It's a Big Band Birthday Bash at The Bop Stop!!

Two Cleveland jazz artists, celebrated jazz singer, Vanessa Rubin and multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger, Brad Wagner are teaming up to form the perfect A team! “The idea of celebrating our birthdays together was a no-brainer. Brad is one of the best!”, Rubin said. These two Pisces have a lot in common. Besides hailing from the same city, they also share a passion for jazz and an unwavering dedication to achieve the highest level of creative expression possible in their performances. Whether an original composition or a re-imagined standard, Rubin and Wagner meet at the apex of excellence when it comes to what they love – performing jazz and sharing the bandstand with top notch musicians. Wagner has assembled a great line up for a fun and an insatiably swinging evening of big band performance. So come join the party at The Bop Stop! It's where jazz lives, and every seat is a good one. See you there!

Tickets for tonight are $25 each. This show will not be live-streamed.

Featuring:

• Vanessa Rubin - Vocals
• Brad Wagner - Conductor, Arranger, Composer, Saxophone
• Chris Coles - Lead Alto Sax
• Nathan-Paul Davis - Alto Sax
• Johnny Cochran - Tenor Sax
• John Klayman - Tenor Sax
• Tony Spicer - Bari Sax
• Scott McKee - Lead Trumpet
• Garrett Folger - Trumpet
• John Hasselback - Trumpet
• Frank Walton - Trumpet
• Mark Mauldin - Lead Trombone
• Brett Balika - Trombone
• Chris Anderson - Trombone
• Amber Forrer - Bass Trombone
• Joe Leaman - Piano
• Aidan Plank - Bass
• Zaire Darden - Drums

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Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed with crystalline clarity, hearth-like warm, emotional depth and keen burnished wisdom she can deliver with playful lioness sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performances. From swing to bossa nova to blues, ballads and contemporary covers performed with small and large ensembles, Rubin’s interpretive ability to move through the Great American Songbook to modern jazz composers/arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Horace Silver to contemporary composers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Sting is masterful. “The Great American Songbook continues to expand with songs by outstanding composers who can paint pictures of the life of our times with their unique melodies and lyric that also stand the test of time”, Rubin asserts.

Rubin’s passion for rich musical stories is evidenced throughout her nine recordings as a leader plus numerous guest appearances. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, she is most proud of a 2011 Kevin Klein Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical called Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday in which she performed a one woman show about the life and music of the iconic jazz singer. The Dream Is You, her most recent self-produced recording and the first all vocal tribute to another native Clevelander known as “the romanticist of the bebop period”, Tadd Dameron, enthusiastically garnered a 2020 nomination at the 51st NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Jazz Album. Rubin continues to be a favorite at jazz clubs and festivals here in the US and abroad. Her work as a performing artist, writer, producer, clinician/educator at educational institutions, as well as her most recent 2021 endeavor, curator and producer of Sundown Jazz @ V’s Place, an outdoor summer performance jazz series in Cleveland, Ohio is ongoing.

vanessarubin.com

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Brad Wagner is from Akron, Ohio, and has a B.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Brad has studied with Rick VanMatre, Brad Goode, Phil DeGreg, John Von Ohlen, Marc Fields, and others. Brad Wagner has been a member of many jazz groups including: Ernie Krivda and the Fat Tuesday Big Band, Moustache Yourself, The Hendectet Jazz Collective, The ABC Trio, Pulse, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, The Black Dog Octet, The Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Sam Blakeslee’s Large Group, and can be seen playing in other jazz groups, pit orchestras, latin, and pop music groups around North East Ohio. Brad plays Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone saxophones, Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and also works as a composer and arranger.