Johnny Mandel News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its upcoming performances for February 1-7, 2016, featuring the Monterey Jazz All-Stars, Linda Lavin, Barbara Carroll, and more. Scroll down for details!

MAURICE HINES TAPPIN' THRU LIFE is a swinging, song and dance musical that celebrates the astonishing showmanship of one of the last great tap dancers of a by-gone era still working today and whose collaborators were a jaw-dropping, who's who of theatre, music, film and television. Co-starring the fierce tap dancing Manzari brothers and the all female vivacious Diva Jazz Orchestra, the show is directed by Jeff Calhoun (Newsies, Deaf West's Big River, Grease). Performances began December 23rd at New World Stages (340 W. 50th Street), and opening night is tonight, January 11th.

He's going to put a smile on your face and song in your heart.

He's going to put a smile on your face and song in your heart.

It seemed appropriate that a cabaret show titled Confessions of a Native New Yorker would begin with the quintessential “call to all dreamers” song “Let The River Run” by native New Yorker Carly Simon. Wearing an elegant black and gold brocade dress--the very personification of class--Helen Glassman took the Don't Tell Mama stage by storm in performing her debut show on June 28. Glassman, a native New Yorker, chronicles her life in music to the beat of “the city that never sleeps.” Beginning by pointing out the ironic love/hate challenges of existing in the Big Apple, Glassman croons the wonderfully hip Portia Nelson classic “Confessions of a Native New Yorker,” showing us a delightfully flippant comic side that serves her well throughout the evening.

Watching Stacey Kent perform Portuguese music with her producer, writer, arranger, and saxophonist Jim Tomlinson (who also happens to be her husband), and her band has got to be the next best thing to actually being in Brazil. As she exhibited last night at Birdland for two shows, Kent gets this genre perhaps better than any other contemporary American performer. She performs with palpable sensitivity and infectious joie de viere. Translated songs or those written by Tomlinson with such collaborators as author Kazu Ishiguro and poet Antonio Ladeira are phrased with deep romanticism and offered with refreshingly unfussy brio.

The Harry Allen Quartet (Harry Allen, tenor saxophone; Bill Cunliffe, piano; Joel Forbes, bass; Kevin Kanner, drums?) performs with vocalist Hilary Gardner on Sunday, July 5 at 7:30 pm in the ballroom of the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown. The concert, part of the 17th season of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, features favorites from the Great American Songbook.

Kritzerland at Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal presents WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN: THE SONGS OF PAUL WILLIAMS on Sunday, July 5, 7PM.

59E59 Theaters will welcome Peter and Will Anderson with THE JOY OF SAX, featuring Pat Bianchi on the Hammond B-3 Organ. Produced by Reardon-Anderson Music, LLC., THE JOY OF SAX begins performances on Tuesday, April 28 for a limited engagement through Thursday, May 7. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 5 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM. Single tickets are $45 ($31.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at ?(212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Kritzerland at Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal presents 'THE BIRTHDAY BOYS: THE SONGS OF STEPHEN SONDHEIM & ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER' on Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 7:00 PM.

Celebrate this Valentine's Day weekend WITH LOVE FROM DEEDS AND DIVA - a very special three-night engagement where two-time Grammy winning legendary jazz vocalist Diane Schuur takes to the stage with New York's own magnetic tour-de-force Diva Jazz Orchestra, led by the extraordinary talented drummer Dr. Sherrie Maricle.

Celebrate this Valentine's Day weekend WITH LOVE FROM DEEDS AND DIVA - a very special three-night engagement where two-time Grammy winning legendary jazz vocalist Diane Schuur takes to the stage with New York's own magnetic tour-de-force Diva Jazz Orchestra, led by the extraordinary talented drummer Dr. Sherrie Maricle.

Based on the promotion of their new duo show, Revolution (a four-show run that ends at the Duplex tonight at 6:30), you might have gotten the impression that Dawn Derow and Kathleen France would be engaging in a zany bit of fluff poking fun at American military politics in a Bob Hope USO Show kinda way. But while there is definitely some frivolity and even some biting satire along the way, the women also convey a serious sense of patriotism and reverence for those who have fought and died in America's many wars. In fact, a portion of the audience cover charge is being donated to the Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriourproject.org).

In 1942, a teenage Sarah Vaughan won the Apollo Theater's amateur singing competition in a legendary performance that served as a launching pad for a career that transformed one of America's original art forms and elevated the craft of jazz vocal music.

As the daughter of one of show business' most prominent couples, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, Emmy Award-winning singer/actress Lucie Arnaz has forged a distinct career of her own. She has had starring roles on Broadway, television and film, and has won awards including an Emmy, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award. She brings her new show, Spring is Here, to The Carlyle for a limited five-night engagement, through April 19.

As the daughter of one of show business' most prominent couples, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, Emmy Award-winning singer/actress Lucie Arnaz has forged a distinct career of her own. She has had starring roles on Broadway, television and film, and has won awards including an Emmy, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award. She brings her new show, Spring is Here, to The Carlyle for a limited five-night engagement, tonight, April 15 through 19.

As the daughter of one of show business' most prominent couples, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, Emmy Award-winning singer/actress Lucie Arnaz has forged a distinct career of her own. She has had starring roles on Broadway, television and film, and has won awards including an Emmy, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award. She brings her new show, Spring is Here, to The Carlyle for a limited five-night engagement, April 15 through 19.

Jay is an enormous fan of Broadway and all its denizens and has done many Broadway Cast Albums, but he has also worked with every great star of our time in every category of music.

For The Society of Composers & Lyricists first SongArts event, the SCL and ASCAP will present an evening with illustrious songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman. As their songs have been enriching the Great American Songbook for more than five decades, they are recipients of three Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, the Grammy Trustees Award, and have been nominated for 16 Academy Awards.

Our 36th Kritzerland show is devoted to the brilliant songs of Meredith Willson and Gene de Paul. Producer Bruce Kimmel has recorded many songs by each and is thrilled to do an entire evening of their wonderful material. Meredith Willson, of course, gave Broadway one of its most enduring hits, THE MUSIC MAN, a musical filled with one amazing song after another, several of which we'll be doing. He also wrote the Broadway and film hit, THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN, HERE'S LOVE (based on MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET), and a musical about Christopher Columbus called 1491 that never made it to Broadway.