Celia Berk Will Release New Album NOW THAT I HAVE EVERYTHING September 1st

Gramercy Nightingale Music Co. announces the September 1st release of Now That I Have Everything, the new album from award-winning vocalist Celia Berk. Music Director/Pianist Tedd Firth revives the classic format of the Nat King Cole trio with bassists David Finck and Jay Leonhart and guitarist Matt Munisteri, along with percussionist Rex Benincasa on several tracks. Now That I Have Everything is available digitally on Apple Music (with an exclusive digital booklet), Spotify, Amazon Music and Pandora and in CD format on Amazon.

As a special event, Celia reunites with the album musicians on Tuesday, September 20th at 2 pm at the National Arts Club, for a live performance of Now That I Have Everything. The program, hosted by Will Friedwald, is open to the public, free of charge and reservations are required.

In his liner notes for Now That I Have Everything, author and journalist Will Friedwald writes:

"Celia Berk is technically a singer, but somehow the term 'singing' sounds too impersonal to describe what she does. To me, it's more like she's sharing these songs, in the most direct and intimate way. Ever intrepid, she is unafraid to travel deeper into jazz territory than I've heard her do before. The whole presentation is designed to be as intimate and personal as music can possibly be, and engineer Scott Lehrer gives the recording a warm, intimate sound in the spirit of Nat King Cole's After Midnight."

Produced by Tedd Firth and Grammy® and Tony® Award-winning sound designer Scott Lehrer, Now That I have Everything features the kinds of hidden gems by great songwriters that are Celia's trademark, including those of Sammy Cahn, Hoagy Carmichael, Ervin Drake, Hugh Martin, Carly Simon, Billy Strayhorn, James Van Heusen and Stevie Wonder. Many of the songs were featured in COMES LOVE, a 2019 show Celia created with pianist Sean Gough, who shares some album arrangement credits with Tedd Firth.

In her Song Notes at https://celiaberk.com/now-that-i-have-everything/ she writes:

"The story of this album really begins and ends with my friend Debbi Bush Whiting, daughter of Margaret Whiting and granddaughter of Richard Whiting. She had given me recordings of her mother's appearances on a radio show, including Irving Berlin's Now it Can Be Told. The premise of that song is that the real story of a great romance has yet to be written. As I listened, I asked myself, 'So what exactly can now be told?' And then I thought, 'Oh, I'm going to do an album about love!' So I set out to find songs about the ways we try - successfully and unsuccessfully - to connect our heart to someone else's. A year later, Debbi sent me an email with the subject line 'Now That I Have Everything.' It said, 'Ervin Drake... Just was listening to Mom sing this...Thought of you...It's a beautiful song...I hear you singing it.' I listened, and it was a true hidden gem by a great songwriter. And her mother's recording with Hubert 'Tex' Arnold was something more than great. I instantly knew this would be the final song - of the sets I would do with pianist Sean Gough, and most definitely of the album. Now the story could be told!"

Celia's second album, MANHATTAN SERENADE, received the 2017 LaMott Friedman Award and was arranged and conducted by Alex Rybeck and co-produced by Scott Lehrer, the team behind her debut album YOU CAN'T RUSH SPRING. Lyricist David Zippel - whose "The Broadway Song" written with Cy Coleman received its first commercial recording - wrote in the album notes, "A tribute to her hometown, this collection is anything but renditions of the obvious New York songs. MANHATTAN SERENADE is curated: a connoisseur's compilation of one exquisite, undiscovered musical gem after another." YOU CAN'T RUSH SPRING and Celia's solo cabaret debut directed by Jeff Harnar earned Celia a 2015 Bistro Award: Vocalist, 2015 MAC Award: New York Debut/Female, 2015 Broadway World Award for Best New York Cabaret Debut, and The 2015 Margaret Whiting Award. It appeared on a number of Best of 2014 lists. Since her debut, Celia has made memorable appearances at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Town Hall and Birdland.

Celia has also released four singles: "April Showers" in 2022, "Still, Still Still" in 2021, and both "Holiday Bells Medley" and "A Simple Prayer" in 2020.

Celia Berk's music is available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, and streaming platforms worldwide.

More about Celia Berk at www.celiaberk.com

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