Ken Peplowski Quartet, City Rhythm Orchestra, and More to Play Birdland Next Week

Birdland Jazz Club has released jazz programming at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater running November 21 through December 4.

Artists appearing at Birdland Jazz Club include the Ken Peplowski Quartet, City Rhythm Orchestra, Paloma, Kurt Elling and Danilo Perez, Paloma and Frank Perowsky Orchestra.

Downstairs at Birdland Theater, you'll find the Troy Roberts Quartet, Loston Harris Duo feat. Gianluca Renzi, Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks, Jinjoo Yoo Quartet, Sheila Jordan Trio, Kate Baker and Peter Bernstein.

Repeat engagements include David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band, Frank Vignola's Guitar Night (but not on November 30 this week), Birdland Big Band, and Arturo O'Farrill & The Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Jazz Programming at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater November 21 through December 4

November 21 (Monday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Troy Roberts Quartet
2x Grammy-nominee Troy Roberts celebrates the release of Nations United, his 14th album as a leader and the 4th album by his band NU-JIVE. A native of Perth, Australia, Roberts came to prominence nearly fifteen years ago as a semi-finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. Since then, he has received 3 DownBeat SM Jazz Soloist Awards, 2 Grammy nominations, and toured the globe with Jeff "Tain" Watts, Joey DeFrancesco, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Christian McBride, Sammy Figueroa, Dave Douglas, Orrin Evans and Kurt Elling-among others. With NU-JIVE, Roberts creates jazz fusion worlds with deeply funky pockets, long form pieces, sensational shout-choruses and spectacular improvised explorations. The title of the new recording, "Nations United," refers to the fact that the band hails from countries such as the U.S., Australia, Venezuela, India, the U.K., France, Ireland, and Portugal-and also that the music itself touches Indian classical, West African, Venezuelan merengue, gospel, jazz, and 20th century classical. Accompanied by Tim Jago (guitar), Silvano Monasterios (keys), Eric England (electric bass), and Dave Chiverton (drums), Roberts will celebrate his new release-and you should celebrate with him!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 22 (Tuesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Loston Harris Duo feat. Gianluca Renzi
Loston Harris possesses a voice like the great big band singers and the consummate pianism of a Wynton Kelly or a Tommy Flanagan. This combination of outgoing performance and exuberant technical mastery is rare, but Harris has it in spades-and at Birdland, accompanied by the brilliant Gianluca Renzi on bass, Loston will bring his one-two punch to the stage for two swinging sets. His life in jazz has included tutelage with some of the music's greatest masters. He studied with Marsalis family patriarch, the pianist Ellis, on recommendation by the great Harry Connick Jr. after participating in the first Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C. Indeed it was Marsalis who was responsible for Harris's decision to shift from his first instrument-drums-to piano. An artist with these three perspectives-rhythm of the drums, harmony of the piano, and melody of the voice-can only wow an audience.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 22-26 (Tuesday-Saturday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (11/22-24); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (11/25-26) / Livestream event Thursday, 9:30 via Flymachine - Birdland Jazz Club
Ken Peplowski Quartet "Hidden Treasures: Ken's American Songbook"
Named by the BBC as "arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist," the masterful Ken Peplowski presents "Hidden Treasures," a celebration of oft-forgotten gems in the Great American Songbook. With a stellar band featuring Glenn Zaleski (piano), Peter Washington (bass), and Willie Jones III (drums), Peplowski vows there will be "No repeats! Every set will feature a completely different song list!" In the dexterous hands of Peplowski and his friends, such diverse and obscure material is sure to turn into masterpieces of collective swinging exploration.
$40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 22 (Tuesday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
Catch Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks at their 7-week Tuesday night residency at the Birdland Theater. Giordano, the recipient of a GRAMMY Award for his work scoring the HBO show Boardwalk Empire, is a master composer and arranger whose 11-piece band, The Nighthawks, recreate the jubilant 1920s jazz sound with amazing definition, using violins, tubas, banjos, and collector's item drum sets. The band has provided soundtracks for film and television productions including The Cotton Club, The Aviator, Finding Forrester, Revolutionary Road, Cafe Society, Boardwalk Empire, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and many more. Not to be missed!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 23 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band
Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Now in its 18th year of residency at Birdland, the weekly post-workday engagement is the city's best musical bargain! Tuba player David Ostwald leads a rotating lineup that features talents such as clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist/vocalist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ehud Asherie, drummer Marion Felder and more!
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 23 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater / Livestream Event via Flymachine
Frank Vignola's Guitar Night with special guest Bill Charlap
It's the best jazz guitar lover's show in the world. Frank Vignola's virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world's top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Les Paul, the Boston and New York Pops, and more. Every Wednesday at 8:30pm in the Birdland Theater, Frank leads "Frank Vignola's Guitar Night at Birdland." Inspired by journeyman jazz guitarist John Pisano's now famous Los Angeles Guitar Night, the Frank Vignola Trio, featuring bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Vince Cherico, will perform tunes from the standard repertoire, inviting up a rotation of special guests. This week its pianist Bill Charlap.
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 24 (Thursday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Jinjoo Yoo Quartet
A dynamic performer with a unique voice, Jinjoo Yoo is a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger hailing from Seoul, South Korea. Based in New York, she collaborates on a number of projects with peers as well as leading her own group. As a leader and sideperson, she has toured and performed internationally, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Spain, Poland, Hungary, and South Korea. Selected as a finalist in the Baku Piano Competition (2017) and as a semi-finalist in both the Virtual 7 Club Contest (2019) and the D.C. Jazz Contest (2020). For this special performance at Birdland Theater, Yoo will present her recent compositions and arrangements dedicated to her jazz heroes: Mary Lou Williams, Nat King Cole, Clarence Profit, Barry Harris, Jimmy Rowles, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 25 (Friday) 5:00 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
The Birdland Big Band
Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, the "BBB" roars into action playing a thrilling and original mix of jazz, funk, Brazilian, Latin and world music for sold-out audiences. Featured weekly guest artists drop in from television bands (David Letterman, Saturday Night Live) and pop music touring bands (Rob Thomas, Rod Stewart). Come see for yourself why Time Out New York called the BBB "A completely unique experience... there isn't another band like this anywhere," and why yelp.com proclaims, "If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it... and prepare to be blown away!"
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum

November 25-27 (Friday-Sunday) 8:30 PM (11/25); 7:00 & 9:30 PM (11/26-27) - Birdland Theater
Sheila Jordan Trio
Sheila Jordan stands as one of America's last living great jazz vocalists. After moving to New York in 1951, she befriended Charlie Parker; married Parker's pianist, Duke Jordan; studied with Lennie Tristano and Charles Mingus; and performed regularly with jazz royalty. Jordan was raised in poverty in Pennsylvania's coal-mining country, and she faced threats and violence as a white woman for working predominantly with black musicians. But her talent and love for the music allowed her to work with the top proponents of bebop and beyond. The 1970s saw Jordan venturing into innovative, adventurous musical forms with the likes of Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and Bob Moses; in subsequent decades, she put forth 15 more records as a leader. Amazingly, in 2021, after a brilliant life in music, a lost album-which is now known to be her true first venture as a leader-was unearthed and finally released. The record, Come Love, precedes what was long considered Jordan's debut, Portrait of Sheila. Now-at 94 years young-Jordan continues to appear on major stages. This November, she brings her dazzling energy to Birdland, gracing us for three nights with her trio.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 27 (Sunday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
City Rhythm Orchestra Christmas Show
Led by Pete Spina and Nick Vallerio, the City Rhythm Orchestra has performed swinging classics for the last three and a half decades. After seven tours of Italy, five albums, and performances in every major American hotel, country club and music venue along the East Coast, City Rhythm has developed a name for itself as a powerhouse ensemble that brings-true to their motto-"Great Music and Great Fun" wherever they go. Their last recording, entitled Vibrant Tones, featured the (very recently passed) Hammond B3 organ master Joey DeFrancesco and made Jazzweek's Top 50 CDs for 2005. City Rhythm does not disappoint: come get into the swing of things with their Christmas extravaganza!
$30 tables / $20 bar seating + $20 food/drink minimum

November 27 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill-leader of the "first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz" (The New York Times)-leads the GRAMMY award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world's most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank "Machito" Grillo, and Chico O'Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music's most talented composers and arrangers.
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum

November 29 (Tuesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Loston Harris Duo feat. Gianluca Renzi
Loston Harris possesses a voice like the great big band singers and the consummate pianism of a Wynton Kelly or a Tommy Flanagan. This combination of outgoing performance and exuberant technical mastery is rare, but Harris has it in spades-and at Birdland, accompanied by the brilliant Gianluca Renzi on bass, Loston will bring his one-two punch to the stage for two swinging sets. His life in jazz has included tutelage with some of the music's greatest masters. He studied with Marsalis family patriarch, the pianist Ellis, on recommendation by the great Harry Connick Jr. after participating in the first Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C. Indeed it was Marsalis who was responsible for Harris's decision to shift from his first instrument-drums-to piano. An artist with these three perspectives-rhythm of the drums, harmony of the piano, and melody of the voice-can only wow an audience.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 29 (Tuesday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
Catch Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks at their 7-week Tuesday night residency at the Birdland Theater. Giordano, the recipient of a GRAMMY Award for his work scoring the HBO show Boardwalk Empire, is a master composer and arranger whose 11-piece band, The Nighthawks, recreate the jubilant 1920s jazz sound with amazing definition, using violins, tubas, banjos, and collector's item drum sets. The band has provided soundtracks for film and television productions including The Cotton Club, The Aviator, Finding Forrester, Revolutionary Road, Cafe Society, Boardwalk Empire, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and many more. Not to be missed!
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 29 (Tuesday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Paloma
Hard to believe when hearing her powerful and moving singing, but Paloma Dineli Chesky, or as she prefers, simply Paloma, is 15 years old. Despite her youth, her vocal maturity is astonishing. Singing, playing piano and composing from a very early age, for several years she has performed her own compositions with the New York Philharmonic, has been guest artist with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has held solo concerts at leading NYC venues. On "Soul on Soul," her second album, she demonstrates the breadth of her repertoire, reaching back into the gospel, blues and soul traditions performing the songs of Robert Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, James Brown and Bob Dylan.
$30 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 30 (Wednesday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Theater
David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band
Inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and their colleagues, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band breathes life and passion into America's own great art form. Now in its 18th year of residency at Birdland, the weekly post-workday engagement is the city's best musical bargain! Tuba player David Ostwald leads a rotating lineup that features talents such as clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist/vocalist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ehud Asherie, drummer Marion Felder and more!
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 30-December 3 (Wednesday-Saturday) 7:00 & 9:30 PM (11/30-12/1); 8:30 & 10:30 PM (12/2-3) - Birdland Jazz Club
Kurt Elling and Danilo Perez
In April of 2020, Kurt Elling and Danilo Perez-each widely considered one of the foremost practitioners of their craft-released Secrets Are the Best Stories, a duo recording of impressionistic poetic explorations for voice and piano. The album received the GRAMMY award for Best Jazz Vocal Recording. Now, the duo performs for 4 nights at Birdland, playing the music from this groundbreaking recording. Elling is the winner of 3 Prix du Jazz Vocal (France), 2 German Echo Awards, 2 Dutch Edison Awards, and is a 15x GRAMMY nominee. Perez is a 3x GRAMMY winner and 6x nominee, the pianist in Wayne Shorter's famed contemporary quartet, and an innovative stylist combining his Panamanian roots with a nearly endless list of pianistic and musical influences.
$40 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

November 30 (Wednesday) 8:30 PM - Birdland Theater
Kate Baker: Tribute to Vic Juris Release Celebration
Vocalist Kate Baker is set to release an emotional new recording this October 7th. A duo album with her late husband, the guitar giant Vic Juris, who passed December 31st, 2019, Return To Shore is a tender document of their loving musical relationship. The accomplished vocalist Baker has performed across the world at the Euro-Meet Jazz Festival, Carini Jazz Festival, Pergine Spettacolo Jazz Festival, Berkshire Jazz Festival, Tarrytown Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, OSPAC Jazz Festival, the Blue Note, Birdland, Trumpets and Visiones. She has collaborated with masters Claudio Roditi, Norman Simmons, Harvie S, Houston Persons, Richie Cole, Dick Oatts, Dave Stryker, Daduka de Fonseca and many others. Catch this special celebration of her new album and tribute to the life of her husband, featuring guitarist Paul Bollenback.
$30 tables; $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

December 1-4 (Thursday-Sunday) 8:30 PM (12/1); 7:00 & 9:30 PM (12/2-4) - Birdland Theater
Peter Bernstein
A guitarist's guitarist, the inimitable Peter Bernstein has been a force on the modern jazz scene in New York (and around the world) since breaking onto the scene in 1989. His 9 albums as a leader and over 200 as a sideman-with such legends as George Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Lou Donaldson, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Jimmy Cobb, and Jim Hall-have cemented him as one of jazz's foremost practitioners, beloved for his warm, round tone and lyrically swinging melodicism. Bernstein's trio with drummer extraordinaire Bill Stewart and organ master Larry Goldings is one of contemporary jazz's iconic bands. For this four night engagement at Birdland, we see Bernstein performing solo, duo, trio, and with his quartet featuring contemporary piano icon Sullivan Fortner.
$30 tables / $20 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

December 2 (Friday) 5:00 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
The Birdland Big Band
Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, the "BBB" roars into action playing a thrilling and original mix of jazz, funk, Brazilian, Latin and world music for sold-out audiences. Featured weekly guest artists drop in from television bands (David Letterman, Saturday Night Live) and pop music touring bands (Rob Thomas, Rod Stewart). Come see for yourself why Time Out New York called the BBB "A completely unique experience... there isn't another band like this anywhere," and why yelp.com proclaims, "If you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it... and prepare to be blown away!"
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum

December 4 (Sunday) 5:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Frank Perowsky Jazz Orchestra
Frank Perowsky's storied career in music has seen him perform with luminaries Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Stan Getz, Billy Eckstine, and Woody Herman. After moving to New York from his native Iowa to attend Juilliard in the 1950s, he became a favorite call for some of the biggest names in music and later a veteran of the Broadway world. The legendary octogenarian brings his big band to Birdland for the 2nd time since the release of their recording An Afternoon in Gowanus. Frank's son, Ben Perowsky-drummer for John Scofield, Dave Douglas, Mike Stern and others-will join as a special guest.
$30 tables / $30 bar + $20 food/drink minimum

December 4 (Sunday) 8:30 & 10:30 PM - Birdland Jazz Club
Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill-leader of the "first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz" (The New York Times)-leads the GRAMMY award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), who bring together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world's most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically-acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank "Machito" Grillo, and Chico O'Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music's most talented composers and arrangers.
$30 + $20 food/drink minimum