped by the music, conflicts, innocence, sex, social and political movements and counterculture of the 1960s.