Antoinette Montague :: Fall 2009 Performance Schedule

    September 23, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Antoinette Montague :: Fall 2009 Performance Schedule

Antoinette brings her smooth Jazz stylings to a trio of engagements this Fall as she celebrates the legacy of Jazz on NYC's 52nd Street, returns to The Kitano for another date and livens up the Jazz Vespers at St. Alban's Church in Queens.

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Two Sets: 1:00-2:00 pm & 3:00-4:00 pm
35th Annual American Jazz Festival

Bill Wurtzel & the Jazz Icons
featuring Antoinette Montague
Celebrating the legacy of Jazz on 52nd Street
6th Avenue and 52nd Street,
New York, NY

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Kitano Hotel
66 Park Avenue at East 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
212-885-7119 Please reserve seats early
www.kitano.com

Saturday, November 7, 2009
6:00 to 7:30 pm
Jazz Vespers
at St. Albans Congregational Church
17217 Linden Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11434-1328
718-657-8282

A review of Bill Wurzel and the Jazz Icons featuring Antoinette Montague, 9/03/09

Friends, there's nothing much better than an evening of jazz on a gorgeous midsummer's eve, especially when it's performed at a unique venue. Last night (Thursday, September 3rd) the American Folk Art Museum Branch Location at 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue at 66th Street), hosted an hour of wonderful song stylings by the incredible Antoinette Montague.

Antoinette was backed up by legendary jazz guitarist Bill Wurzel and the Jazz Icons, with Isaac ben Ayala on keyboard, and Michael Max Fleming on bass. Kicking off with a blues rendition of the old Temptation's crowd-pleaser, Get Ready (Here I Come), Antoinette led the crowd through a variety of tuneful music that never failed to allow her mastery and joy to shine through. She moved into a house-shaking version of B.B. King's Let the Good Times Roll, followed by a warmhearted take on Sister (Miss Celie's Blues). Now, the last time I heard Antoinette sing that number, it was a capella, at the funeral of a mutual dear friend. Heartbreaking was the only word to describe that performance. This time, what came through was all the love, not so much of the pain. Wonderful! And sister, I AM keepin' my eyes on you!

At one point, the endlessly creative Miss Montague began with a song we all know (it goes like this: "A, B, C, D, E, F, G.... "), and then segued gracefully into the Great Louis Armstrong's, What a Wonderful World, which appropriates the same musical notes. After the concert, Antoinette pointed out to me that Satchmo had always said that, if he could come back as anyone, it would be as Mother Goose, so the kids would always remember him. I don't think kids these days know much about Mother Goose, but I hope it'll be a long time before we forget Armstrong's musical legacy.

After that, Antoinette again stepped up, to take on the challenge of God Bless The Child, long considered among Billie Holiday's best songs. Fifty years and one month after her death, Billie's tune, one of the few that Lady Day actually wrote, too, could not have been handled in a more gracious way. Antoinette's version was as nuanced and sensitive in her own manner, as Billie's was back in 1950. Did I mention this lady's beautiful, too?

Bottom Line (that's an inside joke): This songbird is heading for the top - trust me!! So, you'd better make plans now to see and hear her while you can still get in the door. And another thing: Last night's performance was packed - the olde, the young, the in-between -- and Antoinette kept the house rockin'. Who's the fool who says jazz is dead?

-- Christopher Platt

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

Website: http://www.AntoinetteMontague.com

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