(Reprinted from the August 2022 issue of the New York City Jazz Record)
Bandleader/singer Paul Jost was the last musician to perform at 55 Bar, the beloved West Village jazz haunt that closed in May after more than 100 years of tunes, pints and applause. Those years saw the launch of many a singer’s career: Gretchen Parlato, Tessa Souter, KJ Denhart, Nicole Zuraitis, Thana Alexa and Kendra Shank all played there on the regular at one time or another. Three months on, the closure still hurts. Is there a word for mourning the loss of a place?
Melissa Stylianou, one third of the charming trio Duchess (with singers Hilary Gardner and Amy Cervini) credits 55 Bar for grounding her in the jazz community when she moved to NYC from Toronto in 2005. In the ensuing years, 55 Bar served as an incubator for several of her projects, including this year’s Dream Dancing (Anzic), the debut album of her other trio, the one she shares with guitarist Gene Bertoncini and bassist Ike Sturm. Stylianou turns out this decade of almost-all standards with inimitable warmth and precision; her take on “It Could Happen To You”, with just Sturm on bass, for instance, reveals how creatively she approaches melodic interpretation, and her vocal solo with Bertoncini on “Perdido” bubbles with rhythmic dexterity. The trio introduces the new album at Mezzrow on Aug. 7; Jost follows with his band on Aug. 28.
Arthur’s Tavern, another historic West Village jazz bar, lay fallow during the pandemic. When it reopened in June, it presented a shinier visage, with a sleek, refurbished interior and a proud awning to announce the room’s commercial revival. Sheila Jordan, one of Charlie Parker’s protégées, will play the newly renovated room with Roni Ben-Hur and Harvie S on Aug. 20—an apt homage to the club’s past. As the story goes, Parker was a regular performer at Arthur’s, and he played the last gig of his life there, a week before he passed in 1955. (Parker’s 102nd birthday would be Aug. 29.)
Smoke Jazz & Supper Club also has been under wraps since mid-March 2020. Like Arthur’s, the club’s owners took advantage of the pandemic shut-down to revamp the space; when the club unlocked its doors in July, its expanded layout boasted a new lounge, a wider stage and seating for almost twice as many patrons as before. The spectacular Mary Stallings helps to inaugurate the roomier venue Aug. 11-14.
When it comes to vocalists, Birdland spreads a wide and wonderful net. Consider this: On Aug. 29, singer/actor Julie Benko and pianist Jason Yeager release their second album together, Hand In Hand (s/p) on the Birdland stage. The gig is on a Monday night, when the August Wilson Theater, just a few blocks away from Birdland, is dark. This is important because Benko will be replacing film star Beanie Feldstein as the lead in Funny Girl for the entire month of August, turning the role over to Glee’s Lea Michele in September. Benko is an utterly charismatic performer—and seeming fearless. She moves in and out of vocal genres readily, learns new musical instruments just because and has covered multiple roles as a swing/understudy for Broadway shows. (She started in Funny Girl as Feldstein’s standby.) With Yeager, a rising star jazz pianist-composer and Berklee prof, she digs into standards, theater and originals on the release—each track reveals something different. And the album version of “People”, with its subtle Latin underpinning, is very different again from what you’ll hear at the August Wilson this month.
It’s also very different from Birdland’s other offerings. Traditional jazz singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli appears there with his trio Aug. 2-6. (For more vocalists who play guitar, or vice versa, check out George Benson at Sony Hall on Aug. 10 or Allan Harris at Jazzmobile@Grant’s Tomb on Aug. 24.) Bluesy baritone Giacomo Gates launches “You” (Savant), his buoyant new record, at the club on Aug. 11, just before he heads upstate to guest for singer Sally Terrell, who opens the Northwest Jazz Fest with pop- and funk-inflected tunes from her latest, Feel Alive (s/p) on Aug. 26. (Headliner Stacey Kent follows that evening.) Then, Miss Maybell & The Jazz Age Artistes recall all the whimsy and spontaneity of early jazz on Aug. 12-13 in the Birdland Theater; they’ll then be at Arthur’s on Aug. 21. And finally, Jordan appears as a special guest with pianist Emmet Cohen’s ensemble on Aug. 30.