#Newsflash | Flushing Town Hall Band Leader Carol Sudhalter Celebrates a Big Birthday with an Octogenarian Concert

You only turn 80 once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

Flushing Town Hall presents Octogenarian Women of Jazz on Friday, March 24 at 8 pm.

The concert is part of an ongoing Women’s History Month celebration, but it is also a birthday party for Carol Sudhalter, a professional flutist and saxophonist who is also FTH’s house band leader.

Cake, gifts, and speeches are secondary. Sudhalter will get the joint jumping with a special quintet of Jazz legends: pianist Bertha Hope (86); drummer Paula Hampton (87); vocalist Keisha St. Joan (84); and bassist Bill Crow (95).

Put simply, this quintet proves that music, like wine, gets better with age.

General admission is $15, but seniors and students with ID can attend for $10. (For those unable to attend events in person, FTH has Culture Stream. Subscriptions start at $5 per month.)

Sudhalter, who grew up in Boston, but lives in Astoria, has performed all over the world during her long, illustrious career. She founded the Astoria Big Band. She played with Latin Fever, the first all-female Latin band to make it big. And in 2012, she placed ninth in the Best International Jazz Flutist category in Down Beat Magazine‘s 77th Annual  Jazz Readers’ Poll.

“Looking at movies, books, and general depictions, we are accustomed to thinking of 80 as an ending, as an age when the mind and body begin to decline,” Sudhalter stated. “But now that I am 80, I realize that it is just the beginning of a new life and such a rewarding culmination of past years’ work at the same time. I am so excited to share the stage with my fellow octogenarians to bring a wonderful evening of Jazz to the audiences in Queens.”

FTH is located at 137-35 Northern Blvd. There’s on street parking.

Images: FTH