Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks bring the 1920s back to Birdland tonight

The Grammy-winning bandleader and his Nighthawks play their usual Monday sets on West 44th Street, at 5:30 and 8:30.

On most Mondays in Midtown, the theater crowds have gone dark and West 44th Street goes quiet. Inside Birdland, though, an orchestra is tuning up to play music older than anyone in the room. That's Monday with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, and tonight is one of them.

Monday, Oct. 26, the band plays two sets, at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., according to the Nighthawks' own events page. Birdland's recent Monday listings follow the same pattern, with doors an hour before each set, and mark the later set ages 10+. The club is at 315 W. 44th St.

The appeal is simple: nobody does this the way Giordano does. His own site calls him a GRAMMY Award winner, a New York native and a multi-instrumentalist. He leads an orchestra devoted to the music of the 1920s and beyond, the hot jazz and dance-band repertoire most people only know from old film soundtracks and 78s. Listings describe the Nighthawks as an 11-piece band that has set the standard for recreating authentic jazz sounds of that era. That isn't nostalgia by vague approximation. It's the real arrangements, played by people who have spent careers learning to make them breathe.

That isn't nostalgia by vague approximation. It's the real arrangements, played by people who have spent careers learning to make them breathe.

Birdland is the right home for it. The club carries one of the most storied names in New York jazz, and having this music on its stage week after week keeps a thread of the city's history running through a modern Midtown block. Giordano is a New Yorker playing music that grew up partly in this city's dance halls and speakeasies, in one of the rooms that has kept jazz central here.

We looked for a new album or announcement and didn't find one, so the reason to go tonight is the usual one, which is the best kind. Residencies like this are easy to take for granted because they're always there. They're only always there until they aren't, and an 11-piece orchestra playing period charts every week is not something most cities can say they have.

Pick your set. The 5:30 works before dinner or after work, and leaves the rest of the night free. The 8:30 is the full night out. Either way, book ahead. Check the club's site for prices and availability.

Then sit back, order something that suits the era, and let the band do what it has done on Mondays for years: make 1927 sound like tonight.

Sources: Events - Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks Orchestra (vincegiordano.com); Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks - Vintage Jazz Big Band - NYC (vincegiordano.com); About Vince Giordano (vincegiordano.com); Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks - Birdland Jazz Club & Theater (birdlandjazz.com); Birdland Jazz Club & Theater (birdlandjazz.com); Birdland (jazz club) - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)