M57 Straight From Delancey
THE CAST & CREW
Bobby Rivers – Radio Personality
Cici James – Vocalist
Grace Garland – Vocalist
Cleve Douglass – Improvisational Jazz Vocalist
Richard Stein – Comedian
Helene Gresser – Comedian/Actor
Katya Lapaeva – Vocalist
Elle Brigida – Brave Women Segment
ELLEN KAYE with ETHAN FEIN & THE M57 BAND –
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BROWN – BASS, KORY GROSSMAN – Drums
* * *
SETH GOLDMAN & ELLEN KAYE – HOSTS
ETHAN FEIN – MUSICAL DIRECTOR/ARRANGER/ GUITAR/ BANJO
BILL MOSS – ENGINEER
EDDIE GONZALEZ – PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
ELLE BRIGIDA – PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
MICHAEL SUSKO – SHOW DIRECTOR
Bobby Rivers
Bobby Rivers
Former VH1 VJ and celebrity talk show host and a native Los Angeleno, Bobby grew up in the curfew area during the Watts Riots of the 1960s. He is a veteran network TV host (VH1, Food Network), entertainment reporter and film reviewer (USA Network, ABC News/LifetimeTV, CNN, Premiere Radio) and TV commercial spokesman (Showtime, Starz). He was the first African American weekly film critic on Milwaukee TV. That was on the ABC affiliate, WISN, in the early 1980s. He was the first African-American with his own prime time talk show on VH1. It earned him a CableACE Award nomination for Best Interviewer. He did live morning radio with Whoopi Goldberg. For THE ONION, he played clueless news pundit, Professor Robert Haige. Director Steven Soderbergh used a clip of his VH1 Spalding Gray interview in his 2010 documentary on the late monologist, And Everything Is Going Fine.
Cici James
Cici James
Cici has been a part of the M57 Crew for over a year now – you can hear her on our podcasts and on our upcoming M57 On Air Urban Salon CD. They call her “torch siren,” “dance diva,” “punk princess,” or even “dixie queen.” Cici has been a headliner at venues highbrow and low, from Lincoln Center to the dirtiest dive, and loved every second. Perennial front woman, occasional lyricist, and long time member of the infamous Loser’s Lounge, she likes to keep herself busy with projects like Steely Dance and a collaboration with EDM upstart Prince Fox. When she’s not making music, Cici makes books. A co-founder of Singularity&Co, NYC’s only bookstore dedicated to vintage science fiction and fantasy, she and the S&Co team also run an indie publisher devoted to republishing forgotten sci-fi stories for the future they helped us imagine – but only with permission from the authors or their estates. Join them at savethescifi.com!
Grace Garland
Grace Garland
Ms. Grace Garland is a triple-threat: Singer-Actress-Songwriter! (and author of the “funny/raunchy” self-help book “Loneliness Makes You Stupid!”) Grace uses her sexy, sultry voice to fuse jazz with a soupçon of R&B flavor. She has shared the stage with such legendary musicians as jazz pianists Peter Cincotti, Cyrus Chestnut,Evgeny Lebedev, Misha Tsiganov,Leonid Ptashka, flutist Ms. Bobbi Humphrey, songwriter Julie Gold, singer Jessica Simpson, violinist Hannes Beckmann, and more. Ms. Garland’s voice can also be heard on TV and radio commercials, most notably one with blues guitarist B. B. King!She’s won a TIMMY Award for “Best Singer”; a “Most Romantic Voice” Award at The Novosibirsk Jazz Festival, but, GRACE GARLAND is most proud of being a recipient of a Service Award from the USO, and a Bob Caviano Service Award from LIFEbeat/Hearts&Voices,the Music Industry Fights AIDS! Grace’s Jazz Duo performs in New York City EVERY Thursday at The Anyway Cafe 34 East 2nd Street, 9pm-12am…AND she continually Tours as a Headliner playing LIVE at Jazz festivals around the world, as well as, Clubs and Concert halls.
Cleve Douglass
Cleve Douglass
Improvisational jazz vocalist Cleve Douglass began his vocal training in classical (operatic) vocal technique, then studied and worked in musical theatre, which eventually led him to his passion: jazz and scat improvisations. His multi-cultural recordings embrace the styles of Bossa Nova, swing, Afro-Cuban, electronic, and standards from The Great American Songbook. After extensively touring and performing in Japan, Cleve brings an air of sophistication and retro-nouveau sensibility to a number of bands in New York City, appearing on dates at the Blue Note and NBC’s “The Today Show.”
Richard Stein
Richard Stein
Richard Stein has built his remarkable career on a single tenet: that hair should be free to go its own way. Free to swing straight or curl close, free from curlers and clips, sprays and gels. Free to be as nature intended. It is a credo learned at the hand of his mentor, Sixties icon Vidal Sassoon, and it has garnered for Richard Stein a clientele of the world’s most powerful people.
Helene Gresser
Helene Gresser
Helene is a comedian, actress, and writer. Sometimes she writes funny songs. She may also serve you a drink tonight, and possibly some food. She co-created the webisode series “Hey Rude” and has been featured on the Tyra Banks show discussing rude behavior, even though she was so heavily made-up she could barely open her falsie-laden eyelids. Currently she is working on her one-woman, autobiographical comedy show, tentatively titled “SHEEZUS! (Comin’ To Get Ya!)” in which she reads from her very DRAMATIC childhood journals and occasionally breaks out into songs from Jesus Christ Superstar. Helene is also opening her delightfully cozy thrift store, Artistic Thrift, in her Ridgewood, Queens neighborhood, and hopes you come by to listen to ole-timey vinyl records and peruse her vast collection of tchotchkes, thingamajigs, and doo-dads. Originally from Shorewood, Wisconsin, she credits below-zero temperatures and consumption of vast quantities of sausage, cheese, and beer for her family’s bizarre sense of humor. Her brother John is far funnier, but he lives in Milwaukee, so he cannot steal her limelight now, thank Sheezus.
Katya Lapaeva
Katya Lapaeva
Katya Lapaeva was born in Russia and is a vocalist who’s completely self-taught. She moved to the United States about 3½ years ago and now resides in the beautiful borough of Brooklyn. Katya only started singing recently while working at M57. One night she joined Ellen on stage to sing the Russian version of a familiar tune. Since that moment, Ellen has had faith in Katya’s abilities as a vocalist and hopes she’ll begin her musical career by performing at Moscow 57.
NEXT/PREVIOUS EPISODES:
EPISODE 1 | EPISODE 2 | EPISODE 3 | EPISODE 4 | EPISODE 5 |
EPISODE 6 | EPISODE 7 | EPISODE 8 | EPISODE 9 | EPISODE 10 | EPISODE 11 |
The MOSCOW 57 Blog 