Mercerized: Peter Cherches Sings Johnny Mercer with a Twist, Cornelia Street Cafe, March 13

Jan. 4, 2016 - PRLog -- On Sunday, March 13 at 6PM, jazz vocalist, lyricist and fiction writer Peter Cherches will present a tribute to Johnny Mercer at Cornelia Street Cafe, accompanied by Lee Feldman on piano. Ranging across four decades of Mercer's lyrics, from "Goody Goody" in the thirties to "Moon River" in the sixties, the program will also feature Cherches' additional words for a number of tunes. Cherches considers his new lyrics, including some vocalese, tributes to the songs themselves.

Best known as a fiction writer, Peter Cherches has had parallel careers as performance artist and singer. His first music-performance group, Sonorexia, was a collaboration with experimental mutli-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp. He worked with Lee Feldman on songs and performance pieces from 1984-90, and they re-established their collaboration over the past decade. Cherches has performed at numerous clubs and theaters in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2014 he presented a new jazz repertoire featuring his lyrics along with Feldman and baritone sax player Claire Daly. Of his writing, poet Billy Collins has said, "To Gödel, Escher, and Bach we might consider adding Peter Cherches," and Publishers Weekly has called Cherches "one of the innovators of the short short story." His short prose collection Lift Your Right Arm was published by Pelekinesis in 2013.

Lee Feldman is a New York based songwriter, pianist, singer and composer. He has released four critically acclaimed albums, most recently Album No. 4: Trying to Put the Things Together that Never Been Together Before. His new trio, The Night Owls, specializes in jazz versions of TV themes of the sixties.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. Cover for Mercerized is $10 with a $10 drink minimum. Doors open at 5:45. Reservations can be made by calling 212-989-9319.