Jon Hendricks News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its lineup for September 14-20, 2015, featuring The Royal Bopsters Project, Christina Bianco, Birdland Big Band, and more!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its September 2015 schedule, featuring Cyrus Chestnut Trio, Arturo O'Farrill, The Birdland Big Band, Darius de Haas, Coltrane Revisited, The Royal Bopsters Project, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more!

With their trademark wit, virtuosity and irreverence for traditional genre demarcations, the members of the Turtle Island Quartet are the perfect candidates to put a thoroughly unique spin on the works of Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin and Thelonious Monk, drawing out surprising connections along the way. On their brand new program, Jelly, Rags & Monk, the Turtle Island Quartet reunites for the third time with the extraordinary jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, after a series of special performances for TIQ's 25th anniversary season with mandolinist Mike Marshall that featured “astonishing versatility,” according to The Washington Post.

Since returning to her native Bay Area in 2006 from a period of living and working in Europe, vocalist Laurie Antonioli has concentrated her creative energies on her American Dreams band, which backed her on last year's breakthrough Origin Records release 'Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light.' For her new Origin CD, 'Varuna,' Antonioli returns to an important chapter in her musical life by recording intimate sessions with her collaborator of more than 25 years, the esteemed pianist Richie Beirach. The CD, Antonioli's 6th as a leader, will be released September 18.

Acclaimed jazz vocalist, Jackie Ryan, will appear at Feinstein's at the Nikko tonight, August 20 at 8 p.m. for one performance only! Hailed as “a world-class talent” by the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area native will perform her “Tribute to Michel Legrand.” The team of composer Michel Legrand and lyricists Marilyn & Alan Bergman have won multiple Grammy and Academy Awards. Tickets for Jackie Ryan range in price from $25 – $40 and are on-sale now and available by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its September 2015 schedule, featuring Cyrus Chestnut Trio, Arturo O'Farrill, The Birdland Big Band, Darius de Haas, Coltrane Revisited, The Royal Bopsters Project, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more!

Returning Favorites Include Billy Stritch & Jim Caruso, Nicole Henry, Nicolas King, Aaron Weinstein & Bucky Pizzarelli, The Four Freshmen and Tommy Tune

Acclaimed jazz vocalist, Jackie Ryan, will appear at Feinstein's at the Nikko on Thursday, August 20 at 8 p.m. for one performance only! Hailed as “a world-class talent” by the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area native will perform her “Tribute to Michel Legrand.” The team of composer Michel Legrand and lyricists Marilyn & Alan Bergman have won multiple Grammy and Academy Awards. Tickets for Jackie Ryan range in price from $25 – $40 and are on-sale now and available by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

July is a packed month at The Nash, kicking off with a 4th of July bash with the Bad Cactus Brass Band. The month also marks the beginning of the Catch A Rising Star Series, comprised of Arizona musicians ages 18 to 24, who have been specially selected by The Nash,. The Series provides a platform for these emerging artists to gain prominence in the jazz community.

Danny Bacher has the performance ease of an artist who's spent twice his years on the circuit. His preternatural feel for swing delivers scrupulous control, hip, unfussy phrasing, nuanced inflection, and the kind of fluent, savory scat “wordless vocables” I haven't heard from a man in some time, certainly not one so young. His soprano saxophone and singing are so like one another in attitude and energy, Bacher epitomizes the musician whose instrument acts as solid manifestation of voice. His new CD release celebration show at the Metropolitan Room, Swing That Music (last performance of a four-show run today at 4 pm) is a jazz tribute to the three Louis: Louis Armstrong--Satchmo (1901-1971), Louis Prima--The King of Swing before Benny Goodman came along (1910-1978), and Louis Jordan--King of the Jukebox (1908-1975.) Musical numbers get along like the old friends they are, brushing shoulders, poking one another in the ribs, slapping backs. The show is well paced with next to no patter. Danny Bacher is the real deal; a musician to watch.

Now, over 40 years later, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1971 surveys the decisive decade that led up to that unauthorized exhibition at MoMA, bringing together approximately 125 of her early objects, works on paper, installations, performances, audio recordings, and films, alongside rarely seen archival materials. On view from May 17 to September 7, 2015, this is the first exhibition at MoMA dedicated exclusively to the artist's work.

Composer Jason Robert Brown has built quite a catalog of his own songs, having written the music to such Broadway shows as Parade, Honeymoon in Vegas, The Bridges of Madison County, and many more, but now he is branching out into the works of the Piano Man himself. Brown recently released his own covers of songs from Billy Joel's 'The Stranger' album- check them out below! He writes on his official website:

Accomplished jazz clarinetist and tenorman, Frank Griffith travels from England to Lancaster to perform two unique concerts tonight, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. His performance on April 17 is promised to wrap up the Ware Center's season of the Jazz in the Sky performances on a high note. The concert begins at 7:30 pm at the Ware Center located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster. On Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Frank Griffith will join the 10th Annual Single Reed Symposium and finish the evening as a guest artist in the Jazz & Java concert on campus at Gordinier Hall located at 40 S. George Street, Millersville.

While the frat boys parked their boozy asses in the bar car (aka the couch) for the long road to the NCAA's Final Four over the past few weeks, NYC's village cabaret club The Duplex offered an alternative "March Madness": Cabaret shows about being crazy. As a devotee of time on a different sort of couch, I was drawn in to three separate performances--from Michael Shea, Stacie Koby, and Amber Petty--seeking some music therapy to get me through the tail end of a long winter.

Accomplished jazz clarinetist and tenorman, Frank Griffith travels from England to Lancaster to perform two unique concerts on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. His performance on April 17 is promised to wrap up the Ware Center's season of the Jazz in the Sky performances on a high note. The concert begins at 7:30 pm at the Ware Center located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster. On Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Frank Griffith will join the 10th Annual Single Reed Symposium and finish the evening as a guest artist in the Jazz & Java concert on campus at Gordinier Hall located at 40 S. George Street, Millersville.

Following the success of the previous two festivals, the 3rd Annual New York Hot Jazz Festival -- produced by the impresario Michael 'Misha' Katsobashvili, performer Bria Skonberg, and composer/producer Patrick Soluri (of Prohibition Productions and The Salon) -- returns to The Players this year and promises some of the biggest stars of the Hot Jazz and swing scenes in a summit of uptown and downtown talent spanning three generations.

Jason Robert Brown revealed in concert on Friday night at SubCulture in New York City that he is at work on a new musical adaptation of the 1992 Tom Hanks film, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. No word yet as to when we may hear the Tony Award-winner's score or who else is on the creative team.

One remarkable vocalist honors another when Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling pays homage to Frank Sinatra in Elling Swings Sinatra this weekend, February 27 & 28 in Samueli Theater.

Guest vocalist Steve Marvin joins the Capital Jazz Orchestra in A Centennial Salute to Frank Sinatra on Friday, January 16, at 7:30pm. The first and possibly the greatest American musical superstar, Frank Sinatra was inarguably one of the most successful, multi-talented entertainers of the 20th century, singing with the most popular big bands of the 40s, pursuing a successful solo recording career, and earning Academy Awards as an actor. Backing Mr. Marvin in this centennial salute to the musical legacy of the Chairman of the Board is the acclaimed Capital Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Clayton 'Skip' Poole.

One remarkable vocalist honors another when Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling pays homage to Frank Sinatra in Elling Swings Sinatra February 27 & 28 in Samueli Theater.