Marilyn Maye

On New Year’s Eve at Birdland, Marilyn Maye takes the stage with an all-star ensemble, though the accompanying musicians are not named in the available information. The billed evening centers on Maye’s command of American song and performance, bringing a singer whose work has long moved between cabaret, Broadway-minded showmanship, jazz phrasing and concert-hall appearances. It is a chance to hear her on a night closely associated with her Birdland engagements, in a focused club set rather than a large-scale symphony or big-band concert.

Maye is a Grammy Award-nominated recording artist, singer, actress, director, arranger and educator whose career includes an RCA contract, seven albums and 34 singles. Steve Allen discovered her and brought her to national television; she later made 76 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a record for a singer. Carson’s verdict was direct: “And that, young singers, is the way it’s done.” Her recording of “Too Late Now” was selected for the Smithsonian’s collection of the 110 Best American Compositions of the Twentieth Century. The New York Times has called her “an ageless dynamo,” while Stage and Cinema says she is “a theatrical dynamo” who “breathes new life into classics.”