NEW YEAR'S EVE with pete siers
featuring special guests Dave Bennett & Cliff Monear
Friday, DECEMBER 31st @ 7:00 PM
Kerrytown Concert House invites you back inside for the annual New Year’s Eve jazz party featuring drummer Pete Siers, clarinetist Dave Bennett and pianist Cliff Monear! You can expect to see and hear a snow globe of jazz highlights with this powerhouse trio, from sheer virtuosity, to sweetness of soul, with everything but the kitchen sink in between. Join us and ring in the New Year with a jazz celebration to remember.
Can’t join us inside the House? Click the button below to watch the free livestream of this performance at showtime. (Free livestreams are only available this season during the actual showtime.)
COVID-19 Safety Policy for Indoor Concerts
- Moving forward, all patrons and artists who wish to attend or present performances indoors at KCH must provide a valid, complete COVID-19 vaccination card OR proof of a negative COVID-19 test performed within the previous 72 hours prior to entry. Such proof must be presented at concert check-in, may be displayed on a smartphone OR presented as a physical copy, and must also be accompanied by a matching, valid ID for verification.**
- Additionally, according to current CDC recommendations, masks are required for audiences inside the House and can only be removed when seated with a beverage (when available). When performing, artists may wear a mask, or not, at their own discretion.
**Proof of vaccination exceptions will be made for children under 12 and people with a medical condition or closely held religious beliefs that prevent vaccination. These guests must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within the previous 72 hours prior to entry.
Like Clark Kent, jazz percussionist Pete Siers is soft-spoken and unassuming – but put him behind a drum set, and a hard-swinging, intensely physical, dynamically sensitive drummer emerges. According to the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association, when Pete plays, “readily apparent musical joy” can be expected. Paul Pearce of Bass World magazine writes that “Pete absolutely ‘sings’ with his drum kit.”
Siers has played with jazz luminaries such as Russell Malone, Mulgrew Miller, Marian McPartland, Lee Konitz, Benny Golson, James Moody, Kenny Werner, David “Fathead” Newman, Eddie Daniels, Frank Morgan, Scott Hamilton, Bob Wilber, and Barry Harris. In addition to his expansive performance career, Siers has played on over 50 recordings.
Pete has taught percussion and jazz drumming for over 25 years, teaching privately, as well as at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor School for Performing Arts, Emory University, Purdue University and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
Cliff Monear is a professional jazz pianist and has performed all over the world with some of the biggest stars in show-business. His YouTube channel, “CMonear1”, features solo and group performances that spotlight many of the finest jazz artists in the Midwest. He is a faculty member at Wayne State University, and a sales consultant for Steinway & Sons, Michigan and Ohio region.
“Monear’s breathy ideas leave lots of space, girding the music with exquisite tension. What gives the music personality is Monear’s suave touch, relaxed swing, fresh melodic and harmonic turns and the unpretentious way he draws on familiar influences.”
~ Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press Music Critic
For starters, you don’t find many jazz clarinet players who name Alice Cooper, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Chris Isaak among their influences. You also won’t find many musicians who are equally conversant with the music of Benny Goodman (the “King of Swing”) and Roy Orbison (“The Soul of Rock and Roll”).
Bennett is a clarinet virtuoso who plays electric guitar, piano, drums, AND vocalizes. Saluting Swing to Rock: covering music from the Swing Era to early Rockabilly and Country, to Elvis Presley and more. Leading His Tribute to Benny Goodman, Dave has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops (2013) and has played the show with 35 other US and Canadian orchestras including Nashville, Detroit, Rochester, Omaha, Toronto, Vancouver, Orlando, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Portland, OR and Portland, ME, and Houston. Fifty performing arts centers across the USA have had success with his presentations.
An annual fixture at several American music festivals, Dave’s “Rockin the ‘50s” show always brings down the house! Dave pays tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis (piano and vocals), and Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley (electric guitar and vocals). Dave’s original compositions are influenced by the style of Roy Orbison, the “Soul of Rock and Roll”. Some of his annual “roots music” presenters include The Elkhart Jazz Festival, The Suncoast Classic Jazz Festival, The Arizona Classic Jazz Festival, The Southeast Clambake Music Festival, and The Redwood Coast Music Festival.
Dave has been featured on NPR Radio’s “Jazz at Riverwalk.” He made his European debut in 2008 at the The Bern Jazz Festival (Switzerland) in a combo with jazz legends and Benny Goodman band alumni guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and vibraphonist, the late Peter Appleyard.
Dave is a Mack Avenue Records artist. His 2013 CD “Don’t Be That Way” met with critical acclaim. His second release, Blood Moon, which features five originals and six pop/jazz covers, hit the No 24 on the Billboard Jazz chart in 2018.
