At the Black Cat Café, the Music is Free

Bill Galanin, known professionally as "The Gypsy Jazz Workshop,” will bring his guitar and music to the Black Cat Café in Irvington on Friday, March 16, 2012, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The fifty-three-year-old jazz guitarist was a member of jazz fusion band Sergeant Friday when its CD “Off the Beat” was released. Galanin attended Onondaga Community College in Syracuse NY, studied Jazz Guitar and Music Theory, and played with The Syracuse Stage. He also gave guitar instruction at 14 Catholic schools. He lives in upper Westchester County.

Also appearing during March through April are BossoNote, Danielle Frimer with Emma March Barash, Not Quite Local and Diving Rod. Admission to all of the performances is free—a tradition at the Black Cat Café.

Frimer, appearing on April 6, grew up in Irvington, NY and while a student at Irvington High School, was a National Merit Semi-Finalist and an Intel Science Talent Search Semi-Finalist. She graduated from Yale University where her major was Theater Studies.

She has performed at regional and off-Broadway theaters as an actor and is currently assisting in the development of a prison performing arts program in upstate New York. While at Yale, she tutored students in math, science, and writing and worked in the Yale Summer Session Admissions Office. Frimer tutors students for the SAT and ACT exams, ISEE/SSAT, and in all areas of English.

Frimer and Barash met and worked together in student productions at Yale; Barash was a computers major and is a resident of Manhattan.

The entertainment coming soon to the Black Cat Café follows:

• Saturday, March 24. BossoNote. With Phil Marucci on keyboard and Barry Walter on percussion. They will play classic and contemporary music of Brazil.
• Friday, April 6. Emma March Barash and Danielle Frimer will sing some of their own compositions and accompany with song and guitar. They combine folk with a little rock.
• Saturday, April 21. Not Quite Local. To perfom original music.
• Saturday, April 28. Divining Rod. Miyuki Furtado describes his solo work as “psych-drone-folk sage.” Dead Sands, which he started and calls its members his "psych rock warriors," has two releases with Don't Cry Records. Furtado was a member of The Rogers Sisters (wtih Laura and Jennifer Rogers who are sisters), Midnight Masses and Fum Fum Fyes (which he also started).
• Sunday, July 15. Doug Alan Wilcox. A singer/songwriter/guitarist and native of Maryland, Wilcox says his style is “hard to categorize.” He mixes folk, blues and soul and says his sound is “constantly morphing.” His CD entitled “When I Wished on the Moon,” on which he also plays the harmonica, will be released shortly.

Out of the kitchen

Scones are being baked daily at the Black Cat Café and the current selection includes blueberry, chocolate chip and ginger. Parisian butter or almond croissants and “pain au chocolat” are also offered every day.

Specialties for catered lunches include breakfast burritos, quiche, chipotle chicken (signature dish), ham panini and turkey club. Orders need to be placed 24 hours in advance for most items; 48-hour notice is needed for quiche, desserts and fruit platters. Minimum order: ten people.

Following a switch in bread distributors, the bread providers for the café have changed and now include Davidovich Bakery (bagels), Bread Alone Bakery (for whole grain breads), Eli's Bakery and Balthazar.

If the name Black Cat Café sound familiar, you may be an old movies buff or are old enough to remember that comedian W.C. Fields hung out in a bar having that name in the film classic "The Bank Dick."

What’s coming soon? “Our very own line of chocolates,” owner Emily Feliciano-Crichton said. The eatery opened on December 1, 2007.

Black Cat Café, 45 Main Street, Irvington, NY, 914-231-9060.