SAUCE: Sessions at National Sawdust
Roopa Mahadevan, Ladybug, and Robbie Lee's open jazz session
5pm–9pm
About
Tickets
SAUCE: Sessions at National Sawdust is a wide-ranging series of Happy Hour jam sessions featuring craft cocktails, drink specials, and live performances from rising folk, rock, rap, electronic, jazz, classical, Indian classical, and video game music artists. Hosted on Thursdays and Saturdays 5-9pm throughout August in the new National Sawdust Lounge, SAUCE is free and open to all.
This installment features a solo keyboard set from Brooklyn neo-soul singer Ladybug, Carnatic singer Roopa Mahadevan accompanied by flamenco guitar, jazz singer Joshua Banbury, and Robbie Lee, host of the Cleo’s jam session uptown, leading an open jazz session — bring your instrument!
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Enjoy Caribbean, African, and Asian flavors from CookUp, an homage to a traditional Guyanese dish of the same name, at all Saturday SAUCE shows.
Sponsors:
The Artists
Ladybug is a soul-filled, grooving ambient-vibe project with an emphasis on the female perspective of relationships and sexuality. Writing in the valleys of the Appalachian Mountains, the flower fields of Aspen, and the Catskill quarries and waterfalls, this project explores the relationship between love, sex, and nature. It’s Jacklyn Thomas sharing her highs and lows in love and relationships, with groovy melodies. Empowering everyone to celebrate love and connect with each other’s pain. A soulful potion for your emotions. Much Love.
Born in the desert terrain of Tucson, Arizona, Robbie Lee is a pianist, vocalist, saxophonist, and composer that brings his amicable personality to his music. Throughout the years Lee has had the opportunity to play with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Candido Camero, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond, and Brice Winston. He has played in numerous jazz festivals across the globe, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Umbria Jazz Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. He has received awards in performance and composition from DownBeat Magazine, YoungArts, the Essentially Ellington Festival and Competition, and the Next Generation Jazz Festival.
Lee has been inspired and mentored by world-class musicians such as Scott Black, Doug Tidaback, Brice Winston, Mike Kocour, Ted Rosenthal, Jeremy Manasia, and Phil Markowitz. Growing up in Tucson, Lee was exposed to a broad range of jazz, from traditional to post-bop styles. As he gathered information from this plethora of music, Lee was encouraged to develop his own voice and keep an open mind. He is commonly regarded as a first-rate pianist/vocalist who draws musical inspiration from Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and many others. While he mostly performs songs of the Great American Songbook and the jazz idiom, Lee also enjoys composing new works featuring himself and his peers. Every Friday night, Lee leads a trio that showcases these avenues of music, and hosts a jam session at Cleopatra’s Needle. The trio itself features Danish bassist Felix Moseholm and Floridian drummer Charlie Steiner. Moving forward, Lee hopes to captivate audiences through his music, spreading joy and compassion to all corners of the globe. Robbie just recently completed his bachelor’s degree in jazz piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music this past spring. This coming fall, Lee will be attending Juilliard as part of the Artist Diploma program in the Jazz Department.
