Michael Lomonaco

A Taste of Jazz at the Time Warner Center

Last June, a bunch of the nation's mayors got together and declared April 9, 2010 Jazz Day. April is already Jazz Appreciation Month (you knew that, right?), but the mayors designated a special day to encourage jazz related activities and programming.

Apparently, the folks at New York's Time Warner Center got the memo. On the first ever Jazz Day this Friday, the center's renowned chefs will come together to serve up a feast inspired by Bebop, swing and New Orleans jazz, and the cities that made them famous.

Called A Taste of Jazz, the evening will feature dishes from some of the hardest to get tables in town: Masa Takayama's (Masa) Jazzy Duck – marinated duck with foie gras inside of a mooshu skin, and Missy Robbins' (A Voce) Citrus Cured Sardines and Fennel, an homage to her hometown of Chicago. Michael Lomonaco (Porter House Steak) will cook up a NY strip steak and NY cheesecake, while Landmarc chef Marc Murphy explores his French roots with New Orleans-style shrimp gumbo. Thomas Keller's Bouchon bakery will contribute sourdough Parker House rolls filled with single origin chocolate custard.

That's just a taste of A Taste. There will also be slow smoked ribs with molasses bourbon BBQ sauce; 3 cheese mac & cheese, collard green quiche with lardon and micro kale, and more -- not to mention Bourbon-mint Iced Tea Bebops.

What about the jazz you ask? Leave that to the capable hands of Walter Blanding, saxophonist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who will be leading a septet in jazz standards.

Blanding will also discuss his selections and perhaps tell a jazz tale or two. He might, for example, tell the story behind "A Train," the famous composition by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, which was inspired by the directions given to Strayhorn for his first meeting with Ellington.

Here are the deets for all you cats:

Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle, 2nd floor
Friday, April 9
6:30 - 9:00 pm
Tickets are available for $85 at www.circleoftaste.com
Directions: Take a taxi to 59th Street, Columbus Circle. Or better yet, Take the A train.

Tags: a taste of jazz, bouchon, jazz, jazz day, jazz events, jazz month, lincoln center, Masa, Michael Lomonaco, music, new york city jazz, thomas keller, walter blanding

Michael Lomonaco

A Taste of Jazz at the Time Warner Center

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