Vince Giordano News

Celebrate International Jazz Day with David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band & the Louis Armstrong House Museum at Birdland on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 5:30 pm. The band will include Bria Skonberg, trumpet; Adrian Cunningham, clarinet and alto sax, Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Vince Giordano, banjo and guitar; Rajiv Jayaweera, drums.

The Jazz Foundation of America will host the 23rd Annual Jazz Loft Party 'Cirque du Jazz' on Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 7:00 pm - Midnight at Hudson Studios in New York City.

The dance music of the 20's and 30's is currently being featured at the IGUANA at 240 w 54th street. Grammy -winners Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks appear there every Monday & Tuesday from 8-11 PM.

ScoBar Entertainment will present 'Boardwalk Empire's' MOLLY RYAN for two shows on Tuesday, March 11 at 8:30 & 10:30pm at the Iridium. Called 'A critic's favorite,' by the Wall Street Journal's Will Friedwald, Molly's silvery voice & lush, elegant vocal style evoke the big band singers of the 1930's & breathe new life into familiar standards.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

This March, April and May at 54 BELOW presents a lineup of the brightest talent from Broadway and beyond. Located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street. For a detailed schedule of upcoming performances at 54 Below and to purchase tickets, visit www.54Below.com.

Concert aficionados from around the country will want to mark their calendars for Music Mountain, America's oldest continuing summer chamber music festival, when it kicks off its gala 85th Anniversary Season beginning Saturday, June 7th! To commemorate the milestone, Music Mountain will continue their season past Labor Day - making the 85th Anniversary Season the longest running season since the 1930s! The summer will include returning chamber ensembles, first time guests and the ever-popular Saturday Evening Twilight Series featuring Jazz, Country, and Folk Music. Concerts are scheduled through September 14.

CYNTHIA SAYER, the internationally celebrated jazz banjoist, will lead her all-star quartet in 'The Banjo Show' at Joe's Pub at the Public in a rare New York City concert appearance on Friday, March 7 at 7:00 PM. The founding member of Woody Allen's jazz band, who honed her virtuoso chops playing with many legendary artists, is on a mission to popularize the 4-string banjo, the cultured cousin of the familiar 5-string bluegrass banjo. Sayer's vocals are divine and her banjo a driving force of nature - think Django Reinhardt meets Bela Fleck - as she swings her audience through the colorful story and surprising range of what the 4-string can do, including hot jazz, tango, Great American Songbook, vaudeville, classical, roots music and more. Joe's Pub at the Public located at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. Tickets: $20. For more information: T: (212) 967-7555 or www.joespub.com or www.cynthiasayer.com.

Playing to a sold-out Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924, violinist-conductor Paul Whiteman led his dance band in a program of popular and jazz repertoire. His 'Experiment in Modern Music' culminated in the premiere of a piece commissioned for the occasion: Rhapsody in Blue, featuring its composer, George Gershwin, at the piano.

MAUDE MAGGART - the acclaimed vocalist hailed as 'singular and arresting' by the New York Times, 'wonderful' by Business Week and 'ingenious' by the Village Voice - will make her debut at the Cafe Carlyle with a special engagement from February 25 to March 1. Her new show 'The Door Opened' will feature numbers by golden-age songwriters Irving Berlin ('I Used To Be Color Blind'), Harry Warren ('Serenade In Blue') and Dorothy Fields ('Blue Again'), in addition to rarely-heard songbook gems including 'Why Am I So Romantic?' (introduced in the legendary Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers) and 'I May Be Wrong, But I Think You're Wonderful' (performed by Maude's grandmother). The evening will feature Music Director John Boswell on piano. She will preview the Carlyle run with two performances at the Gardenia in Los Angeles on February 14 and 15.

Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks with Conductor Maurice Peress present the 90th Anniversary Celebration of Rhapsody in Blue on February 12 at The Town Hall in NYC.

It may be one of the greatest combinations of classical music with jazz and pop ever created by an American-born composer, and this February 12 it will be 90 years since the immortal George Gershwin first played his 'Rhapsody in Blue' for an audience. Bandleader Vince Giordano and Conductor Maurice Peress, who share a love for American music, have joined forces to honor Paul Whiteman's historic Aeolian Hall concert on the same day and the same block where Gershwin's amazing piece was introduced nine decades ago. This concert will be on Wednesday, February 12th, at The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, NYC, at 8:00pm for a one-time-only performance. Tickets are modestly priced ranging from $25 to $40 and will be available at www.ticketmaster.com or at The Town Hall box office.

Concert aficionados from around the country will want to mark their calendars for Music Mountain, America's oldest continuing summer chamber music festival, when it kicks off its gala 85th Anniversary Season beginning Saturday, June 7th! To commemorate the milestone, Music Mountain will continue their season past Labor Day - making the 85th anniversary season the longest running season since the 1930s! The summer will include returning chamber ensembles, first time guests and the ever-popular Saturday Evening Twilight Series featuring Jazz, Country, and Folk Music. Concerts are scheduled through September 14.

59E59 Theaters will present LE JAZZ HOT: HOW THE FRENCH SAVED JAZZ, created by Peter and Will Anderson and featuring their jazz quintet. LE JAZZ HOT: HOW THE FRENCH SAVED JAZZ begins performances on Tuesday, December 3 for a limited engagement through Sunday, December 29. Press opening is Wednesday, December 11 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; & Saturday at 5:30 PM & 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Please note, there is no performance on December 25 and an additional performance on Friday, December 27 at 5:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members) for performances through December 15; $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members) for performances through December 29. To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

92Y announces casting for the 2014 season of Lyrics & Lyricists. Faith Prince, Rob McClure, Christiane Noll and Rachel York are among the performers from the worlds of Broadway, jazz and cabaret presenting a panoramic journey through the American Songbook via Broadway, Hollywood and Second Avenue. L&L's shows this season explore MGM Musicals, tunes that swept away the Great Depression, an insider's look at Rodgers & Hammerstein, iconic funny girl Fanny Brice and the glorious songs salvaged from Flop Shows. The season is curated by series artistic director Deborah Grace Winer and a line-up of guest artistic directors that includes three Tony Award winners-director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall (in her L&L debut); music director Ted Sperling; and lyricist David Zippel- musical theater historian Robert Kimball, and Rodgers & Hammerstein oracle Ted Chapin.

Since its founding in 1972, The Acting Company has remained the preeminent national touring classic repertory theater, and has been the foundation for many of New York's beloved stars' careers - including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Frances Conroy, Hamish Linklater, Jeffrey Wright, and many many more. In the 41-year history it has: presented unforgettable presentations of classic theater and Shakespeare; shaped the careers of the country brightest stars, and given back to communities across the country by bringing these high caliber performances and arts education programs to schools and towns that have never before seen a life performance.

Sofia's Downstairs Theatre and it's sister restaurant on West 46th Street--the site where the Luca Brasi murder scene was filmed for The Godfather--may now sleep with the fishes, but Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, who for the past five years and more than 500 shows have been playing at the venue and keeping alive the big band music of the jazz and swing eras of the 1920s, will be swimming upstream to a new home at the Iguana Restaurant on 54th Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenue). Giordano was forced to move when earlier this summer The Hotel Edison decided not to renew Sofia Restaurant's lease (after jacking up the rent exponentially). The Nighthawks, who played at Sofia's downstairs club every Monday and Tuesday nights from 8 to 11pm, will have the same weekly performance schedule at Iguana beginning on September 9. The cover will be $15 with a $20 food/drink minimum.

Stage and screen legend Liza Minnelli along with recent Broadway THE NANCE star Stephen DeRosa join with music stars of all varieties, as well as some truly tremendous musicians, for the second volume soundtrack for HBO's hit period-set se

Click below for a first listen to Broadway legend Liza Minnelli singing 'You've Got To See Mama Ev'ry Night (Or You Can't See Mama At All)' on the new soundtrack for BOARDWALK EMPIRE: VOLUME 2! The BOARDWALK EMPRIE: VOLUME 2 soundtrack is out September 3 and the series returns on September 8.

Living legend Liza Minnelli and Broadway regular Stephen DeRosa appear on the new soundtrack for BOARDWALK EMPIRE: VOLUME 2, out later this month, according to the new track-listing just revealed for the HBO hit as it enters its fourth season.