1. T
he transformation of the old Studio
54 into a high-end music venue,
54 Below, has been a boon to
cabaret and Broadway performers
since opening last June. The el-
egant room has been called “Broadway’s
Nightclub.”
Now it’s even more than that.
In collaboration with the nation’s
greatest jazz radio station, WBGO, 54
Below is adding jazz to the mix on W.
54th St. every Tuesday, April (which
is Jazz Appreciation
Month) through May.
This Tuesday, the Ed-
die Palmieri Latin Jazz
Septet will perform.
The WBGO Jazz
Series is curated by
producer Todd Barkan,
who’s been in the jazz biz for a half cen-
tury. He launched the famed Keystone
Korner in the Bay Area in 1972, and for
eight years was the artistic director of
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. He now runs a
series at the Iridium on Wednesdays and
Sundays.
Barkan raves about the sound quality
of 54 Below. “I’ve never heard a better
room for music in my whole life,” he says.
“It’s such a good sound system that some-
times you don’t even know it’s there.”
Broadway producer Richard Frankel
(“Stomp,” “The Producers”) says that
he and his partners at 54 Below spent a
fortune on the lighting and sound quality
of the room.
“We wanted everything to be terrific,”
he says. “I think it came from our back-
ground with Broadway musicals, with an
emphasis on chasing excellence. It’s ex-
hilarating and a bit crazy.”
The venue is important not only be-
cause they spared no expense to create
an enviable space. Since Feinstein’s and
the Algonquin’s Oak Room are gone, 54
Below is one of the few clubs consistently
focusing on the cabaret-
Broadway-American
Songbook tradition.
And the 54 Below team
also had the good sense
to hire Danny Meyer’s
Union Square Hospital-
ity Group to consult on
the dining side.
“We felt that there was a need for a
club in this particular niche,” Frankel
says. “We wanted everything first-rate.
Jazz is a logical outgrowth.”
Barkan, the jazz producer, happened
to be at the club with some friends on a
night when Frankel told public relations
maven Kim Smith that he wanted to book
a jazz series. Pointing to Barkan, Smith
said: “He’s sitting right over there; he’s
your man.”
The series kicked off April 2 with
the Peter Bernstein Quintet (which in-
cluded NEA Jazz Masters Frank Wess
and Jimmy Cobb). The quintet was fol-
lowed by a jazz grande dame, the pianist
and singer Barbara Carroll, who ap-
peared April 9 with woodwind artist Ken
Peplowski.
To get the word out to the jazz world,
the series turned to WBGO, which since
1980 has been a 24/7, Newark-based
nonprofit beacon of jazz. “The hosts are
not only jazz veterans, but they are com-
mitted jazz warriors, people who live and
breathe this music,” says Barkan.
The station’s deejays also love Palm-
ieri, who Barkan says is “a pillar and icon
of world culture. His recordings provide
some of the basic vocabulary of Latin
music in the world in the last century. He
helped to define what contemporary Latin
dance music and Latin jazz are all about.”
Frankel used to see Palmieri’s La Per-
fecta ensemble when he was a teenager
setting stage lights at the Catskills Hotel.
“He had that great trombonist Barry
Rogers. For two or three summers I heard
him play every week,” Frankel says. “This
is really thrilling for me to have him at 54
Below now, almost 50 years later.”
Palmieri has not been to 54 Below yet,
but recalls the glory days of the nearby
Palladium, on the corner of 53rd St., fac-
ing the Ed Sullivan Theater. “Stars like
Marlon Brando would come,” Palmieri
says. “We’d play originals, standards, or
instrumental mambos, but no singing.”
When I mention the name of the club,
he jokes: “Instead of calling it 54 Below,
they could’ve called it Igloo.”
While keeping that big smile, he gets
serious: “All my compositions are dance-
able, so on Tuesday I guarantee that
they’re going to be dancing in their seats.”
WBGO Jazz Series at 54 Below: Eddie
Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet, Tues., 7/9 p.m.
254 W. 54th St., cellar, 1-866-468-7619,
54below.com.
gthomas@nydailynews.com
JAZZ
GREGTHOMAS
UPSCALE,
DOWNSTAIRS
54 Below adds jazz
to its musical mix
HIROMI: The Trio Project w/Anthony
Jackson and Simon Phillips
Blue Note, Tues.-Sun., 8/10:30 p.m.
131 W. Third St., at Sixth Ave., (212) 475-
8592, bluenotejazz.com.
Her stunning piano virtuosity is
matched by her bass and drum chums,
who vividly demonstrate widely rang-
ing styles.
DARCY JAMES ARGUE SECRET
SOCIETY BIG BAND
BAM Cafe, Sat., 9 p.m.
30 Lafayette Ave., at Ashland Place,
Brooklyn, (718) 636-4139, bam.org.
Argue’s intense, singular vision for the
21st century big band makes a short
foray to one of Brooklyn’s premier
music venues.
JAZZ OF NOTE
Producer Todd Barkan
From l., Peter
Bernstein, John
Webber, Jimmy
Cobb and Frank
Wess at 54
Below.
JOHNABBOTT
16 Sunday, April 14, 2013 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com
YNY