One of jazz’s most inventive and rhythmically daring drummers brings his trio to The Side Door

Ari Hoenig is a jazz drummer, composer, and educator known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming, emphasizing complex rhythms in direct harmony with other group members. Born in Philadelphia to a conductor and classical singer father and a violinist and pianist mother, Hoenig began studying violin and piano at age four before turning to drums at twelve, honing his skills at Philadelphia jazz clubs like Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus by age fourteen. He attended the University of North Texas, where he studied with Ed Soph and played in the celebrated One O’Clock Lab Band, before transferring to William Paterson College to be closer to New York City.

Rather than playing the traditional role of timekeeper, Hoenig elevates drumming to a central and visible part of the performance, drawing comparisons to the approaches of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, and Jack DeJohnette before him. He has performed and recorded with the Jean Michel Pilc Trio, the Kenny Werner Trio, Chris Potter Underground, the Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, and the Joshua Redman Elastic Band, among many others. He formed the Ari Hoenig Quartet in 2002 and has released fourteen albums as a leader, with his quartet winning the prestigious BMW Welt Award in Munich in 2013 for best band led by a drummer. He currently performs regularly at the legendary Smalls Jazz Club in New York City and is on faculty at NYU Steinhardt and The New School.

This is a rare opportunity to experience one of jazz’s most singular percussive voices in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Bill Charlap is one of the most gifted interpreters of the American songbook working today. Born in New York City into a deeply musical family, his father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, a Grammy nominated vocalist who toured with Benny Goodman. Charlap began playing piano at age three and went on to work with Gerry Mulligan, Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, and Ron Carter, among many others. Time magazine has written that he “approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved, no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.”

For this special Sunday afternoon engagement, Charlap steps away from the trio format to offer something entirely different, an intimate, interactive solo performance he calls Jazz in Conversation. Part performance and part illumination, Charlap will play, explore, and speak directly to the audience about the music itself, the harmonic choices, the history behind a standard, the art of interpretation, offering a rare window into the mind of one of the great living jazz pianists. This is an unforgettable opportunity to experience Charlap’s artistry up close, in a setting built for exactly this kind of intimacy.

Bill Charlap – Piano
David Wong – Bass
Dennis Mackrel – Drums

Bill Charlap was born in New York City into a deeply musical family, his father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, a Grammy nominated vocalist who toured with Benny Goodman. Charlap began playing piano at age three and never looked back. In the late 1980s he joined Gerry Mulligan’s quintet, and in 1995 secured one of the most coveted piano chairs in jazz with the Phil Woods Quintet. Since then he has performed with an extraordinary range of the music’s leading artists, including Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Houston Person, and Barbra Streisand.

Charlap is widely regarded as one of the most gifted interpreters of the American songbook working today. Time magazine has written that he “approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved, no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.” His acclaimed trio, celebrated for its telepathic interplay and deep swing, has been together for decades and has released nearly 20 albums together. In 2016, his collaboration with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. From 2004 through 2023 he served as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92NY, and he currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University.

Joining him for this special four night engagement are bassist David Wong and drummer Dennis Mackrel, two of the most respected rhythm section players in jazz. This is a rare and extraordinary opportunity to experience one of the true masters of jazz piano in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Bill Charlap – Piano
David Wong – Bass
Dennis Mackrel – Drums

Bill Charlap was born in New York City into a deeply musical family, his father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, a Grammy nominated vocalist who toured with Benny Goodman. Charlap began playing piano at age three and never looked back. In the late 1980s he joined Gerry Mulligan’s quintet, and in 1995 secured one of the most coveted piano chairs in jazz with the Phil Woods Quintet. Since then he has performed with an extraordinary range of the music’s leading artists, including Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Houston Person, and Barbra Streisand.

Charlap is widely regarded as one of the most gifted interpreters of the American songbook working today. Time magazine has written that he “approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved, no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.” His acclaimed trio, celebrated for its telepathic interplay and deep swing, has been together for decades and has released nearly 20 albums together. In 2016, his collaboration with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. From 2004 through 2023 he served as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92NY, and he currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University.

Joining him for this special four night engagement are bassist David Wong and drummer Dennis Mackrel, two of the most respected rhythm section players in jazz. This is a rare and extraordinary opportunity to experience one of the true masters of jazz piano in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Bill Charlap – Piano
David Wong – Bass
Dennis Mackrel – Drums

Bill Charlap was born in New York City into a deeply musical family, his father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, a Grammy nominated vocalist who toured with Benny Goodman. Charlap began playing piano at age three and never looked back. In the late 1980s he joined Gerry Mulligan’s quintet, and in 1995 secured one of the most coveted piano chairs in jazz with the Phil Woods Quintet. Since then he has performed with an extraordinary range of the music’s leading artists, including Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Houston Person, and Barbra Streisand.

Charlap is widely regarded as one of the most gifted interpreters of the American songbook working today. Time magazine has written that he “approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved, no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.” His acclaimed trio, celebrated for its telepathic interplay and deep swing, has been together for decades and has released nearly 20 albums together. In 2016, his collaboration with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. From 2004 through 2023 he served as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92NY, and he currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University.

Joining him for this special four night engagement are bassist David Wong and drummer Dennis Mackrel, two of the most respected rhythm section players in jazz. This is a rare and extraordinary opportunity to experience one of the true masters of jazz piano in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Martin Wind – Bass
Scott Robinson – Saxophone
Glenn Zaleski – Piano
Matt Wilson – Drums

Martin Wind was born in Flensburg, Germany in 1968 and moved to New York in 1996 to study at NYU on a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service. He earned his diploma as an orchestral musician from the Music Conservatory in Cologne under Wolfgang Guettler, former bassist of the Berlin Philharmonic, before completing his Master’s degree in Jazz Performance and Composition at NYU under Mike Richmond, Jim McNeely, and Kenny Werner. In 1995 he placed third at the International Thelonious Monk Bass Competition in Washington, D.C., and the following year his trio Dreiklang won the first Cognac Hennessy Blue Note Jazz Search in Germany, leading to a recording for Blue Note Records.

Since settling in New York, Wind has become a fixture of the city’s jazz scene, recording and performing with an extraordinary range of artists, including Pat Metheny, Toots Thielemans, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Slide Hampton, Buddy DeFranco, John Scofield, Sting, Kenny Barron, and Houston Person, along with regular appearances with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He has released more than 20 albums as a leader or co-leader, and is a longstanding member of ensembles led by pianists Bill Mays, Dena DeRose, and Ted Rosenthal, as well as drummer Matt Wilson’s various groups. He is also on faculty at NYU and Hofstra University.

Joining him for this performance is a formidable lineup, saxophonist Scott Robinson, pianist Glenn Zaleski, and longtime collaborator and drummer Matt Wilson, together forming a quartet of extraordinary depth, versatility, and swing.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Thana Alexa: Voice/Loops/FX/Percussion

Alejandra Sofia: Keys/Voice

JC Maillard: Guitar/Voice

Jacquelene Acevedo: Percussion/Voice

Thana Alexa is one of the most inventive voices in jazz today, a vocalist, composer, arranger, and producer whose music pushes the boundaries of the genre while remaining deeply rooted in the jazz tradition. Born in New York City to a Croatian family, Alexa earned her BFA in Jazz and Contemporary Music from The New School, and her use of the voice as both a lyrical and experimental instrument has drawn comparisons to some of the most creative vocalists working today. Billboard has praised her for “turning a style of scatting that’s become cliche into something entirely new, evocative, and exhilarating,” while JazzTimes writes that “her voice is enthralling, her compositions are heart warming and her arrangements are heart stopping.”

Alexa’s 2020 album ONA, meaning “she” in Croatian, earned her two Grammy nominations, including Best Jazz Vocal Album, and was inspired by the cross generational stories of the immigrant women in her family, evolving into an exploration of the experiences of contemporary women everywhere. She is an active member of her husband, five time Grammy winner Antonio Sanchez’s touring ensemble Migration, and formed the trio SONICA alongside fellow vocalist Nicole Zuraitis and bassist Julia Adamy. A former Downbeat cover artist and Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star, Alexa also serves as artistic director of the Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival in Croatia and is deeply committed to uplifting female voices in jazz through her ongoing Founding Mothers of Jazz project.

This is a rare opportunity to experience one of the most original and fearless voices in jazz today in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Eddie Henderson – Trumpet
David Weiss – Trumpet
Craig Handy – Alto Saxophone
Azar Lawrence – Tenor Saxophone
George Cables – Piano
Cecil McBee – Bass
Billy Hart – Drums

The Cookers take their name from Night of the Cookers, the famous 1965 recorded trumpet summit between Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard at Brooklyn’s Club La Marchal. Formed by trumpeter and organizer David Weiss, the group brings together some of the most storied musicians in jazz, players who came up in the 1960s and 70s working alongside the very architects of the music. Drummer Billy Hart and trumpeter Eddie Henderson were both members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi group. Bassist Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s celebrated quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. Pianist George Cables held the piano chair in bands led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon, and Art Pepper. Saxophonist Donald Harrison, a recently named NEA Jazz Master, came up performing with Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, and Herbie Hancock.

Together these musicians have contributed to well over a thousand recordings across the history of jazz, and the chemistry between them, forged over decades of shared history on bandstands around the world, is unmistakable. Critics have praised The Cookers for embodying the serious commitment it took to thrive on the New York jazz scene of decades past, and audiences consistently describe their live performances as electrifying, a rare opportunity to witness musicians who don’t simply play the music, but live inside of it. This is a true once in a lifetime chance to experience some of the last living architects of modern jazz in an intimate room.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.

Bobby Watson – Alto Saxophone
Curtis Lundy – Bass
Jordan Williams – Piano
Victor Jones – Drums

Bobby Watson sits among the pantheon of present day jazz greats. Born in Lawrence, Kansas and raised in Kansas City, Watson trained formally at the University of Miami, where his classmates included Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, and Bruce Hornsby. After graduating in 1975, he moved to New York City and became musical director of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981, contributing to 14 Jazz Messengers recordings, more than any other musician in the group’s 35 year history. He went on to work with jazz icons Max Roach, Louis Hayes, George Coleman, and Sam Rivers, along with legendary vocalists Joe Williams, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, and Carmen Lundy.

In the late 1980s, Watson launched his acclaimed acoustic quintet Horizon alongside bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, releasing a string of now classic recordings for Blue Note and Columbia. As a leader he has released nearly 30 albums and appeared on over 100 more as a sideman or co-leader, along with composing more than 100 original works, including music for the soundtrack of Robert De Niro’s directorial debut, A Bronx Tale. He is also a founding member of the celebrated 29th Street Saxophone Quartet. A devoted educator, Watson served as the first William D. and Mary Grant Distinguished Professor in Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, transforming the program into one of the finest in the country over his 20 year tenure. His many honors include induction into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, the Benny Golson Jazz Masters Award from Howard University, and selection as one of the first inductees into Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Jazz Walk of Fame, alongside Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Mary Lou Williams, and Pat Metheny.

Joining Watson is his longtime musical partner Curtis Lundy on bass, along with pianist Jordan Williams and drummer Victor Jones, an ensemble of extraordinary depth and history. This is a rare and unforgettable opportunity to hear a true jazz legend in an intimate setting.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.