(MADISON, NJ) -- When DownBeat’s Bobby Reed reviewed multi-reedist Adrian Cunningham’s 2019 Arbors Records album, Adrian Cunningham & His Friends Play Lerner & Loewe, he praised Cunningham’s “skills on saxophone, clarinet, and flute,” adding that he “seeks to bend, dissect, and reconstruct show tunes in a new way with fresh ideas and unexpected tempos.”

On Sunday, August 28, at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz Live! concert, the Adrian Cunningham Trio – with pianist Alberto Pibiri and bassist Jim Robertson – will be playing selections from the Lerner & Loewe album, which, includes such tunes as “I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady), “If Ever I Should Leave You” (Camelot), and “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” (Gigi).

Cunningham’s trio performs regularly at Shanghai Jazz in Madison and also sometimes plays at the Rum House in New York’s Edison Hotel. The trio spent much of the summer in Europe a tour that included a special performance in July at the La Caveau de la Huchette, a famous jazz club in the Latin Quarter of Paris that was briefly shown in the movie, La La Land. Among the jazz legends who performed there were Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, and Sidney Bechet. 

Professor Cunningham and His Old School, Cunningham’s other band, recently released a new album, Swinging the Spirituals, on the German label, Zyx. “It’s a gospel album in jazz,” Cunningham said, adding that, “we’ll definitely do some of those” at the August concert, which will be held at the Madison, NJ, Community Arts Center.

Cunningham relocated to New York City from his native Australia in 2008. He has appeared at such venues as the Blue Note, Smalls, and Birdland and played with such jazz artists as trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and pianist Ted Rosenthal, among many others. Gordon was on the Lerner & Loewe recording. 

The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, New Jersey. Admission to this event will be $10 for New Jersey Jazz Society members and $15 for non-members, payable at the door with cash or credit card. There will be light refreshments for purchase. Proof of vaccination is required; masks are optional. 

Funding for the NJJS Socials has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts though the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

PHOTO BY STEPHEN POPE