Jim Caruso and Matt Baker Come to the Wallace Hotel Next Week

For one night only, singer Jim Caruso and pianist/singer Matt Baker will croon the night away at the new Lounge at The Wallace Hotel on the Upper West Side in New York City.  The two performers will entertain with an evening of swinging standards on Wednesday, November 22 from 7pm – 10pm.  Reservations may be made on Resy.

The beautifully renovated Wallace Hotel (formerly known as The Milburn) is located at 242 West 76 Street in NYC.  The Lounge boasts a menu of imaginative cocktails, a variety of small plates perfect for sharing, and a selection of caviar.

Jim Caruso made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award-winning Liza’s At The Palace!, singing, dancing and celebrating the music and arrangements of Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers.  He began his nightclub career in Dallas, Texas, where he formed the vocal/comedy trio Wiseguys.  He has won seven MAC Awards and nine BroadwayWorld Awards for his nightclub and virtual performances.  He’s performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops celebrating Kander & Ebb, with Rosemary Clooney honoring Bing Crosby, and singing the songs of Hope & Crosby with Michael Feinstein.   Jim was honored to sing with Barbara Cook, Lauren Bacall and a bevy of Broadway stars at President Clinton’s First State Dinner at the White House. For nineteen years, he has hosted the weekly showbiz bash "Jim Caruso’s Cast Party” at Birdland, Jazz at Lincoln Center and across the country, and has produced over 1000 Broadway at Birdland concerts.  For eleven years he’s crooned most Sunday nights at Bemelmans Bar at the iconic Carlyle Hotel.  During the pandemic, he created and hosted “Pajama Cast Party,” a star-studded virtual variety show that ran 83 consecutive weeks.  His two solo cds, “The Swing Set” and "Caruso Live and In Person" are available online, and his latest duo cd with Billy Stritch, “The Sunday Set,” was released on the Club 44 record label.  Follow Jim on Instagram @JimCaruso1.

Australian born jazz pianist Matt Baker has called New York City home since 2010. He performs regularly as a sideman at jazz venues including Birdland and The Blue Note, tours both within the USA and internationally as a bandleader and sideman and has released 6 albums, his latest a DVD album “Live at Birdland.” In 2019 Matt premiered his new project “A Rhapsody of Gershwin” at Birdland Jazz Club New York, presenting a new spin on the music of one of America’s most celebrated composers, with an all-star lineup from the heart of New York’s jazz scene, including Endea Owens on bass, Curtis Nowosad on drums, and 2019 Grammy nominee vocalist Nicole Zuraitis. The project – Gershwin arranged like never before and fusing jazz with classical, comprises music from Porgy and Bess, “An American in Paris,” “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Concerto in F,” plus other exciting gems from the classical and popular worlds of George Gershwin!  Matt Baker’s sideman credits include touring and performing with vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway, Jennifer Holliday, Vanessa Williams, Patti LaBelle, Veronica Swift (2015 Monk competition winner), Tierney Sutton, Arianna Neikrug (2015 Sarah Vaughan competition winner), guitar icon Bucky Pizzarelli, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, and Judy Collins.  Matt Baker was an award winner himself in the 2003 Montreux International Solo Jazz Piano competition and a semi-finalist in 2004 and 2005. A student of Taylor Eigsti’s since moving to New York, Matt watched Oscar Peterson perform live an entire week at the Blue Note, from which a friendship between the two formed in the remaining years of Peterson’s life. Baker has also studied with Mulgrew Miller, Benny Green, Jacky Terrasson, and Ella Fitzgerald’s life-long accompanist Paul Smith.  Follow Matt on Instagram @MattBakerJazz.