Hot BBQ and Cool Jazz with Manuel Valera

On Tuesday, we coordinated a pre-4th BBQ dinner at Blue Smoke for Anzic Records just before pianist Manuel Valera took the stage at the Jazz Standard downstairs. It was a wonderful night! (There's Shore Fire's Matt Hanks and Manuel above). Manuel and his manager Lisa St. Cyr stopped by to say hello to our guests and Anzic record GM Oded Lev-Ari was also in the house (below).



We had great company including Steve James from Reuters, Brandon Bodow of Good Morning America and freelancer Rebecca Louie. (Below I've included a photo of Steve as well as a shot of Rebecca Louie with my friend Indra who was visting from Atlanta.)






The food was also fantastic and I would highly recommend eating dinner there. The table favorite was the Texas Salt and Pepper Beef Ribs. I was a little late taking the photo below as most of the ribs had been eaten and the table was so full of food we had to move the left over Brisket sliders to the rib plate! We also had chopped salad, hush puppies, salmon and much more.


We then moved downstairs to catch Manuel's 7:30pm set and eat an array of mouth-watering desserts (please, please order the chocolate cupcakes and the Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler).

Manuel blew everyone away on the piano performing songs from his new album 'Vientos.' He was also joined by a group of outstanding musicians including Joel Frahm on sax, Ernesto Simpson on drums and James Genus on bass. Joining us was Gen Stewart, VP of Wynton Marsalis Enterprises and her family. Gen is second from the right with her arm around her husband Stu (maroon cap).