Sammy Miller & The Congregation: Leaving Egypt Tour - New York City Article

Sammy Miller & The Congregation: "Leaving Egypt Tour"
with special guests Shaina Taub and Hit The Lights Theatre Company
Mercury Lounge
217 E Houston St
Thursday January 30, 7PM
For information and reservations, please click here:

How much do we love this band? The name suggests a Gospel group, and indeed they have always included a number of traditional African American spirituals and folk songs in their sets. (Bear in mind, however, that their latest single is titled “Date a Jew.” So nu?) But this is a band that has gone through many phases: when I first heard them about eight years ago - back when most of these young players, including the drummer-leader Sammy Miller, were still in Juilliard - they were very much a swing and hot jazz revival band. More recently, at a series of runs in off-Broadway theaters, they became, appropriately, much more theatrical, incorporating comedic bits reminiscent of Spike Jones and his City Slickers. And now their latest music video, posted a few days ago, is redolent of 1960s “sunshine pop.” “It Gets Better” is kind of a Monkees-like skit-and-song punctuated with vivid jazz brass and reeds - the most animated of which, is as always, the charming and pugnacious trumpeter Alphonso Horne. Whatever they’re doing, this is a group you always want to catch whenever you can.