The New York Voices @ Birdland - New York City Article

The New York Voices
Birdland
315 W 44th Street, (212) 581-3080
Tuesday March 26 through Saturday March 30

Combine impeccable musicianship with dandy showmanship, amazing technique, brilliant arrangements, and no shortage of charisma and chutzpah, and you've got the New York Voices, who've been honing their charts and their stage presence for 31 years now. While they do all manner of excellent originals, it's their bravura and fresh treatments of jazz and pop standards that linger longest in my little pea brain, such as a swinging "It's All Right with Me," a samba-infused "You Go to My Head," and two lesser known but eminently worthy slices of Ellingtonia (the delightfully nonsensical "Bli-Blip" and Mel Torme's inspired lyrics to "Reminiscing in Tempo"). Their tour-de-force, however, is an epic verbal adaptation of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk," which famously starts in 9/8 and shifts meters continually; the four voices ride it like a bucking bronco and it never gets away from them.

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