Join us in the lobby at 7:15pm for a wine tasting and an art exhibit!
If you’ve seen Bonnie Raitt live – chances are you’ve seen Jon Cleary at the piano. Raitt often calls Cleary “the ninth wonder of the world.” He is a triple threat with a salty-sweet voice, masterful piano skills and a knack for stacking infectious grooves with melodic hooks and sharp lyrics. New Orleans funk master Jon Cleary is a 2016 Grammy award-winner, as well as off Beat Magazine’s 2016 Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year (for “Boneyard”), and Best Piano/Keyboardist. Cleary has contributed to Grammy Award-winning albums by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King and Taj Mahal. Beyond his considerable skills as a tunesmith he is equally renowned around the globe as an accomplished keyboardist and guitarist, and a deeply soulful vocalist. Cleary’s thirty-five years of intensive hands-on work on the Crescent City scene has made him a respected peer of such New Orleans R&B icons as Dr. John and Allen Toussaint. Toussaint, in fact, took time from his busy schedule to write most of the horn arrangements for GoGo Juice – thus bringing symmetry to Cleary’s recording of an entire album of Toussaint songs, entitled Occapella, which garnered rave reviews in 2012. Joining Jon on stage will be Cornell Williams on bass and A.J. Hall on drums.
Jimmy Greene is a multi-talented Jazz saxophonist, Gospel Musician, Producer and Music Professor at Western Connecticut State University, who also lives in Sandy Hook Connecticut. His Grammy Award winning album, Beautiful Life, is a celebration of the life of his 6-year-old daughter, Ana Márquez-Greene, whose life was tragically taken, along with 19 other children and 6 educators, on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Greene has risen to become one of the most respected jazz musicians of his era. Aside from his Grammy nominations, the respect that he earned for himself has led to him accumulating a great deal of prestigious recognitions and achievements that include being named First Runner-Up in the 1996 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, being named one of the “25 Young Rising Stars in Jazz” by DownBeat Magazine and being awarded the 2013 State of Connecticut Governors Arts Award in Music. As a member of Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, Greene is a featured soloist on 2 DVD releases, Harry for the Holidays, and Only You. He was featured as a soloist on Connick’s 2003 holiday special aired on NBC, in addition to NBC’s Today Show, and BBC’s Parkinson Show.