Ensemble Newsletter · August 17, 2026
Argentine tango, Bill Frisell at the Vanguard, and a Songbook legend at Dizzy's
NYC picks, jazz and classical, updated weekly
Three picks for the week of August 17, from a Bed-Stuy tango set to a marquee week at the Village Vanguard and an American Songbook legend above Columbus Circle. Jazz in three moods across the week. Here is where we would be.
Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet — Bar Lunàtico
Bassist and composer Pedro Giraudo, a Latin Grammy winner, opens the week with a tango quartet that treats the form as living music rather than a museum piece. Bandoneon, violin, and piano trade the melody while Giraudo anchors it, ambassadorial about his Argentine roots without ever getting reverent. Two sets in Bed-Stuy, at a room that wants you to eat first.
Event details →Bill Frisell Four — Village Vanguard
Guitarist Bill Frisell brings a quartet to the Vanguard that stacks the deck: Gerald Clayton on piano, Johnathan Blake on drums, Greg Tardy on saxophone. Frisell's whole language is about space and patience, the notes he leaves out as much as the ones he plays, and this band knows how to hold that. The run carries through the week, but a Tuesday at the Vanguard has its own quiet gravity.
Event details →Marilyn Maye — Dizzy's Club
Marilyn Maye has been interpreting the American Songbook since the Tonight Show booked her dozens of times, and Ella Fitzgerald once named her a favorite singer. At the piano-bar altitude of Dizzy's, above Columbus Circle, she turns standards into something conversational, unhurried, and quietly commanding. A living-history set from a performer who has outlasted most of the songbook's composers.
Event details →