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The details are a bit murky, and that's on purpose, but we guarantee you that relatively new underground jazz speakeasy Daddy Rabbit is exactly what New York needs at the moment.
Go ahead and Google the name. You won't find out much about it, except this New York Times piece that is sure going to convince you that you must absolutely find a way into the next installment of the jazz extravaganza.
Here is what we can tell you: 48-year-old musician extraordinaire Misha Piatigorsky launched Daddy Rabbit at an undisclosed location in midtown Manhattan a few months ago and has, since then, set up two separate shows that were each attended by around 70 guests who had heard of the effort through word of mouth.
Upon walking in, patrons sit around the musicians, who take up residence smack-dab in the middle of the room surrounding a beautiful grand piano. A musical experience to remember indeed.
The next show will take place on July 2 and, to the delight of jazz aficionados, it will feature Piatigorsky himself on piano, alongside drummer Rudy Royston, bassist Giliard Lopes, Tatum Greenblatt on trumpet and the one-and-only Kennedy as vocalist.
To secure yourself a seat, you're going to have to email daddyrabbitnyc@gmail.com. You'll be placed on a mailing list and receive a formal invite to the upcoming performances alongside instructions on how to grab a $40 ticket, which basically covers the cost of the band and the staff on premise (there's a bar, of course).
When first coming up with the concept for the destination, Piatigorsky had settled on the name "boogaloo," a musical term that also calls out to one of the musician's own tunes. "It was always supposed to be called that until the extreme right-wing movement came out and I didn't want to be associated with it," the pianist explains.
Piatigorsky credits the name Daddy Rabbit to his "buddy Cole, who is from the South," he explains. "It means the most important person in a group, the leader. The coolest guy or the coolest thing are referred to as the daddy rabbit and I loved that idea!"
Another "cool" thing? Among the music lovers who attended the first two shows, the majority of them were under 27. Clearly, younger New Yorkers are finding ways to familiarize themselves with a genre of music that has defined the city's cultural scene for decades but has mostly been associated with an older crowd. Whether that's one of the effects of spending months cooped up at home without any sort of real cultural experience or a testament to the beauty that is jazz is anyone's guess—but one thing's for sure: Daddy Rabbit honors the genre in the most New York way possible, and we're so excited to be able to be a part of it in person.