Famed pianist and British music icon Jools Holland played NYC’s Blue Note jazz club on Thursday, and began his banter with the joke, “They say you play New York twice in your life: Once on the way up and once on the way down. So glad to be back.”
He played tunes that he wrote himself and some he penned with Sting and Dr. John, as well as with his band. The “Later . . . With Jools Holland” host’s first show in New York was with his chart-topping New Wave band Squeeze at CBGB in 1977, and this three-night stint at Blue Note brings him back to the Big Apple for the first time in 20 years.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson sent flowers to his dressing room, and spotted in the house were Sandra Bernhard, David Johansen and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.