From the Gershwins and Cole Porter to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, from Johnny Mercer's "Blues in the Night" to some more contemporary classics by Carole King, James Taylor. We love the Great American Song Book, and add vibrant Bossa Nova, Samba, and light-hearted Blues to the mix.
I often suggest special themes for a concert: Celebrating Ella Fitzgerald and the other great Ladies of Scat! Naughty Cole Porter (we're all adults here); Duke Ellington; Johnny Mercer & Friends; and our favorite special gala and fundraising program: A Great Gatsby Party - Roaring Twenties Jazz.
Be the first to review Christiana Drapkin Jazz Group
Price Range: Contact for rates
Gig Length: 60 - 240 minutes
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Insurance: $1,000,000 - Mercer Insurance: Liability and Equipment insurance
Unions: AFM
From duo to quintet, we can bring you a one-hour concert, or a whole evening-long party.
Tell me more about your budget, and your programming needs. -- I draw from a repertoire of over 300 songs: Standards from the Great American Song Book from the 1920s through the 1950s mainly. But also beautiful Bossa Nova, Samba, more recent repertoire, from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, to some of the best selections of American singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King.
I love to put my programs around a theme: Great Gatsby; Here's to the Ladies Who Scat; Johnny Mercer & Friends; and more.
If you have a beautiful piano on site, I'll be happy to come with my pianist. Otherwise, we're always able to bring our keyboard (we routinely bring our sound system and instruments, unless you have a stage and sound system already set up).
I am the vocalist, and I come as a Duo minimum - with either my guitarist or pianist.
Depending on your budget and program needs, you can add our bassist, our drummer (not loud but adding texture), our sax/ clarinet/ flute player.
Jazz vocalist Christiana Drapkin came to the US as a German Fulbright exchange student in theater. At Tulane University in New Orleans, she discovered the inner workings of musical theater and, more importantly, the roots of Jazz. In 2008, Christiana moved to the Washington DC area, after having grown into her artistic identity in New York City over the past quarter century. She has an active performance schedule in the DC area with occasional returns to New York for concerts, and her annual Jazz winter tour to St. Pete/Clearwater, FL.
Through her extensive jazz studies with Brooklyn pianist Charles Sibirsky, she has developed a deep connection to the American Standards and Bebop repertoire. Combined with her voice training under vocal coach Barbara Feller, Christiana is known for her joyous and soaring scat lines and improvisations, as well as for her highly personal delivery of lyrics. Her musical heroes have always been the great Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, and Carmen McRae, as well as Lester Young and Charlie Parker. Christiana performs in clubs on the Eastern Seaboard, in schools and public libraries. She brings many Great Standards to seniors in eldercare settings, and she performs frequently for our military veterans at the popular “Honor Flights,” welcoming WWII, Korea, and Vietnam war veterans to our nation’s capital.
In her concert and educational programs, Christiana Drapkin likes to combine music, literature and a bit of social history in her programs. With her unique “Shakespeare and all that Jazz” program, she presents rarely-heard Jazz arrangements by John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, as well as other musical settings of Shakespeare’s original texts from his plays and sonnets. Her “Great Gatsby Summer Party” highlights music from the Roaring Twenties and excerpts from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fabulous novel. In her program, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Christiana pairs Standards from the Great Depression with union organizer songs and Salvation Army hymns, weaving a humorous and poignant tapestry of that time. She also loves to engage the youngest audiences in her lively and participatory program “Bop Goes the Weasel – Jazz for Kids,” which she brings to public libraries, festivals, and schools, and just this month again at the National Zoo.
Christiana has released three CDs: “Got The World On A String” released with the Maryland-based guitarist Mike Gellar in 2008, "Songs About You" with NYC pianist Charles Sibirsky in 2004, and "The Man I Love", her 1999 debut album. They feature fresh takes on the Standards from the Great American Songbook as well as original compositions by some of her favorite fellow-musicians.
Duo, trio, quartet, quintet. Vocals, piano or guitar, bass, drums, sax/clarinet/flute.
We can perform indoors or outdoors. Must be sheltered from the elements, of course.
Depending on the size of the combo you want to hire, all we need is a grounded electric outlet. We can bring our own sound equipment and instruments.
We can provide you with a diagram for a band setup.
Christiana Drapkin
Song List 2017
A Felicidade Am
A-Tisket, A-Tasket Bb
Ac-cent-tuate the Positive C
Ain’t Misbehavin’ Ab
All Blues G
All My Tomorrows F
All Of Me Ab
All Of You C
All or Nothing At All Gm
All the Things You Are F
Alright, Okay, You Win Eb
Another You C
Anthropology Bb
Anything But Love C
April in Paris Ab
As Time Goes By Bb
Ask Me Now (Monk) Bb
At Last G
Autumn in New York Db
Autumn Leaves Dm
Baby, It’s Cold Outside C
Background Music Ab
Bad Moon Rising C
Basin Street Blues Bb
Bebop Lives (Boplicity) Eb
Begin the Beguine G
Bemsha Swing (Monk) C
Bennie’s from Heaven G
Besame Mucho Am
Best Is yet to Come, The Ab
Billie’s Bounce F
Birk’s Works Cm
Black Coffee Eb
Black-eyed Susans F
(Satie’s Gymnopedie #1)
Blue Bbm
Blue in Green F
Blue Monk Bb
Blue Moon C
Blue Skies Cm
Blue Suede Shoes A
Blueberry Hill Bb
Blues in the Night G
Body & Soul Bb
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Of Company B
Both Sides Now G
Broadway D
Brother, Can You Spare
A Dime? Am
But Not For Me Bb
Bye, Bye Blackbird C
Centerpiece Eb
Cheek to Cheek Ab
Chega de Saudade Dm
Chicken Soup w/Rice D
Cholesterol Blues (orig.) F
City of Stars (LaLa) Dm
Come Rain or Come
Shine C
Come Sunday G
Comes Love Dm
Con Alma ends on G#MA
Cool Blues Ebm
Corcovado C
Crazy C
Crazy He Calls Me Eb
Cry Me a River Am
Dancing on the Ceiling D
Darn That Dream Eb
Dat Dere Cm
Days of Wine & Roses Eb
‘Deed I Do Ab
Desafinado F
Detour Ahead Bb
Dindi C
Do Nothing Till You Hear
From Me Eb
Do You Know What it
Means Ab
Donna Lee Eb
Don't Blame Me Bb
Don’t Explain Eb
Don’t Get Around Much
Anymore Ab
Don’t Go to Strangers Ab
Don’t Let me Be Lonely
Tonight D
Dream G
Dream a Little Dream Eb
Dreamer G
Dreamsville A
Duke’s Place C
Eagle and Me, The F
East of the Sun F
Easy Living C
Easy to Love F
Embraceable You Eb
Estate (In Summer) Dm
Everything Happens F
Falling in Love Again Bb
Falling in Love w Love
Fever Am
Fine and Mellow F
Fly Me to the Moon Bb
Foolin’ Myself C
Fools Rush In G
For Baden (Powell) D
For All We Know Db
For Once in my Life G
Friends Again
(Lonny Morgan) F
From this Moment On Dm
Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good
To You C
Get Out of Town Ebm
Girl From Ipanema F
God Bless the Child Bb
Gone With the Wind Bb
Good Mornin’ Heartache Cm
Green Dolphin Street Ab
Groovin’ High Eb
Hallelujah, I’m a Bum! Ab
Hard Day’s Night G
Here’s To Life Fm
Honeysuckle Rose C
Hothouse Bb
House I Live In, The A
How About You? C
How Deep is the Ocean C
(starts on Am)
How High the Moon Eb
I Can’t Believe that you’re
in Love With Me Ab
I Concentrate on You
I Cover the Waterfront Eb
I Cried For You C
I Didn’t Know About You C
I Didn’t Know What Time
It Was Eb
I Don’t Know Enough
About You
I Get a Kick out of You C
I Get Along Without You
Very Well G
I Got Rhythm Bb
I Hadn’t Anyone Eb
I Just Found Out About
Love Eb
I Let a Song Go Out.. Bb
I Love Being Here w/You C
I Love Paris Bbm
I Remember You F
I Should Care Ab
I Thought About You Bb
I Wish You Love
(Que Reste-t-il) C
If I Had You F
If You Never Come to Me
I’ll Be Seeing You Bb
I’ll Remember April C
I’m Beginning to See
The Light Eb
I’m Getting Sentimental
Over You Db
I’m Going to Live the Life
I Sing About… Gm
I’m in the Mood f Love Bb
I’m Old Fashioned Eb
Imagine Eb
Indiana/ Donna Lee Eb
Insensataez Am
Isn’t It Romantic? G
It Could Happen to You F
It Don’t Mean a Thing Cm
It Had To Be You Eb
It Might As Well Be
Spring Eb
It’s All Right With Me Am
It’s Only a Paper Moon Eb
It’s Too Hot for Words Bb
It’s You or No One Eb
I’ve Got My Love to Keep
Me Warm C
I’ve Got the World on
A String C
I’ve Got You Under My
Skin C
Jambalaya G
Jazzman’s Serenade Ab
Jeepers Creepers G
Jitterbug Waltz Eb
Joint is Jumpin’, The G
Joy Spring Eb
Just Friends F
Just in Time Ab
Just One of Those
Things Cm
(Just) Squeeze Me Bb
Just You, Just Me C
Kansas City Here I Come C
Lady Be Good C
Lady Is a Tramp, The G
Lady Bird C
Lazy Afternoon Gm
Lazybones C
Let’s Cool One C
Let’s Do It G
Let’s Have another Cup
Of Coffee G
Li’l Darlin’ F
Lillie Marlene
Little Girl Blue
Lost In the Stars Eb
Love For Sale Gm
Love Is Here to Stay Db
Love Me Or Leave Me Ebm
Love You Madly C
Lover Come Back to me Eb
Lover Man Eb
Mack, the Knife G
Makin’ Whoopee Db
Man, that was a Dream
Man I Love, The Bb
Mean to Me Eb
Melancholy Baby Bb
Mess Around C, Eb
Misty C
Monk’s Dream C
Mood Indigo Bb
Moody’s Mood Bb
Moondance
Moon River A
Moonlight in Vermont Db
My Blue Heaven Bb
My Favorite Things Dm
My Foolish Heart F
My Funny Valentine Bbm
My Heart Belongs to
Daddy Am
My Old Flame Db
My Romance Ab
My Ship (Weill) Eb
Nearness of You Eb
New York, NY
Night & Day C
Nightingale Sang in
Berkley Square Bb
No More Blues Dm
Nobody Knows You When
You’re Down & Out C
Now's the Time (Parker) F
O Pato (The Duck) D
Old Devil Moon C
On A Clear Day F
On the Sunny Side of
the Street Bb
One-Note Samba Bb
Only Trust Your Heart G
Open Your Heart (orig.)Ab
Ornithology G
Out of Nowhere Eb
Over the Rainbow Bb
Pannonica (Monk)
Parker’s Mood Bb
Paper Moon Eb
Peacocks, The Gm
Peel Me a Grape Cm
Pennies from Heaven G
Please Don’t Talk About
Me When I’m Gone Ab
Prelude to a Kiss Ab, Bb
PS I Love You Bb
Puttin’ on the Ritz Cm
Quasimodo (Parker) C
Que reste-t-il? Eb
Reflections (Monk) F
Rhythm-A-Ning (Monk) Bb
Robbins Nest G
‘Round Midnight Cmin
Route 66 F
Ruby My Dear (Monk) Ab
(melody starts on G)
Satin Doll G
Save Your Love f Me D
Say It Isn’t So F
Scrapple from the Apple F
Secret Love Eb
Send in the Clowns Eb
September in the Rain Bb
September Song Bb
Serenade in Blue C
Shadow of Your Smile F
She’s Got You G
Since I Fell for You C
Sister Sadie G
Skylark C
Slip of the Lip, A F
Slow Boat to China G
Smile D
So Many Stars D
So Nice F
Softly, as in the Morning
Sunrise Am
Some of These Days C
Someone To Watch
Over Me Ab
Song for My Father Fm
Songs About You (orig) G
Sophisticated Lady Eb
South-8 (orig.)
Sparta (orig.)
Speak Low Db
Squeeze Me (But Please
Don’t Tease Me) Bb
St. Louis Blues Eb
Stairway to the Stars Bb
Star Dust Ab
Star Eyes Bb
Stella by Starlight G
Stompin at the Savoy Db
Stormy Monday
Stormy Weather Eb
Straight, No Chaser Bb
Straighten up & Fly Rite F
Summer Samba F
Summertime Dm
Sunny
Sweet Georgia Brown Db
Swinging on a Star F
S’Wonderful Bb
Symphony Sid Eb
Take the A Train F
Tea for Two Eb
Teach Me Tonight A
Ten Cents a Dance C
Tenderly C
Tennessee Waltz Ab
Thanks for the
Memory Eb
That Old Black Magic C
That’s Jazz (orig.)
Them There Eyes Ab
There Are Such Things G
There’s a Small Hotel Eb
These Foolish Things C
They All Laughed Eb
They Can’t Take that
Away From Me C
Things We Did Last
Summer, The F
‘Till there Was You Bb
Time on My Hands Eb
Too Darn Hot G
Too Marvelous for Words Eb
Topsy Bbm
Touch of Your Lips Bb
Twisted Eb
Ugly Beauty (Monk) Bb
Unforgettable Eb
Up Jumped Spring F
Very Thought of You Eb
Vie en Rose, La A
Vivo Sonhando G
Waltz for Debbie C
Watch What Happens Eb
Waters of March C
Way You Look Tonight Bb
Well, You Needn’t C
What A Little Moonlight
Can Do G
What Are You Doing
New Year's Eve? Eb
What Is this Thing Called
Love? Ab
What’ll I Do? A
What’s New? Ab
When I Fall in Love C
When You Wish Upon
A Star Bb
When You’re Smiling G
Whisper Not Db
White Cliffs of Dover Ab
Why Don’t you Do
Right? Em
Wild Is the Wind Dm
Willow Weep for Me Eb
Windmills of Your
Mind Cm
Witchcraft Eb
Wonderful CopenhagenG
Yardbird Suite C
Yesterdays Am
You Better Go Now C
You’d Be So Nice… Gm
You Don’t Know What
Love Is Cm
You Go to My Head C
You’re Lookin’ at Me G
You’re My Thrill Bbm
You Stepped Out of a
Dream Bb
You Turned the Tables
On Me Eb
You’ve Changed Bb
You’ve Got a Friend A
| Christiana Drapkin | vocalist & band leader |
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae.
Peggy Lee, Annie Ross, Anita O'Day.
Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Joe Pass.
Recent: Diana Krall, Kurt Elling.
We can bring our own keyboard, instruments, and sound equipment.
New York City, NY 
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