STARRY NIGHTS Antoinette Montague with the Bill Easley Quartet LIVE JAZZ AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY'S ROSE CENTER FOR EARTH AND SPACE

    The Blue Note
131 West 3rd Street
between 6th Ave & McDougal Street
New York, NY 10012
www.bluenote.net

Price: $24.50 for music, brunch and a drink
12:30 pm and 2:30 pm
Reservations: 212-475-8592
Please book early as this event usually sells out

Friday & Saturday, May 30 & 31, 2008
Jazz Safari Party (Elegant animal print party wear optional)
at the historic Lenox Lounge Zebra Room
288 Lenox Ave • Malcolm X Boulevard • 124th & 125th St. NYC
www.lenoxlounge.net
212-427-0253 T
hree sets 8:30 pm, 10:20 pm & 11:30 pm 

The Blue Note

Since its inception in 1981, the Blue Note has become one of the premier jazz institutions in Greenwich Village. Owner and founder Danny Bensusan had a vision to create a jazz club in Greenwich Village that would treat deserving artists with respect, while allowing patrons to see the world's finest jazz musicians in a close, comfortable setting. Artists who had stopped playing in jazz clubs decades before, such as Sarah Vaughn, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Tito Puente, soon called the Blue Note home.

The Lenox Lounge

The historic Lenox Lounge has been in the Harlem community since 1939, serving as the back drop for many jazz legends such as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. The Jazz Club also known as the Zebra Room was once used by the Harlem Renaissance writes James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. It was also said to be a hangout for Malcolm X. The Lenox Lounge has been featured in magazines, music videos, photo shoots, and motion pictures. In 1999 it underwent a costly restoration process to bring it back to its original splendor. The Lenox Lounge was voted "Best of the Best" by the 2002 Zagat Survey Nightlife Guide and by the 2001 New York Magazine.

Antoinette Montague

Born and raised in Newark, Antoinette Montague may have just released her first CD but she has had many invaluable musical experiences. She worked in gospel and r&b ensembles after college, serves as the vice president of the International Women in Jazz, and considers Carrie Smith, Etta Jones, Della Griffin and Myrna Lake to be her mentors. Antoinette has worked extensively in the New York area during the past decade with such musicians as Red Holloway, Benny Powell, Bill Easley, Winard Harper, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Wess, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Mike Longo's New York State of the Arts Orchestra.

"She has a powerful voice, the ability to hold long notes without wavering, and a knack for making every song sound bluesy. Antoinette Montague's delivery is heartfelt, infectious and memorable."
— Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene

Recording and releasing Pretty Blues on the Consolidated Artists label raised her profile and has given her fame beyond the East Coast. On this highly enjoyable CD, Antoinette Montague is featured belting out blues, interpreting sensitive ballads, combining passion and sophistication, and making every song sound fresh, infectious and topical.

Bill Easley

"Whether the genre is blues, rhythm & blues, or hard bop, Bill Easley remains a versatile and often silent practician of musical mastery. . .Easley has certainly perfected his craft." — All About Jazz

A brilliant and versatile reed player, Bill Easley performs equally forcefully on alto, tenor, and baritone saxes as well as flute, piccolo, and clarinet. Easley is a renowned session player who has worked with Isaac Hayes and done sessions at Stax. He has performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Benny Carter, George Benson, Jimmy Smith, Ruth Brown, Bill Mobley, Victor Gaskin, Mulgrew Miller, Ron Carter, and Grady Tate, among others. Bill Easley has also recorded highly acclaimed sessions as a leader on the Sunnyside, Milestone, and Evidence labels. His latest release is Business Man's Bounce on the 18th & Vine Records label.

"Although he has spent much of his career in the background, uplifting other singers and musicians' sessions in addition to working in the studios, Bill Easley shows on this set that he is fully capable of being the leader." — All Music Guide

"Business Man's Bounce" is a term Easley first heard as a teenager when playing in his father's band. It refers to a two-beat feel intended to get even reluctant listeners out onto a club's dance floor. Pianist Larry Ham, based in New York since 1985, has played with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and the Illinois Jacquet Big Band. Bassist Hassan JJ Shakur, formerly known as JJ Wiggins, can swing a sick man into good health. He has worked with the Duke Ellington Orchestra since 1974, when he was seventeen. Drummer Michael Carvin is an amazingly prolific drummer who has contributed greatly to the jazz scene. He has played with B.B. King, Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, McCoy Tyner, and others, and led his own sessions for Muse and Steeplechase over the past three decades

Other things on the up-coming schedule:

May 16, 2008
Queens Jazz Orchestra
Under The Direction of Jimmy Heath
With Antoinette Montague
Flushing Town Hall
Flushing Queens, NY

For Bookings please contact:
Blues Straight Ahead 203-820-8819

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