Vaudevillian troubadour Bryce Edwards of the venue’s Frivolity Hour and New York cornetist Mike Davis of The New Wonders perform in their new show Hot Combination—honoring jazz duo Red Nichols and Cliff Edwards—on Monday, September 1 at 7:00 PM at Birdland. Edwards and Davis will be joined by an all-star band of traditional jazz specialists, including Ricky Alexander on reeds, Josh Holcomb on trombone, Felix Lemerle on guitar, Dalton Ridenhour on piano, Jay Rattman on bass saxophone and Colin Hancock on drums.
A mainstay of New York studio groups in the 1920s, Red Nichols’ cool tone, inventive cornet language and avant-garde arrangements seem to set up an alternate jazz future that never was; and though the ukulele-toting, mouth-trumpeting Cliff Edwards (who would later voice Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio) may seem like a jazz age oddity at first blush, he was one of the era’s most innovative and jazz-forward pop vocalists and an early pioneer of scat singing. In 1925, these two singular musical voices combined forces to make some of the most infectious records of the ‘20s, and now, one hundred years later, Davis and Edwards are joining forces to pay tribute and introduce the 21st century to these all-too-often forgotten figures.
There is a $35 music charge and a $20 food and beverage minimum. For reservations, please call (212) 581-3080 or visit BirdlandJazz.com.
Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) in Manhattan.
