2021 Ella Fitzgerald Award Winner Lucy Wijnands & Her Quartet featuring Special Guest Guitarist Pasquale Grasso
2021 Ella Fitzgerald Award Winner Lucy Wijnands & Her Quartet featuring Special Guest Guitarist Pasquale Grasso
At 27 years old, Lucy Wijnands has toured all over the world, completed a 16-week residency singing with the world-famous Birdland Big Band, became a regular at Manhattan’s Mezzrow and other jazz clubs, won the prestigious Ella Fitzgerald competition and earned a degree in jazz studies from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Music, graduating as an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar and President’s Award recipient. Lucy has shared the stage with Jon Faddis, Ron Carter, Joe Magnarelli, Peter Washington, Johnny O'Neal, Pasquale Grasso, Emmett Cohen, Omer Avital, Paquito D'Rivera, Houston Person, and more.
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Lucy was surrounded by all kinds of music. Her mother is an art historian and self-proclaimed “defender of the groove,” who brought the funk, soul, and rock.
Her father, Bram Wijnands, is one the few living masters of stride piano. He took Lucy to gigs even as a toddler where she learned to swing seated on his knee while his hands moved up and down the keyboard. Soon enough she was not just the cute kid, but the precocious young singer, soaking up wisdom from Kansas City’s countless resident and visiting jazz masters. While she was bonding with her dad, she was also nurturing a maturity of voice and poise that defied her age.
After graduating in 2020, Lucy stepped out of the constant motion of college life and into the absolute stillness of the pandemic. What could have been a debilitating hurdle for anyone trying to build a career as an artist became a crucible of creativity, ultimately resulting in Lucy’s first release under her own name: Something Awaits. The title is not only apropos of the intense incubation of ideas wrought by the lockdown, but it also speaks to the convergence of lifelong influences that paved the way before the destination itself was known.
Pasquale Grasso
It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult.
“Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”
Show times 7:30 & 9:30
General Admission ~ a la carte menu: $30
Dinner & Show ~ Includes 3-course dinner: $100
VIP Dinner & Show ~ Includes dinner above and upgraded stage-front seating: $120
(Beverages not included)
All-In Price at check out inclusive of taxes & fees. Server gratuity ($14) added to Dinner & Show fees.
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At 27 years old, Lucy Wijnands has toured all over the world, completed a 16-week residency singing with the world-famous Birdland Big Band, became a regular at Manhattan’s Mezzrow and other jazz clubs, won the prestigious Ella Fitzgerald competition and earned a degree in jazz studies from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Music, graduating as an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar and President’s Award recipient. Lucy has shared the stage with Jon Faddis, Ron Carter, Joe Magnarelli, Peter Washington, Johnny O'Neal, Pasquale Grasso, Emmett Cohen, Omer Avital, Paquito D'Rivera, Houston Person, and more.
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Lucy was surrounded by all kinds of music. Her mother is an art historian and self-proclaimed “defender of the groove,” who brought the funk, soul, and rock.
Her father, Bram Wijnands, is one the few living masters of stride piano. He took Lucy to gigs even as a toddler where she learned to swing seated on his knee while his hands moved up and down the keyboard. Soon enough she was not just the cute kid, but the precocious young singer, soaking up wisdom from Kansas City’s countless resident and visiting jazz masters. While she was bonding with her dad, she was also nurturing a maturity of voice and poise that defied her age.
After graduating in 2020, Lucy stepped out of the constant motion of college life and into the absolute stillness of the pandemic. What could have been a debilitating hurdle for anyone trying to build a career as an artist became a crucible of creativity, ultimately resulting in Lucy’s first release under her own name: Something Awaits. The title is not only apropos of the intense incubation of ideas wrought by the lockdown, but it also speaks to the convergence of lifelong influences that paved the way before the destination itself was known.
Pasquale Grasso