Feb_12_2010_-_Phila._Inq._WKND_cover

Philadelphia’s Top of the Tower invites you to experience romance (50 floors above Center City) with stunning views, exquisite gourmet food, dancing and entertainment by Eddie Bruce — all designed to melt your Valentine’s heart!

We’re giving away complimentary tickets to this spectacular event for one very lucky Chester County Couple! This comprehensive package (valued at over $214/couple) will WOW your special Valentine. The event is being held on Sunday, February 14th. Doors will open at 4:30pm for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with dinner following at 5:00pm. A Cabaret Concert by Eddie Bruce and dancing to a live jazz quartet will round out the evening’s entertainment!

Eddie in Philadelphia Style

Produced by Centillion Productions Ltd for the CBC

Philadelphia, PA (February 11, 2010) – “If I Ruled the World,” a track on Eddie Bruce’s CD entitled “Bruce on Bennett”, was licensed by Centillion Productions Ltd. for use in their new documentary “Google World.” This behind-the-scenes documentary is being aired today, February 11, 2010, on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Television.

Filmed in Google™ offices in China, Russia and at the Googleplex, its Silicon Valley headquarters, the documentary reveals a corporate philosophy and attitude unique among major companies today. Using incredibly powerful computer servers spread around the world, Google wants to become the primary depository of all things digital. If Google achieves its goals, it will not just be successful; it may very well become the most powerful company in the world.

With the perfect lyrics for this documentary, “If I Ruled the World” was composed by Leslie Bricusse and Cyril Ornadel and made popular by Tony Bennett. Eddie Bruce, well-known singer and bandleader from Philadelphia, was honored when he was contacted by the producers of the film. “I was surprised at first when I got the call but the producers from Centillion Productions were so complimentary about my recording that I was happy to give them exclusive license to the use of this song.” Ted Remerowski, producer, said, “Eddie did a great cover of this classic song. It was the perfect fit for our documentary.” Bruce, who performs a highly successful tribute cabaret show about Tony Bennett, recently appeared at Feinstein’s in New York in January and is returning later in the year. He is proud to have his recording on this documentary film about Google.

For more information about “Google World,” visit www.tremer.ca.

January 07, 2010 – Michael Elkin, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Eddie Bruce is still “dancin’ on air” — decades after serving as host of the popular Philly-based TV stomp of a treat, he’s got good reason to step to the front of the line dance that he once touted.

And that’s because these days, he also has a song in his heart.

That that song is “High Hopes” — so closely aligned locally with the large legend of the late Harry Kalas — is not lost on the big time band leader who’s performed at so many weddings and Bar/ Bat Mitzvahs, an ice sculpture in his image has been eternally frozen in the Jewish party circuit Hall of Fame.

But it was “High Hopes” — Harry the K’s personal seventh-inning-of-a-stretch salute of a song — that Bruce performed at his late buddy’s memorial earlier this year at Citizens Bank.

Giving voice to the Voice of the Phillies’ favorite tune was ironic in its own way. Because Bruce’s own high hopes are being realized by becoming a voice all his own in the music business.

High hopes, high notes: The native son — still boyishly handsome — can Hava Negilah next Sunday; on Jan. 10, he has New York in his hands.

Betting on Bennett: Bruce, whose 2009 CD salute to icon Tony Bennett has received tributes and is treasured by many a Bennett fan, stages his salute to the man who left his heart in San Francisco decades ago but found new audiences to meet and greet him in the new millennium.

It may very well be Bruce’s breakthrough in cabaret; after performing at regional clubs — such as Odette’s in New Hope; an SRO gig where he broke records on his way to becoming cabaret royalty at the Prince Music Theatre in Center City; and at New York’s Metropolitan Room — this truly metropolitan singer marks his premiere at New York’s Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, one of the nation’s premier cabaret clubs, on Jan. 10.

This is American idol — long before Simon Cowell began cowing contestants on television, Bruce was on stage barely past his own Bar Mitzvah, at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, as part of the legendary Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour.

A sound beating … “I lost to a clarinet-playing priest from Brooklyn,” he muses. “Who wouldn’t?”

Hot under the collar?

Not the youngster, who knew his day would come. Ironically, he lost with music that would later become his CD salvo. “It was a Tony Bennett song that I sang, ‘For Once in My Life,’ ” he grins now of the one time it got away.

The shadow of his smile extends 90 miles these days, up the Jersey turnpike, uptown to Manhattan. It’s all coming together for the singer who also once did a tribute to Anthony Newley; now, stop the world, he’s getting off in New York, where this once-in-a-lifetime debut has him thinking future stops.

Back up for a minute: It’s 1966, his Bar Mitzvah being celebrated at Fishers in the Northeast and leading the band for his big day was … Ken Silver, another big time notable Philadelphia name.

“By 1984, we became music partners,” says Bruce of his bud with whom he formed a long-lasting friendship and business as bandmates. “I pulled pictures from my Bar Mitzvah and there’s Ken — he was only five years older than me — on sax.” And where’s Eddie? “At the mic, singing.”

Take out the tallit: Some 40 years later, anticipating his Sunday gig in New York at a club named for acclaimed crooner/pianist Michael Feinstein, he announces, “Today is my Bar Mitzvah!”

And bud/former business partner Silver still has his back.

Stardom, he reveals, is no surprise since “Eddie is a naturally gifted vocalist whose versatility and appreciation of a wide variety of musical genres has enabled him to maintain prominent stature in the regional entertainment scene.”

And now Bruce, the former Showstopper on Al Alberts’ local long-running TV show, stops a moment to pay homage to the late erstwhile star of the Four Aces and king of the local talent scene. He says that he will always be appreciative of Alberts, “a mentor of mine.”

Not bad at the time for a 15-year-old who had been turned down for the lead role in George Washington High School’s production of “Oklahoma!” because “they wanted to give it to a senior.”

“They offered me the chorus.” Definitely not OK: “I said, ‘I don’t do chorus!’ ”

Demi-diva? He laughs.

After all, this was the boy with “living-room stage fright” when asked to sing before the family at Jewish functions. “I was shy; it gave me a lot of anxiety”

He said that he found strength at synagogue. “That’s where my career really started,” he says of performing at age 11 in a talent show at Beth Chaim in Feasterville. His song of choice: “More.”

And that’s what followed.

The show organizer soon became his manager and the teen teeming with talent was soon playing the Capri Lounge in Center City.

Underage entrepreneur? “I liked to read my name in the paper,”he says with a smile.

Turn the page? A year after the Summer of Love in ‘67, Bruce had a fall from grace.

Just nine years after he was first taken to the Latin Casino on Walnut Street, the music — his music — died. Buddy Holly redux? For a youngster who could fly away at the mere mention of Sinatra’s name, it was as if a rock of ages had been pulled out from under him.

“What can I say, I was an old head inside a young body,” he says.

With a big body of knowledge. Is it any wonder that this singer who has had a career of multiple choices was a recent big winner on TV’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”?

Cabaret … final answer? As a bandleader who has held his own with the chupah crowds, maybe “come to the cabaret” is not what his old chums and fans fantasize about.

“If you’re a young bride” hiring a band, “you might be asking, ‘Isn’t that the guy who sings the old stuff?’ “I have to fight that” image.

In this corner … nobody puts Eddie in a box. “I’m in transition,” he says of still doing 50 parties a year, and setting sail on the good ship Cabaret. Actually, it’s named Moshulu, he says of landing regular cabaret gigs at the Penn’s Landing ship/restaurant.

Has his ship come in? “I’m happy, fulfilling my dreams. It’s really all that I hoped for,” says the star of his leap of faith and high-jump of a career.

Harry the K would be so proud.

By Diane Prokop

Times Staff Writer

Eddie Bruce is a lucky man.

The Somerton native not only won $25,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in May, he gets paid to do what he loves for a living.

The singer and leader of the Eddie Bruce Orchestra will perform his tribute to Tony Bennett at the prestigious New York supper club, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, on Sunday evening. The nightclub is owned by singer/pianist Michael Feinstein.

Except for a short stint working in his mother’s office, Bruce, a 1971 George Washington High School grad, has always worked in the music business.

“I was one of these guys that never waited a table, never delivered a paper,” he said.

He fell in love with the industry at an early age.

On his sixth birthday, his mother took him to see the Three Stooges live at the original Latin Casino, when the nightclub was still at 12th and Walnut streets before its move to Cherry Hill, N.J, in 1960 and its eventual demise 18 years later.

The real thrill for Bruce came after the comedy trio left the stage and the “first lady of song,” Ella Fitzgerald, stepped onto it.

“I was absolutely mystified by her and the music,” Bruce said by phone last week.

“I was an anachronism. In the sixties, my friends were listening to the (Rolling) Stones, and I was listening to (Frank) Sinatra and (Tony) Bennett,” Bruce said.

He was performing their music as well.

Bruce started singing when he was 11 or 12 at talent shows. In 1968, he appeared on the first Al Alberts variety show on Channel 48 and, until he was 18, performed as a regular “ShowStopper” (teenage performer) on Al Alberts Showcase after the talent show moved to Channel 6.

“It took twelve hours to do a one-hour show,” Bruce recalled.

During his tenure on the program, Bruce sang many a standard with Alberts, the former Four Aces star who died on Nov. 27 at age 87. (Bruce also paid tribute to another local legend who died in 2009, Harry Kalas, when he sang the signature tune High Hopes during a memorial for the longtime Phillies broadcaster.)

At 15, Bruce took a page from Bennett’s songbook when he appeared on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at the legendary Ed Sullivan Studio in New York.

“I loved old-time show biz and the ‘Rat Pack,’” Bruce said, referring to the media-anointed group of crooners led by Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. some 45 years ago.

While Bruce’s orchestra plays everything from Top 40 to disco to swing for a great party atmosphere at weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate affairs, his cabaret act is where he gets to sing the old standards he loves.

Bruce, who lives in Northern Liberties, has played for audiences at Bally’s in Atlantic City, the former Odette’s in New Hope, and Danny’s Skylight Room in New York.

His Bennett tribute broke the box-office record at Morgan’s Cabaret in the Prince Music Theater and garnered great reviews at the Metropolitan Room in New York.

He’s excited about his upcoming Feinstein’s gig. The supper club’s Web site says, “Only the best of the best are invited to perform at Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency.”

“It’s really a big deal,” Bruce said.

While he hopes to book more dates at Feinstein’s this year, Bruce and the Tom Adams Trio will continue to perform Wednesday evenings at the Moshulu, the tall-ship restaurant at Penn’s Landing, through March. Guest artists have included master tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna and local singers Paula Johns and Denise Montana.

“The Moshulu is kind of unique. It (has a) supper club feeling. You can have dinner, drinks, listen to music or dance. It’s a real fun evening,” Bruce said.

He wants folks to know that cabaret also can be enjoyed in other venues as well. He performs his show for fund-raisers and black-tie dinner dances.

In fact, he hopes to take the Bruce on Bennett show on the road by the middle of this year.

“It’s pretty versatile,” he said.

Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com

]]> http://www.eddiebruce.com/press-reviews/from-the-northeast-times-a-loving-tribute-from-eddie-bruce-jan-6-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.eddiebruce.com/testimonials/amazing/ http://www.eddiebruce.com/testimonials/amazing/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:33:02 +0000 eddiebruce http://www.eddiebruce.com/?p=545 Dear Eddie,

Thank you for the amazing job you did with our wedding. All of our songs were perfect … the entire reception ran smoothly, and most importantly, everyone had a wonderful time dancing the night away. Even my Dad spent the better portion of the evening on the dance floor …and that is truly something we will never forget! You completely exceeded our wildest expectations, and for that we are forever grateful. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts.

With love,

I was on his very first show on Channel 48. It took us 12 hours to finish a 1 hour show. Al and Stella knew nothing about television then. Over the years they became a dynamic duo finding helping and teaching young talent and learning the TV business as they went along. They learned well … the show lasted something like 25 years.

As a kid I was in awe of Al. He had Gold records and had been such and International star with the Four Aces. But for me he was a teacher. I learned how to choose material and prepare a song. I learned what a TV camera was and how to play to it and when to ignore it. I learned how to sing well with others and work with a group. As a part of the original group of kids known as the Showstoppers I was on the show every week, and when it was time for a solo spot trying to choose a song I liked that I knew would please Al and Stella.

Later Al had a show called Stage 6 which was on every weekday at 11 or 12 in a living room setting with great guests. It was so exciting. Al was a huge part of my adolescence and my youth and he was a huge part of my early career. Through the experience with Al I learned discipline and what it takes to succeed in this business. We rehearsed every week and never stopped till it was right.

Al was a sweet generous man with a huge voice and a bigger heart. He changed so many lives including mine. My heart goes out to Stella, Albert and Chris.

Eddie performs at Moshulu on November 18

We had another great evening of song this week at the Moshulu. The wonderful Lynn Randall paid tribute to Johnny Mercer on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Guest artists Michael Kelly, Denise Montana and Laura Munich also joined us. The Tom Adams Trio, with Don Moyer on bass and Grant Macavoy on drums, provided the amazing accompaniment and, as always, added some sweet songs of their own.

Michael doubled his entourage and had a party of eight to dine and listen and did his spin on Mercer’s “Midnight Sun.” Denise took us on a jazz excursion “Over The Rainbow” and the great Laura Munich joined me in a duet recreating the historical Barbra Streisand/Judy Garland duet, “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Lynn Randall at Moshulu

Wednesdays on the Moshulu are becoming a musical happening with great music and guests and lots of spontaneity and surprises … there’s truly nothing like it in Philadelphia and we’re getting great feedback from everyone.

This week’s guests include saxophone legend Larry McKenna and jazz swinger Paula Johns. Please join us for a pre- Thanksgiving musical feast this Wednesday, November 25.^. Come for dinner drinks or just to listen!