Duke Ellington News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for June 22 - June 28, featuring Django Reinhardt Festival, Erich Bergen Live!, a Special Pride Celebration Including Tony Yazbeck, Molly Pop, and more!

Tonight, June 12 from 7 to 10 p.m., The Jost Project will perform at Chris' Jazz Cafe and salute a legend in Philadelphia - Composer Evan Solot.

GABRIELLE STRAVELLI - the celebrated pop/jazz vocalist called an 'outstanding singer' by The Wall Street Journal and 'hotter than the equator' by The Village Voice, will preview songs from upcoming album at Cafe Noctaubulo at Pangea Restaurant (178 Second Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets) on Saturday, June 20 at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM. For reservations please call (212) 995-0900. Stravelli will be joined by Art Hirahara on piano and Pat O'Leary on bass.

Jack Kleinsinger's Highlights In Jazz, New York's longest running jazz concert series, concludes its 43rd season tonight, June 11, 2015 at 8:00 PM in the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, NY, 10007 with Jazz Past & Present, a multigenerational double bill featuring the incomparable duo of, pianist Randy Weston and tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, performing a program including selections from their critically acclaimed album The Roots of the Blues.

From festival favourites and the anticipated to the totally unexpected BRASS 2015 is set to entertain audiences in a celebration of all things brass from classical and traditional brass sounds, to hip hop, poetry, photography, apps and cartoons.

William Shakespeare's classic THE MERCHANT OF VENICE will be performed in New York today, June 10th at 3pm (Preview), 14th at 7pm (Opening), 22nd and 24th at 8pm 2015.

After completing a 15th anniversary season which featured a critically heralded performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, David Bernard, Music Director of the award-winning Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, has announced the ensemble's 2015-16 season of concerts.  Highlights include a roster of superb soloists (pianist Jeffrey Biegel, jazz pianist  Ted Rosenthal, and cellist Inbal Segev,) insightful programs spanning music from Beethoven through Bartók, and a new concert format where the audience sits among the players of the orchestra for a performance of Beethoven's  Fifth Symphony.

Seven outstanding vocalists, songwriters, and musicians born in 1915 will be honored at Weill Recital Hall tonight, June 9th, at 7:30 p.m., when The Mabel Mercer Foundation presents the annual concert, 'It Was A Very Good Year.' Cohosted by the Foundation's artistic director KT Sullivan and the distinguished critic Rex Reed, the one-night-only event celebrates the centennial birthdays of (alphabetically) Alice Faye, Billie Holiday, Bart Howard, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Billy Strayhorn, and Cy Walter.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for June 15 - June 21, featuring "Four Generations of Miles,' with Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern, Buster Williams, Sonny Fortune; Erich Bergen; Merman's Apprentice featuring Richard Kind, Klea Blackhurst and Anita Gillette; and more!

Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was “a genius who lived fast and died young, revolutionizing an art form in a few short years” (NPR). The Grammy Award-winning bebop legend is the subject of Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD, the first world premiere in almost four decades for Opera Philadelphia, recognized by Opera News as “one of the leading instigators of new work in the country.” The new chamber opera was created for American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a nominee for the 2015 International Opera Male Singer of the Year Award, by composer Daniel Schnyder, whose “thrilling classical-tinged jazz blend…constantly pushes the envelope” (Jazz Times), to a libretto by award-winning poet and playwright Bridgette Wimberly. Directed by Ron Daniels under the leadership of Music Director Corrado Rovaris, Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD premieres in Opera Philadelphia's Aurora Series for Chamber Opera, crowning the company's 40th Anniversary Season with a five-performance run in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater (June 5–14). Tickets are available from Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1018 or operaphila.org.

Singer-songwriter, neo-ragtime vocalist Dessy Di Lauro is playing The Blue Note Jazz Fest tonight, June 5 at Midnight.

Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was "a genius who lived fast and died young, revolutionizing an art form in a few short years" (NPR). The Grammy Award-winning bebop legend is the subject of Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD, the first world premiere in almost four decades for Opera Philadelphia, recognized by Opera News as "one of the leading instigators of new work in the country." The new chamber opera was created for American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a nominee for the 2015 International Opera Male Singer of the Year Award, by composer Daniel Schnyder, whose "thrilling classical-tinged jazz blend…constantly pushes the envelope" (Jazz Times), to a libretto by award-winning poet and playwright Bridgette Wimberly. Directed by Ron Daniels under the leadership of Music Director Corrado Rovaris, Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD premieres in Opera Philadelphia's Aurora Series for Chamber Opera, crowning the company's 40th Anniversary Season with a five-performance run in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater (June 5-14). Tickets are available from Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1018 or operaphila.org.

On Friday, June 12 from 7 to 10 p.m., The Jost Project will perform at Chris' Jazz Cafe and salute a legend in Philadelphia - Composer Evan Solot. As Solot ends his final semester at the University of the Arts, where he taught for nearly 50 years, The Jost Project will perform their highly respected jazz renditions of classic rock and invite special guests to the stage who were all influenced by the great Evan Solot.

Last week, Betty Buckley returned to Joe's Pub to debut her newest cabaret concert DARK BLUE-EYED BLUES. Thrilled to have been recognized as a chanteuse in recent reviews, Buckley programmed the evening to be the "musings of a chanteuse," packing the set with standards and contemporary hits. The Broadway legend performed with tangible vivacity and charm, making this intimate evening a joy to experience.

Virginia's Signature Theatre opens its' air-conditioned doors once again for the annual Sizzlin' Summer Nights Series. Two and a half weeks of live music and performances by Signature favorites, DC area stars, and some of New York's most exciting Broadway performers. The cabaret series runs July 8 through July 25, with a different performance each night.

Eric & Barbara returned last night to Metropolitan Room for six nights this month with a swinging summer cocktail of lazy days, blue skies, & exotic lands in SHOULDER SEASON and BroadwayWorld was there.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Elaine Dame in Something to Live For: The Strayhorn/Ellington Collaboration on Thursday, July 16th at 9:30 PM. Jazz vocalist Elaine Dame celebrates the collaboration of two of America's most innovative and exciting jazz icons: Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. On this, the centennial of Strayhorn's birth, Ms. Dame will commemorate and memorialize the magic of their 29 year partnership.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, in celebration of their new collaborative jazz album Cheek To Cheek, will join forces for two incredible evenings --tonight, May 30 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Friday, June 19 at Radio City Music Hall, New York.