Jazz Tribute at Dix Hills Performing Arts Center

Whether playing solo as the headliner in one of Manhattan’s famed romantic restaurants, or collaborating with his Big Band at a club, Arnie Gruber conjures nostalgia and impresses audiences with his smooth phrasings and dream-like vocals.

Arnie Gruber, leading a Five Towns College Swing Band, will celebrate spring with a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer, two classic and prolific songwriters. The show will feature a select group of talented Five Towns College rising-star vocalists, who will offer their own interpretations of some of these composers’ most popular songs, and provide some anecdotes you may not have known about the music.

Performances will feature: “I’m Old Fashioned,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Blues in the Night,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and many more. This show, produced under the direction of LaTanya Hall and Arnie Gruber, is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, taking you back to reminisce with beautiful and timeless songs.

The extraordinary vocal stars of that era ranged from Al Jolson to Duke Ellington,

Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra to Tony Bennett, Johnny Mercer and more. The national venues were the Vaudeville stage, Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood’s silver screen, and “the great white way” of the Broadway stage. The great American Songbook continues today with traditions carried-on by Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Buble’, Ann Hampton Callaway, Rod Stewart, Carly Simon and, most recently, Sir Paul McCartney.

Gruber, the Bronx-born pianist and crooner, known to frequently play violin and trumpet in his act as well, can be seen regularly at top up-scale New York venues including the Waldorf Astoria, the Pierre and the St. Regis Hotels, and was musical director and featured singer and pianist at the famous Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.

“I am inspired by these iconic songwriters and it is my hope that my audiences will be moved and inspired as well,” said Gruber. “My approach to jazz is not to play too many notes, stay close to the melody, and just have fun.” His audiences do too.

Tickets for Arnie Gruber’s tribute to the jazz greats are just $10.