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Isaac ben Ayala on the Upper Terrace at Bryant Park (Site)
Monday July 1, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
An event every day that begins at 12:30 pm, repeating until Friday July 5, 2024
Come on down and swing along with the best ragtime, stride, and jazz musicians in town.
Isaac ben Ayala has performed and recorded with many notable bands and greats – from Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Louis Bellson, Leon Thomas, Frank Foster, David Murray, James Spaulding, Roy Hargrove, and Wynton Marsalis, to the New York City Ballet, The Sultans of Swing, The Donald Byrd Dance Company and Joe Piscipo. He has scored numerous films and can be heard on the piano in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006), Evening (2007) with actresses Meryl Streep and Glenn Close, The Mark Twain Prize Honors – Billy Crystal (2007), Bill Cosby (2009), Carol Burnett (2013), and Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters (2008). In addition, he was the pre-show solo pianist and show pianist for the Apollo Club in Harlem’s show featuring Maurice Hines (2014 & 2015). His orchestral arrangement, commissioned by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, of Basin Street Blues (2006), was premiered at The Kennedy Center by The National Pops Orchestra with Marvin Hamlisch as Conductor and is currently being performed by orchestras around the world. Alongside David Berger’s Sultans of Swing Big Band, Isaac was featured in an extended onstage piano solo performance throughout Susan Stroman’s NYC Ballet debut of For The Love of Duke (Lincoln Center, NYC).