Bryce Edwards & Mike Davis in at Birdland Theater

Vaudevillian troubadour Bryce Edwards (of Birdland’s critically acclaimed Frivolity Hour) and New York’s premiere “antimodernist” cornetist Mike Davis (of The New Wonders) are coming together to celebrate the centennial of one of jazz’s hottest overlooked duos! This one-night-only event will take place at Birdland in NYC on Monday, September 1 at 7pm.

A mainstay of New York studio groups in the 1920s, Red Nichols’ cool tone, inventive cornet language, and avant-garde arrangements seem to set up an alternate jazz future that never was; and though the ukulele-toting, mouth-trumpeting Cliff Edwards (who would later voice Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio) may seem like a jazz age oddity at first blush, he was one of the era’s most innovative and jazz-forward pop vocalists and an early pioneer of scat singing (albeit in his own inimitably bizarre way). In 1925, these two singular musical voices combined forces to make some of the most infectious records of the 20s, and now, one hundred years later, Mike Davis and Bryce Edwards are joining forces to pay tribute and introduce the 21st century to these all-too-often forgotten figures.

 Mike Davis has lovingly transcribed selections from these hot sessions and has recruited Bryce Edwards, a unique vocalist, who has dug his heels in at the same intersection of jazz and vaudeville that was Cliff Edwards’ (no relation) stock and trade, to embody the bygone performer’s signature humor, heart, and driving ukulele. Davis, meanwhile, will demonstrate his intimate knowledge of Red Nichols’ unique approach, imbuing it with a new, fresh-as-ever verve, at the helm of an all-star band of traditional jazz specialists, featuring Ricky Alexander on reeds, Josh Holcomb on trombone, Felix Lemerle on guitar, Dalton Ridenhour on piano, Jay Rattman on bass saxophone, and Colin Hancock on drums.