Carmen Intorre News

Monday night's episode of Jim Caruso's Cast Party felt like New Years Eve, if only for the jam-packed house, glittering entertainers and high energy!

'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' opened with a bang on December 21! For the fourth year in a row, Jim Caruso, Billy Stritch, Klea Blackhurst, and the band (Steve Doyle on bass and Carmen Intorre on drums) kick of Christmas week with their swinging holiday standards, and a few pieces of special material that are impossible to define! Opening night saw Broadway folk like Christine Ebersole, Colleen Zenk, Daniel Rowan and Andrea Prestonario leading the applause. Check out a look back below!

Tickets are now on sale for the fourth annual 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' celebration at Birdland Jazz Club. To celebrate the holidays, Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch will perform swinging arrangements of beloved seasonal specials like 'Christmas Waltz,' Kay Thompson's 'Holiday Season,' 'Sleigh Ride,' and 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm' among other favorites. The singers will be joined by Steve Doyle on bass and Carmen Intorre on drums.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their thrilling line-up of impressive talent for December 30-January 5, including Jenna Esposito & Jim Van Slyke, Jay Leonhart Duo, The Birdland Big Band, Mentor Monday at Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their line-up of impressive talent for the month of January 2014. Featuring: The Birdland Big Band, Lauren Kinhan, Diane Schuur, Regina Carter, Nicholas Payton & Action Affirmative, Joey DeFrancesco, Cyrille Aimee, Matt Baker, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, Birdland Jazz Party, and more!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for December 23-29. Check out the listings below!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for December 16-22, featuring Michael Feinstein, Cyndi Lauper, and more! Check out details below!

BIRDLAND RECORDS has announced the release of "A Swinging Birdland Christmas" CD. The CD was recorded live in winter 2012 during a performance of this annual holiday show at historic Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. "A Swinging Birdland Christmas," stars Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch with special guest jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein. In the tradition of beloved seasonal specials, Blackhurst, Caruso and Stritch perform swinging arrangements by Billy Stritch of Kay Thompson's classics "It's The Holiday Season," "Sleigh Ride," and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," among other favorites. The record also features Billy Stritch on piano, John Hart on guitar, Paul Gill on bass, Carmen Intorre on drums. The album is executive produced by Birdland's Gianni Valenti.

BIRDLAND RECORDS has just announced the release of 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' CD. The CD was recorded live in winter 2012 during a performance of this annual holiday show at historic Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas,' stars Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch with special guest jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein. In the tradition of beloved seasonal specials, Blackhurst, Caruso and Stritch perform swinging arrangements by Billy Stritch of Kay Thompson's classics 'It's The Holiday Season,' 'Sleigh Ride,' and 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,' among other favorites. The record also features Billy Stritch on piano, John Hart on guitar, Paul Gill on bass, Carmen Intorre on drums. The album is executive produced by Birdland's Gianni Valenti.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their zesty line-up of impressive talent for the month of December 2013. Featuring: Michael Feinstein, Stacey Kent, Jazz Stories with Eddie Gomez, Kenny Barron, Al Foster, Wallace Roney, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Cabaret, Cheyenne Jackson, Donna McKechnie, Frank Wildhorn & Friends with Jeremy Jordan, Laura Osnes, Jane Monheit and more, A Swinging Birdland Christmas, Native Soul, Victoria Shaw, Natalie Toro, Shoshana Bush, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

The Broadway at Birdland concert series will present singer Anne Tofflemire in concert on Monday, November 18 at 7pm. Backstage Bistro Award-winning singer Anne Tofflemire returns to New York with her latest show, This Funny World, an evening of popular songs from Rodgers & Hart, Stephen Sondheim, Joni Mitchell, Irving Berlin, Charles Strouse & Lee Adams. Accompanist/music director for the evening will be Ross Patterson. Anne Tofflemire was raised in Northern California, where she starred in the long running San Francisco productions of Side by Side by Sondheim and Rap Master Ronnie. She was discovered by the Academy Award winning lyricist Sammy Cahn, with whom she toured nationally and internationally in his Sammy Cahn: Words and Music. Her other theatre credits include Peter Pan opposite Cathy Rigby, Maria in West Side Story, A Little Night Music, and understudying, as well as going on for Donna McKechnie as Mama Rose in Gypsy. Her cabaret appearances include Town Hall, Firebird Cafe, Delmonico's, and Eighty Eights in Manhattan, the Plush Room in San Francisco, the Gardenia in Los Angeles. Her CD, Let's Face the Music, was released by Harbinger Records.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its eclectic line-up of vivacious talent for November 4-10, including the Django Reinhardt NY Festival, Frank Wildhorn and Friends, Birdland Jazz Party with Cyrille Aimee, Barbara Carroll, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its sensational line-up of lively talent for November 11-17, featuring New York Voices, Nilson Matta, Loston Harris, David Raleigh, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its eclectic line-up of vivacious talent for November 4-10, including the Django Reinhardt NY Festival, Frank Wildhorn and Friends, Birdland Jazz Party with Cyrille Aimee, Barbara Carroll, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more.

Tickets are now on sale for the fourth annual 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' celebration at Birdland Jazz Club. To celebrate the holidays, Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch will perform swinging arrangements of beloved seasonal specials like 'Christmas Waltz,' Kay Thompson's 'Holiday Season,' 'Sleigh Ride,' and 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm' among other favorites. The singers will be joined by Steve Doyle on bass and Carmen Intorre on drums.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its line-up of talent for October 21-27, featuring: Lorna's Pink Party; Peter Eldridge with Jane Monheit; Kurt Elling; Barbara Carroll; Jim Caruso's Cast Party; The Birdland Jazz Party featuring Hilary Gardner, and more!

You never know who will show up at Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland! The award-winning open mic/variety show has been the place for show folk to strut their stuff for the past ten years, with no let-up in sight. Scroll down for a look at this week's star-studded concert!

Over the past ten years, Jim Caruso's Cast Party has become the ultimate spot for show folk to mix, mingle and entertain themselves and the people who love them. It helps that Birdland, it's home base, has been a world-class music room since 1949, that the sound, lights, food and staff are all top-notch, and that the entertainers that drop in are accompanied by world-class musicians. This past Monday night, the cast of "Real Housewives of New York" joined in on the Cast Party fun. Music was made, fun was had, and there was some vamping, camping and scamping, what with series regulars LuAnn de Lesseps, Mario and Ramona Singer, Heather Thompson, and Sonja Morgan in the house. Ann Hampton Callaway created a fabulous impromptu song for the cast of characters, and Monica Mancini thrilled the crowd with two of her dad Henry's biggest hits, ably accompanied by Shelly Berg on piano and Dave Koz on sax. Beloved regulars like Christine Lavin, Therese Curatolo, Gabrielle Stravelli, T. Oliver Reid, Andrew Nemr, Lodi Carr, Jon Victor Corpus and Nancy Harms performed their hearts out. Jessica Keenan Wynn, Annika, Shane Stevens, Tabitha Fair, Cole Burden and Katherine Alcorn made brilliant debuts. Happily, Billy Stritch, Steve Doyle and Carmen Intorre were the Cast Party Symphony Orchestra, dazzling and accompanying everyone. Check out a look back below!