Sounds Of The Golden Jazz Band Era Highlight This Week’s Downtown Sounds

Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks will bring the jazz band sounds of pre-World War II to the Village Square this Friday for the next installment in the Downtown Sounds concert series. 

Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Giordano began taking to the music that would define his career at the age of five, with the discovery of his grandmother's cache of 78 rpm records.  Studying violin and various horns through elementary and middle schools, he joined the musicians union at age 14, then started playing with Dixieland banjo bands around Long Island.  After studying with top arrangers of the day, a stint with the U.S. Navy Show Band, tours of Europe and the U.S. with major jazz bands, he formed Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks in 1976. 

Since then, the band's resume reads like a who's who of performing arts venues, ranging from the Waldorf Astoria, Rainbow Room, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall to cultural institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library and the Smithsonian.  They have played at jazz festivals around the world.

Giordano's talents also have been employed in numerous movies, including Francis Ford Coppola's "The Cotton Club," Woody Allen's "Sweet And Lowdown," Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," and Scorsese's upcoming HBO's series "Boardwalk Empire."

Fixtures in the New York City jazz band scene, The Nighthawks perform every Monday evening at Sofia's Restaurant, adjacent to the Hotel Edison in Times Square.

The free Downtown Sounds concerts are held every Friday, and select Saturdays, between Glen and Bridge Streets at 7:30 p.m. until Aug. 27.

For those who really want to get in character, this week, and try some of the steps for the most popular dances of the era between the wars, dance instructor George Maderski will give a lesson in the Peabody, Charleston, and other popular dances, starting at 7 p.m.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a lawn chair.  There is free parking in the nearby municipal garages.  Visitors can also take advantage of the $15 Music Box Special, a fixed price dinner program being offered by a number of local restaurants as part of their participation in the concert series. Choices include entrées that range from chicken wraps to chicken parmesan, shrimp tempura to monster ribs.