Greenwich Village

The light at the end of the tunnel report – We are finding it difficult to pull together jazz tours that can get to three clubs a night within 4-5-hours as we did prior to March 2020.  In March 2021 we were able to start touring again – taking guests to live jazz performances in only one club per night, which was a blessing, hearing some of the most joyous nights of music we ever witnessed.   Nowadays, we are happy to report that hearing live jazz in two clubs per night is becoming typical on certain nights of the week.  Importantly, some regularly scheduled outdoor jazz events have been produced by local heroes throughout the pre-vaccine pandemic to great effect – bringing all-star players into intimate settings with little or no fanfare.  These events helped sustain the scene through…

Since February 2018, I have been producing jazz vocalist concerts in Harlem’s clandestine little sometimes club, Gin Fizz.  It’s the perfect hideaway for an intimate night of live music but it has limited space.  The shows have been very well received and our roster of killer performers such as Brianna Thomas, Emily Braden, Lynette Washington, Jenn Jade, Boncellia Lewis, Lucy Yeghiazaryan, and Seydurah Avecmoi have made this a Sell Out weeks in advance of the shows.  Not a bad problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.   The Zinc Bar in Greenwich Village has come to the rescue, offering more space and a great vibe and sound system.  Back in the heyday of modern jazz this space was called Cinderella’s and featured Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk.   Now I am proud to keep the tradition going by offering great…

  Is Billie Holiday Street Next?   In the current climate of social and political upheaval and the potential for national soul searching, there is no better representative of America’s promise outpacing America’s flaws than Billie Holiday. I’m about to set off on a year-long Billie Holiday kick. Hopefully, the end result will be a street-naming in Lady Day’s honor. You can’t help loving Billie Holiday for her talent, courage, perseverance, individualism, good humor, and her unparalleled ability to make you feel things deeply when she sang. Let’s begin this in 1939… At 24 years of age she was cracking open the civil rights movement by delivering nightly riveting encores of Strange Fruit to packed houses at the proactively integrated Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. Where did that song come from and what was it about? The song is credited…