People: Manhattan musician still in lounge at 100
Most 100-year-olds don’t mark the milestone birthday with a news conference in a piano bar. Then again, Irving Fields isn’t most 100-year-olds.
Fields is one of New York City’s oldest lounge performers and still plays piano four nights a week at Nino’s Tuscany restaurant in Manhattan. Even though he gets around more slowly than he once did, he has no plans to stop playing and recording albums.
“I have a brand new one, it’s called ‘100 Years and Still Tickling the Ivories, ” he said at Friday’s gathering organized by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
Maloney said Fields, who she called a neighborhood institution, has “an energetic spirit and zeal for his work.”
Fields, best known for an album titled “Bagels and Bongos,” tapped into an interest for Latin music among the Jewish community in the 1950s and still takes request for such signature tunes as “Miami Beach Rhumba.”
The centenarian started performing in New York City in the 1920s.
Look up his name on YouTube and you will find a playlist of almost 200 videos of Fields playing music that evokes the feeling of a cocktail party in a sunken lounge room. He said he has sold more than 2 million albums.
Propped up on his piano stool by two cushions, Fields blew out the candles on his piano-shaped birthday cake Friday and said, “I can’t believe this, am I in heaven.”
Penn & Teller recoup show’s costs
Magical duo Penn & Teller have managed to make money appear out of thin air on Broadway: They’ve recouped their show’s $2.85 million capitalization.
Penn & Teller – Penn Jillette, the taller, louder part of the group, and Raymond Teller, his small, silent partner – started their latest show July 7 at the Marquis Theatre. It closes Aug. 16.
The show celebrates new and old tricks and bursts the traditional pretensions of stage magic. Its tent poles have the pair pulling a rabbit out of a hat, sawing a woman in half and making a pygmy elephant vanish.
The birthday bunch
Actor Richard Anderson is 89. Singer Mel Tillis is 83. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 78. Actress Connie Stevens is 77. Actor Larry Wilcox is 68. Actor Keith Carradine is 66. Percussionist Anton Fig is 62. Actor Donny Most is 62. TV personality Deborah Norville is 57. Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 54. Rock singer Scott Stapp is 42. Singer JC Chasez (’N Sync) is 39.