IT'S A SMALL WORLD--even in MANHATTAN!!

I was in NYC Wednesday May 18 for a Musical Theatre Workshop that ASCAP runs every year and afterwards went to a restaurant nearby at 117 W.58th St. where I knew an older gentleman named Irving Fields played piano(legendary player)...the place is "Nino's Tuscany"(www.ninostuscany.com ) a venue opened only 6 months ago--and one of 5 restaurants owned my Nino Selimaj...I chatted with the bartender Jimmy and he said Irving plays there Tues-Sun..I said "What about Mondays?" Though he said it was slow there Mondays I told him I had that nite recently "vacated"...and he said he'd mention it to Nino and took my card...Mr. Fields wife Ruth was next to me and I overheard her talk about the singer Roslyn Kind--sister of Barbra Streisand--I had met Ms. Kind years ago and have her CD--so we struck up a conversation--I was introduced to a singer beside her named Steve Maglio who sings Sinatra at the nearby Carnegie Club Sat nites with an 11-piece orchestra http://www.stevenmaglio.com/ --when Steve found I come from the Philly area he questioned whether I knew agent Jerry Samuels(who books the senior retirement facility circuit)--when I said that Jerry books me for those gigs--I learned that Steve HAD RECENTLY BEEN CALLED TO FILL IN FOR A DATE I COULD NOT DO!!! HOW IRONIC AND "SMALL WORLD" is that!? Steve lives in the Jersey area and so I guess Jerry Samuels agency encompasses quite a geographic area--but that set the stage for Steve doing some numbers with me at the piano after Irving left(I also met Mr. Fields--real nice guy--almost 90 years old yet very good health..the next evening the bartender called me and said that I could fill in for Mr. Fields during Memorial Week when he's on vacation--a few days later however he learned that Irving had a replacement already set--but it resulted in me getting STEADY MONDAYS THERE! So beginning June 6, that's where I'll be--my first weekly gig in NYC in about 5 years!...for more about Mr. Fields go to http://www.rebooters.net/hippoirvingnytimes.html and to check out all of Nino's venues go to http://www.ninosnyc.com/--see ya on Mondays in Manhattan!

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