Jessica Molaskey To Perform At Birdland 3/31-4/4

By: Mar. 19, 2009
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Jessica Molaskey, the Broadway musical actress, jazz singing sensation, recording artist and radio personality, will perform an exclusive week-long engagement at the legendary jazz club Birdland (315 West 44th Street in Manhattan) from March 31 to April 4. She will be joined by the John Pizzarelli Quartet featuring John Pizzarelli on guitar, Larry Fuller on piano and Martin Pizzarelli on bass, Aaron Weinstein on violin and Tony Tedesco on drums. The show will feature selections from her critically acclaimed albums that she hasn't performed live, in addition to the possibility of special surprise guests. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM. There is a $30 general admission cover charge and $40 premium seats, both with a $10 table minimum. For reservations and further information, please call (212) 581-3080 or visit
www.birdlandjazz.com.

Jessica Molaskey- the critically acclaimed actress and vocalist whose singing voice has been compared to Peggy Lee, Chris Connor, k.d. lang and even Chet Baker - released her new CD, A Kiss To Build A Dream On, on the Arbors Jazz label in 2008. Her previous CD, Sitting In Limbo - which debuted on the Billboard jazz chart in May 2007 - was heralded by the New York Times as "a profound pop-jazz album that connects traditional American pop with the present in a way that has never been done before. Her rendition of 'Summer Highland Falls' is a masterpiece."

Jessica's third solo CD Make Believe was given an "A" ranking and called "wondrous" by the Philadelphia Daily News on its first day out. Her debut CD, Pentimento, was proclaimed one of the top five entertainment records by Amazon.com for 2002. Jonathan Schwartz of National Public Radio called it "The best CD of the year." Show Business Weekly called her second solo CD, A Good Day, "the best female vocal CD of 2003".

Molaskey has sung in concert from Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall, and has had the great honor of performing at the Montreal Jazz festival. Jessica has performed regularly at Feinstein's at Loews Regency with husband John Pizzarelli, and in 2005 made her sold-out solo debut at the Oak Room in New York's Algonquin Hotel. In May 2007, Jessica and John debuted at the Café Carlyle for a month-long, sold-out engagement; they returned the following year for another two months.

She is a veteran of a dozen Broadway shows including the recent revival of Stephen Sondheim. and James Lapine's Sunday In The Park With George, which was nominated for nine 2008 Tony Awards. She has also appeared in A Man of No Importance at Lincoln Center, written by Terrance McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Parade (directed by Hal Prince), Dream, Tommy, Crazy For You, Les Miserables, City of Angels, Chess, Cats and Oklahoma!

Jessica has premiered music written by Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, and Stephen Sondheim. She has written songs for almost a dozen recordings including the critically acclaimed "Greed", part of a commission for Audra McDonald's Seven Deadly Sins at Carnegie Hall. Ms. McDonald performed Jessica's composition "Cradle and All"
- written with Ricky Ian Gordon - for the Lincoln Center Songbook Series and recorded it for Build A Bridge, her 2006 CD from Nonesuch. Other recordings include Fine and Dandy, Myths And Hymns, Parade, Songs For a New World, Weird Romance, Chess, Oklahoma!, Windflowers: The Music of Jerome Moross, Fred Hersch's CD Two Hands, Ten Voices and the recent cast album of Dream True by Tina Landau and Ricky Ian Gordon.

She co-hosts the nationally syndicated radio program, Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli, on which they have interviewed such stars as Tony Danza, Liza Minnelli and Regis Philbin.

For more information, visit www.jessicamolaskey.com.

 



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