Vito's lounge offers live jazz, blues and lounge singers almost every night of the week. Please view our calendar for a current list of performances and dates, make be sure to reserve a table for larger groups. All of our entertainment is free, and with acts like these, it is always best to arrive on the early side.
Table reservations can be made online, via email reservations@vitosseattle.com, or by phone at: 206-397-4053.
Musicians looking to perform at Vito's should contact booking@vitosseattle.com
PERFORMERS
Lushy
It’s hard to imagine a band called Lushy being anything other than fun. Keyboard/sax/flute/drums player Andy Sodt freely admits the group was created around cocktail lounge culture. He and guitarist/bassist Matt Nims met in the early ’90s when they played ska together with the Tiny Hat Orchestra. They knew vocalist Annabella Kirby from the local music scene and, in 2000, roped her into a recording project in Sodt’s basement. For two years, Lushy was a studio-only project. “We just never came out of the basement,” says Kirby. “We were making all these songs until one day I was like, ‘What are we doing? We have to play this for people!’” Marrying spacey, “cocktail-y” sounds from the ’60s and ’70s with their own offbeat attitude, the band sounds like a vinyl record you might find propped on Austin Powers’ mini bar. Even though they’ve been at it for a decade now, there’s a newness in their music that makes you feel like grabbing a drink and seeing where the night goes.
Lushy photo credit: Haley Young
Ron Weinstein Trio
You might have heard Ron Weinstein play with Combo Craig or Crack Sabbath, but this straight-up trio of piano, stand up bass, and drums is jazz reminiscent of the late 50's and early 60's New York style. It is one of the most energetic jazz gigs we have at Vito’s and you really can’t help but smile at the whole affair.
Darrius Willrich Trio
Seattle’s soul-singer-songwriter Darrius Willrich drips a sensuous interplay of soul, jazz, and inner city longings. Sure to engage all your senses, with the look, sound and feel of yesterday’s soul-today. The spirit of Stevie Wonder, D’Angelo, and Herbie Hancock, season the musical stew that is Darrius…Sweet Urban Soul.
Being a trained jazz pianist, a soulful singer, and an intelligent songwriter, with love for hip-hop, Darrius Willrich delivers feel good music drawn from a wide skill spectrum. The lyrics and message uplift and encourage you to live and love without constraint.
Darrius Willrich’s sound is sweet, melodic, harmonically rich, and infectious. Initially inspired by Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Babyface, Darrius has crafted a fun, colorful, and sexy style. He is definitely top consideration as a soundtrack for love, sex, romance and living life fully.
Michael Navedo Quartet
8 – 10pm
Michel Navedo's style fuses the jazz tradition of New Orleans and the sounds of Puerto Rico – both places of his heritage. Growing up with such a rich musical background, Michel took to the trumpet at age 9 and has matured to a distinctive, lyrical voice.
Michel Navedo has been a principal player in groups ranging in style from Jazz and Afro-Cuban to Hip Hop and Electronic. A featured soloist in big band and symphonic settings, he has shared the stage with such diverse acts as Roy Hargrove, Perry Ferrell, Chucho Valdez, Eugene Chadborn, and De La Soul. Schooled in Jazz, Afro Cuban, and classical trumpeting, his improvisations draw from Jazz and from the rich variety of world music he has both studied and performed over the years. Bringing a highly stylistic and emotive New Orleans feel to his music, the group's sound transports the listener to a time of jazz's beginnings; a collage of soul, and 40's and 50's era Jazz and Blues meant to commune with uplift the spirit of their audience. The Michel Navedo Quartet is currently working on a new full-length album scheduled for release fall of 2011.
The Wally Shoup Quartet
9 – 11pm
The Wally Shoup Quartet brings its own film noir soundtrack to Vito's the last Tuesday of each month. Torch songs, blues ballads, Beatles and classic jazz tunes are filtered through a Lynchian prism by way of Sun Ra and John Coltrane. Led by the soulful, deep-toned alto sax of Wally Shoup and the fluid virtuosity of pianist Gust Burns, the quartet is equally at home casting a sultry spell or lifting off into the sonic spaceways. Bassist John Seman and drummer Mark Ostrowski round out this exceptional group, propelling the music forward with their subtle and compelling rhythmic stylings.
Honey Castro
9 – 11pm (first wednesday of the month)
Introducing Honey Castro – a musical triple-threat starring Sari Breznau, Sara Edwards, and Erin Jorgensen. Prepare for a monthly friendly-takeover of Vito’s featuring their arrangements of soul classics, tearjerker ballads, jazz standards, punk rock covers, original music and whatever else strikes their collective fancy. Expect lovely all-female harmonies and instrumental guerilla tactics. See you there.
Sari Breznau is a local singer/choir conductor/all around artist and a long-time member of the now-departed Circus Contraption. Sara Edwards is an arts administrator and performs locally with groups like The French Project and Ivory in Iceworld. Erin Jorgensen is a local musican/marimbist and leader of the The French Project.
Jerry Zimmerman
7 – 10pm (remaining dates)
Pianist, Jerry Zimmerman, has been a mainstay in Seattle for nearly 50 years. It was during his 30 plus years at Canlis, that he was named by the Seattle Weekly as “Seattle’s Best Piano Bar.” That was when he was doing what he loves to do most, including aspiring and professional singers in the mix. They covered the gamut of opera, jazz, showtunes, contempoary and classical. That, plus his seemingly effortless transitions from request to request has made him “one of the busiest working musicians in the area with an extensive following.” (Eastside Guide) This is currently the scene at Vito’s, where he plays for many multi-talented singers on Wednesdays from 8 to 11 pm.
A graduate of O’Dea High School, Seattle University, and Cornish School of Music (scholarship), Jerry has been blessed with the lifetime ability to earn a comfortable living and raise a family doing what he loves most, playing the piano. His influences include both friends and contemporaries: Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Peter Nero, Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans.
An Evening with Ivory Smith
7:30 – 10pm
Ivory Smith is a sublime singer/songwriter/musician who has been expanding her edgy horizons at the fringes of Seattle’s adventurous music scene for many years. She is currently band leader of Ivory in Ice World, among other numerous well-received projects. One could encapsulate her engaging aesthetic as pretty and soulful, yet occasionally ominous, like Mazzy Star channeling Diamanda Galas with a faint smell of Cat Power slowly drifting through the air. In other words, Ivory dishes out an intimate and crafty pop-centric strain that’s been finely honed.
Julie Cascioppo
8pm
The Italian Bombshell is back in Seattle and claiming the lounge at Vito’s as her personal playground. She drinks, flirts, tells stories, and sings all of her father's Italian favorites, interspersed with novelty numbers from Africa and classic jazz standards. The daughter of a Sicilian meat cutter and a cool blonde Norwegian beauty, Julie grew up in Seattle’s multiethnic Ballard neighborhood and was raised on her parent’s records. ” There was music playing constantly in my house. My parents played all the great singers on their stereo — Frank Sinatra, Jerry Vale, Dinah Washington, Mel Torme. It was bombarded into my psyche. I didn’t have any choice.”
The Heartfelts
9 – 11pm
Amos Miller and Hollis Wong-Wear light up the lounge with original R&B, an occasional cover and a little bit of rhyme, making for a playful, sexy and always impressive set. Ms. Wong-Wear has a voice that could stop a freight train, and her original lyrics are classics the moment you hear them.
Chris Jeffries
8 – 11pm (every first thursday of the month)
When not serving as the regular accompanist to superstar chanteuse Dina Martina or backing up other luminaries such as Sarah Rudinoff and Nick Garrison, Chris Jeffries is the composer, lyricist and playwright of a slew of original musicals, including Moon of My Delight and the award-winning Vera Wilde (Empty Space Theatre), The Fatty Arbuckle Spook House Revue and I See London, I See France (Annex Theatre). Chris was the first to win The Stranger’s Genius Award in Theatre, and is currently under commission from ACT Theatre to create a musical based on Jack Kerouac’s Maggie Cassidy.
Jovino Santos Neto
8 – 10pm
Three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Neto, a master pianist, composer and arranger, is among the top Brazilian musicians working today. Currently based in Seattle, he has throughout his career been closely affiliated with the Brazilian master Hermeto Pascoal. He was an integral part of pascoal’s group from 1977 to 1992, where he fine tuned his artistry, performing around the world and co-producing several legendary records.
Jovino’s personal style is a creative blend of energetic grooves, deep harmonies, telepathic improvisation, lyrical melodies and great ensemble playing, always inspired and informed by the colorful richness of Brazilian music. His compositions include samba, choro, balao, xote, forro, marcha and many more styles, rooted in centuries-old musical tradition and pointing towards new and adventurous harmonic languages. He currently teaches piano and composition at Cornish College of the Arts.
Casey MacGill
8 – 11pm (alternating fridays)
Casey MacGill croons classic tunes in a style encompassing blues, ballads, and boogie. His piano weaves a spell of smoke-filled joints where little dramas played out to the sounds of tinkling keys.
Casey is a native of Los Angeles, grew up with folk music, surf, 60's pop, and eventually the blues. He attended the Monterey Pop Festival, saw icons Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, blues artists Paul Butterfield, Junior Wells, Albert King, and the blues became the cornerstone of his musical style. He majored in music at Pasadena City College and Cal State LA, studying with jazz greats Gary Foster, Warne Marsh, and Buddy Collette.
MacGill performed on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Gong Show, and the movie Frances with his trio Mood Indigo. Casey was featured in the Broadway musical Swing, opening the show and writing five songs.
Casey currently plays in the group the Blue 4 Trio, on ukulele and cornet, in addition to piano, and occasionally Roy Kay's Red Hot Rhythm Club. He particularly enjoys his solo turn at Vito's for the chance to help create the ambience of a vintage cocktail lounge with his music.
An Evening with Ruby Bishop
6 – 9pm
Spend an evening with Ruby as she performs classic ragtime, standards and oldies.
rudinoff/garrison photo by michael doucett. ruby bishop photo by mark harrison /the seattle times
Kill the Lonely Hours
— A Night to Lounge
An evening of lounge with Sarah Rudinoff and Nick Garrison
7 – 10pm
Seattle performance art stars Sarah Rudinoff and Nick Garrison will bring you an evening of songs from Weimar to Vaudeville and back again.
Rudinoff and Garrison first collaborated while performing as Hedwig and Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in Seattle in 2000. They have since performed together doing rock, jazz and the American songbook everywhere from the Henry Art Gallery and the Triple Door to the Crocodile Café and Neumo’s.