Bryce Edwards to Return to Birdland Jazz Club With THE FRIVOLITY HOUR
Bryce Edwards made his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut on opening night of the 35th annual Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention in 2024.
BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB will present the return of crooning troubadour and nouveau vaudevillian Bryce Edwards in “The Frivolity Hour” on Monday, December 15 at 7:00 PM. After several sold-out shows, the venue welcomes him back by popular demand. Edwards leads a team of extraordinary jazzmen Scott Ricketts (The Rivertown Vintage Jazz Band) on cornet, Ricky Alexander (The Early Bird Jazz Band) on clarinet and alto saxophone, and Conal Fowkes (High Society New Orleans Jazz Band) on piano. As a special guest for this performance, Edwards will welcome Brian Nalepka – a veteran of High Society New Orleans Jazz Band and The Manhattan Rhythm Kings – on tuba and upright bass. There is a $35-45 music charge. Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street in New York.
Once more, Bryce will share his original brand of hot traditional jazz and early 20th century popular music, playing all the lush serenades and delightful novelties you never knew you wanted to hear. New selections for this edition of the show include rare songs of the twenties recorded by Jazz Age legends Rudy Vallée (“Doin’ the Raccoon”), Harry Richman (“Laugh, Clown, Laugh”), and Annette Hanshaw (“(I’m A Dreamer) Aren’t We All?”).
Bryce Edwards made his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut on opening night of the 35th annual Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention in 2024, and returned this year to celebrate composer Cy Coleman. A unique vocalist that takes equal cues from the crooners and soft singers of the late 1920s and early ‘30s and from the bombastic voices of the earlier, acoustic phonograph era, he is also an instrumentalist who plays banjo, ukulele, tenor guitar, and mandolin in the modernistic jazz idiom. Edwards channels his passion into reviving some of that long lost intangible quality of the Jazz Age and igniting interest in an all too often overlooked era of music that, despite being a century old, still bubbles with humor, beauty, and often a defiant youthful energy. He brings his singular verve and sensibility to songs made famous by great artists such as Cliff Edwards, Ted Lewis, Jack Teagarden, Rudy Vallée, and Bing Crosby. Steeped in jazz age novelty, Edwards takes frivolity very seriously, and vows to entertain his audience or die trying.
As a sideman, he appears with various traditional jazz bands such as Drew Nugent and the Midnight Society, Buck and a Quarter, The Uptown Strutters, and the Rivertown Vintage Jazz Band. He is a regular guest on Susie Mosher’s “The Lineup,” has appeared with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, and is a fan favorite at Jim Caruso’s “Cast Party.” Edwards writes and records original music and lyrics for the serialized radio dramas “The Town with No Name” and “The Forgotten.” He also provides and performs original songs for Ayun Halliday’s hit variety show, “Necromancers of the Public Domain.” Bryce is a member of “The Wayfaring Strangers,” a troupe led by Greg Kotis (Urinetown’s librettist and lyricist) that performs improvised bluegrass musicals, and appears regularly at The PIT. He played a young Taylor Mac in the original New York Theatre Workshop reading of The Fre. Catch Bryce in the independent film, The Seasons, winner of the Hamilton New York International Film Festival in 2023. Bryce is also an award-winning fine artist and working freelance illustrator. He graduated summa cum laude from Baldwin Wallace University, class of 2021, with a BFA in classical acting and minor in studio art.
Earlier this fall at Birdland, Edwards and celebrated New York cornetist Mike Davis of The New Wonders played to a sold-out house in the debut of their show “Hot Combination,” honoring the iconic jazz duo Red Nichols and Cliff Edwards.
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