Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally by his stage name Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and pop vocalist started in the late 1930s and spanned almost three decades where he found success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts.
Melvin Howard Tormé, nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. Tormé won two Grammy Awards and was nominated a total of 14 times.
Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions.
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. "Homer" Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy Award in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Largo, also called Café Largo, Largo, darling!, or Club Largo, is a nightclub and cabaret in Los Angeles, California. Largo is known for its musical and comedy shows and for the Friday night residency of singer-songwriter Jon Brion.
Lionel Cole is an American pianist and composer. He has served as a regularly touring member of Mariah Carey's live band. Cole also partnered with Malcolm-Jamal Warner, to create the jazz and funk band Miles Long. The first album, The Many Facets of Superman, featured En Vogue's Cindy Heron and soul icon Teena Marie.
Ute Gertrud Lemper is a German singer and actress. Her roles in musicals include playing Sally Bowles in the original Paris production of Cabaret, for which she won the 1987 Molière Award for Best Newcomer, and Velma Kelly in the revival of Chicago in both London and New York, which won her the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
A piano bar consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician. Piano bars can be located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usually the pianist receives a small salary plus tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano, especially from patrons requesting a song traditionally written on a beverage napkin. Some piano bars feature a baby grand or grand piano surrounded by stools for patrons. Others have a bar surrounding the piano or keyboard.
"If I Were a Bell" is a song composed by Frank Loesser for his 1950 musical Guys and Dolls.
"Sooner or Later" is a song recorded by the American singer Madonna from her soundtrack album I'm Breathless. Written by American composer Stephen Sondheim and produced by Madonna and Bill Bottrell, the song was used in the parent film, Dick Tracy. "Sooner or Later" was composed to evoke the theatrical nature and style of the film. A 1930s-style jazz ballad with piano, drum, double bass, and horns, the track conjures up the atmosphere of a smoky nightclub. Madonna sings in her lowest register accompanied by a variable pitch.
Russ Lorenson is an American singer and actor. Though a stage actor since childhood, since the mid-2000s Lorenson has established a reputation as an interpreter of jazz standards. With a retro crooner style, Lorenson's sound and approach are an amalgam of Broadway, jazz, and pop.
Lionel Frederick Cole was an American jazz singer and pianist whose recording career spanned almost 70 years. He was the brother of musicians Nat King Cole, Eddie Cole, and Ike Cole, father of Lionel Cole, and uncle of Natalie Cole and Carole Cole.
Dominic Alldis is a jazz pianist, orchestral conductor, and arranger. He is also a business speaker and founder of Music & Management.
Beattie Casely-Hayford was a Ghanaian engineer. He was the first director of the Ghana Arts Council, a co-founder of the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, and a director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
Johnny Rodgers is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, Broadway star, and recording artist whom The New York Times described as an entertainer "[who] can't be found anywhere else" with "fused elements of Billy Joel, Peter Allen and Johnny Mercer."
Rondi Charleston is a jazz vocalist and songwriter. She is also an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning television journalist and investigative reporter for Primetime.
Frank Holder was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist. He was a member of bands led by Jiver Hutchinson, Johnny Dankworth and Joe Harriott.
Steven Richard Ross is an American cabaret singer and pianist, known for his interpretations of the Great American Songbook, particularly the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Noël Coward. He is a revivalist of popular compositions from the early-to-mid 20th century, including ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, show tunes, musical theatre and patter songs. Ross has been dubbed "the Crown Prince of Cabaret", and his personal style described as "the epitome of sophisticated 'cafe' cabaret". Regarding his interpretations of Cole Porter, fellow cabaret pianist Michael Feinstein noted that Ross has, "an ability to create a reserve or an 'arch' quality that certain of his songs require and that eludes" other performers.
Audrey Morris was an American singer and pianist who specialized in jazz ballads.
Wesla Whitfield was an American singer who recorded more than a score of albums and performed at Carnegie Hall and the White House, among other sites. She used a wheelchair for the last four decades of her life, after surviving a gunshot injury. She specialized in the American standards genre of music.
