Peggy Lee News

Jazz clarinetist Ken Peplowski will pay tribute to jazz legend Benny Goodman at the Bickford Theatre on Thursday, May 3.  He and his Sextet, featuring Chuck Redd on vibes, Rossano Sportiello on piano, Sean Smith on bass, Matt Witek on drums, and Hilary Gardner on vocals, remember the great clarinetist in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the famous Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert of 1938.

Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance have announced a new co-presenting partnership that will consolidate contemporary dance productions under one roof at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 2018-19 season, Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance will present 11 dance ensembles for Philadelphia audiences: Circa, Spectrum Dance Theater, Jessica Lang Dance, Caleb Teicher & Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance Heginbotham, Union Tanguera + Kate Weare Company, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, BODYTRAFFIC, and Parsons Dance. Subscriptions to the 2018-19 season dance series are on sale now at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900. Single tickets will go on sale in July.

Richard Skipper topped himself once again with a rousing afternoon of Broadway and Off-Broadway stars taking to the stage at the Laurie Beechman Theater to tell stories of how they created or personalized great roles in the musical theater.

Geoff Nuttall, Spoleto Festival USA's Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director for Chamber Music, today announced details of the Festival's 2018 Bank of America Chamber Music series, which comprises 11 programs—33 total concerts—throughout the Festival season (May 25 - June 10). A backbone of the Festival since 1977, the series presents performances twice daily at Charleston's historic Dock Street Theatre, and its diverse repertoire reflects Mr. Nuttall's eclectic tastes and passion for music within and beyond the traditional canon.

This week – Friday, April 6th, 2018 Harbinger Records is releasing CY COLEMAN A Jazzman's Broadway (Jamaica, Flower Drum Song, South Pacific) HCD 3401. Harbinger loves composer/jazz pianist Cy Coleman. In fact, they have undertaken an entire series of CDs devoted to his vast musical talents. The first Coleman CD was a companion to the first biography on Cy, You Fascinate Me So (an overview of rare songs by Coleman with as disparate a bunch of lyricists as Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, Floyd Huddleston, A.E. Hotchner, and even comic Allan Sherman). The CD got rave reviews and opened many musical theatre aficionados to the depth of his composing skills.

The veteran Broadway chorus boy Bradley Jones, who segued into a career as a psychoanalytic clinician and author, is currently in the midst of a crowd-pleasing comeback to the stage. His cabaret debut, which took off in a sold-out, one-night stand at The Metropolitan Room last year, continues for three nights this spring. 'Dr. Bradley's Fabulous Functional Narcissim: The Solo Show,' Jones's raucously funny and insightful coming of age story that rockets through the '60s of his childhood, through the '70s and '80s of his Broadway years, all the way to the present, gets started for two nights at The Laurie Beechman at the West Bank Cafe, 407 West 42nd Street, on Friday May 11, at 7pm and Saturday May 19, at 1pm. The fun continues for a third date at Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, on Friday June 15 at 8pm. Jones is supported by a quartet, The Freudians, led by Mike Pettry, the show's music director, on piano, with Alden Banta on woodwinds, Jacob Silver on bass, and Zack Eldridge on percussion.

Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera that tells the story of the final week in the life of Jesus Christ. It begins with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ends with the crucifixion. It also highlights the political and interpersonal struggles between Jesus and one of his 12 apostles, Judas Iscariot that are not present in the Bible narratives.

Acclaimed Jazz harpist-pianist-vocalist Corky Hale will present a 103rd Birthday Show honoring Billie Holiday on Sunday, April 8 at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.  Hale is one of the few people still performing who was actually a close friend of Holiday's, playing for her on the 'Stars of Jazz' TV show, and on several recordings and live appearances, and this will be her fourth annual birthday salute to the singer.

This week the 2018 MAC Award winners were revealed at the 32nd MAC Awards on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York City. Check out the full list of winners and checkout exclusive backstage photos from the event below!

Jazz fans know they can count on the Highlights In Jazz concert series to showcase the gifted players who shaped jazz history and continue to contribute to its long and rich legacy. This third concert of the 46th season is no exception: The music is sure to dazzle - and swing - when you have such renowned musicians on hand as pianist Dick Hyman, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, bassist Jay Leonhart, saxophonist/clarinetist Ken Peplowski, and drummer/vibraphonist Chuck Redd.

Here are the 2018 MAC Award winners, revealed at the 32nd MAC Awards on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York City.

Here are the 2018 MAC Award winners, revealed at the 32nd MAC Awards on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York City.

Spider returns to New York in a rare appearance with a brand new show. In it's New York Debut, Saloffs' 'The Cool Heat of Peggy Lee'  concert includes Lee's classic jazz hits as well her pop music classics. Saloff presents all of this with her unique comic wit and a contemporary twist that will appeal to audiences of all ages! 

Singer TONIA TECCE, who has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Academy of Music and sung with Peter Nero and many orchestras, made her very successful New York City cabaret debut in 2013 at The Metropolitan Room.

The original producers of Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller, Broadway's longest running musical revue, announced today that the show will return to New York this summer following a limited engagement at Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse. Preview performances will begin at New York's Stage 42 (422 West 42nd Street) on July 6 and opening night is set for July 22. Tickets will go on sale on Monday, March 12 through telecharge.com and the box office will open on June 25. Casting is to be announced.

The acclaimed Broadway musical The People in The Picture is heading west! Having garnered Tony winner Donna Murphy a best actress nomination, the show will begin its run at the famed 3 Below Theater in San Jose, CA, on April 12th. The musical was also nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics awards in 2011 for outstanding book and music.

The award-winning Holt Festival looks set to celebrate its tenth anniversary in style. In its first decade the festival has rapidly established itself as one of the East of England's most anticipated events. Each July it brings musicians, poets, actors, dancers, artists and comedians to the charming North Norfolk Georgian country town as well as the crowds who flock in to see them.

On her lovely and coolly sensual new recording, 'Ármame,' vocalist Lauren Henderson delivers an eclectic set of jazz, Latin jazz, and other styles in a program reflecting her African-American and Caribbean heritage and her omnivorous musical tastes. Produced by veteran broadcaster and Sirius/XM jazz host Mark Ruffin, the CD will be released March 30 on her new label, Brontosaurus Records.

Liberace lived a life of flamboyance, sparkle & lavish costumes. In this funny and touching tribute, he gets one more chance to glitter & shine as he tickles the ivories through his favorite songs.

Curated by Performances a la Carte, Jazz 'n Paz is back with their spring intimate jazz series of three concerts with some of Los Angeles' finest jazz musicians. Taking place on early Sunday evenings, this season's series opens March 11 with the internationally recognized Jennifer Leitham Trio; Lolly Allen & Friends on April 8; and on May 13, a blowout birthday bash with 2 + 1 + Bacharach. Jazz 'n Paz takes place at 5:00 p.m. at Neighborhood UU Church Sanctuary in Pasadena. Series subscriptions are now on sale, offering a discount from individual concert tickets.