Award-Winning Urban Folk Jazz Artist KJ Denhert Celebrates 15 Years w/ Her Band, March 16

Jen Chapin to Join in Show with a Set and as Host

Urban folk jazz singer/guitarist/songwriter KJ Denhert is celebrating her 15 years fronting her band KJ Denhert & the New York Unit, at the Tribecca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, in New York on March 16, at 8 PM. Tickets are $15, and available in advance at 212-220-1460.

KJ's band features: KJ on vocals and guitars, bassist Mamadou Ba, drummer Ray Levier, keyboardist Adam Klipple, and saxophonist Aaron Heick.

Special guests include Jen Chapin who will emcee and open the show. KJ and Jen have been friends since 1997 when many members of the NY Unit came from Jen's band. Guitarist Adam Falcon who collaborated with KJ on her Independent Music Award nominated CD, The Songwriter's Notebook, will perform tunes from their CD as well as Tomas Doncker, also a songwriter and guitarist who joined KJ in the recording of her latest EP Destiny.

Known for her weekly shows at New York City's Smoke and thirteen years in residence at the 55 Bar, KJ grew up in New York City, in the 1960s. She started learning to play guitar at age 10, listening to Sergio Mendes and John Hartford. "As I advanced, books by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell were my first official self-study as a guitarist."

As a young woman in the '80s she played guitar and sang with an all-female band called, Fireî touring throughout North America and Europe. She also spent time in Cleveland, founding and fronting the group, Cyclone Sisters. Upon moving back to NY City in 1997, she formed the NY Unit. KJ will have copies of her upcoming Destiny EP at her 15th Anniversary. Produced by KJ and engineered by Hal Winer at BiCoastal Studios in Ossining, NY, songs on the EP include "Destiny," "Try To Fly," "Do You Love." There's a new version of an audience favorite "Beautiful," and a folk as well as a pop/rock mix of "I Don't Think So."

KJ's most recent release, Album No.9 spawned a number of minor hits, including a yearnful interpretation of the Beatles "Help" that was as a rally for humanity in light of many tragedies most recently in Haiti, Louisiana, and Japan. Other classics on the album are "Alfie," "Pennies From Heaven," "The Shadow of Your Smile," and "Smoke on the Water." KJ's original songs: "Choose Your Weapon" (which won the 2010 Independent Music Award for "Sing Out for Social Action"), "Let It Go," and her first song in French, "Chanson Baz Bar" have become fan favorites.

This July, KJ will be performing at Italy's Umbria Jazz Festival. She's an an eight-time artist in residence at Umbria Jazz Festival. She's played at many prestigious events including The Rochester International Jazz Festival, River to River in New York City, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and Clearwater Festival in Croton, NY.

KJ is the founder of recording label, Mother Cyclone Records. She was named a winner of the Kerrville New Folk Song contest in June, 2006 for "Private Angel" and won the Mountain Stage New Song contest later that summer for her composition, "Little Mary." The Album, Another Year Gone By, Live won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Best Live Performance.