Roundup: Wynton Marsalis, Nile Rodgers, Alison Milwe Grace …

The Levitt Pavilion has hosted some Big Names.

Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson and Frankie Valli are just a few of the greats to grace the riverfront stage.

Next up: Wynton Marsalis.

Before the world-renowned managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center heads into his final season, he’ll be in Westport on Sunday, June 28.

The evening opens with a set by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra at 6 p.m. A 2-set performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with Marsalis, follows at 7.

Pre-sale to Levitt Pavilion members is underway now (click here; for membership information, click here). Tickets for the general public begin at 10 a.m. Friday (May 1; click here).

Wynton Marsalis

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Speaking of entertainment: The New York Times has just posted their list of “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters.”

And #1 — making him the greatest of all the greatest — is Westport’s own Nile Rodgers.

Okay: The list is unranked. But still, our neighbor is the first one you see.

More than 250 music insiders and 6 Times critics “weighed in on who defines the new American songbook.”

Rodgers’ writeup says:

The titles tell the story. “Good Times.” “I Want Your Love.” “Lost in Music.” “Everybody Dance.” “My Feet Keep Dancing.” “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).”

The songs of Nile Rodgers distill the spirit of disco’s heyday: long nights, bright lights, romance, sex and, above all, the communal rapture of bodies moving in unison, following inexorable grooves to a distant plane where the laws of physics seem no longer to apply — at least until the cops show up.

Together with his songwriting partner, the bassist Bernard Edwards (who died in 1996), Rodgers co-founded Chic, the de facto house band of New York’s late-70s disco boom.

A legendary hard partyer, Rodgers was both a habitué of Manhattan’s club scene and its shrewdest chronicler. In the songs he and Edwards composed for Chic and other artists, the gritty glamour of the local demimonde — Black and white and Latino, gay and straight and in between — became a global ideal, immortalized in anthems of freedom and transgression that rippled across the planet.

Click here for the full list. It’s a great one.

Of course, reasonable people can quibble.

I’ll start: Where is our fellow Westporter, Staples High School’s own Justin Paul?!

(Hat tip: Mark Mathias, and half of Westport too.)

Nile Rodgers

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Speaking of music: Listen up, jazz fans!

Tomorrow, the Jazz Society of Fairfield County (aka JazzFC) hosts a free Professional Development Day for professional and pre-professional jazz performers and composers.

The April 30 event runs from noon to 5 p.m., at VFW Post 399.

The afternoon includes sessions on promotion and public relations, booking and self-management, and financial planning — all tailored specifically for jazz musicians.

Saxophonist and educator Vincent Herring will deliver the keynote, on developing and sustaining a life in jazz.

This free program is open to working jazz artists and pre-professionals, ages 18 and up. Registration is required; click here.

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Alison Milwe Grace is Connecticut’s Best Female Caterer!

The award — based on voting by CTbites readers — was presented Monday night at New Haven’s Marcel Hotel.

Alison — a Staples High School graduate (and culinary teacher, cookbook author and Food Network competitor) — owns and operates AMG Catering & Events.

For 30 years they’ve served Fairfield and Westchester Counties with 5-course, intimate dinner parties, festive bridal and baby showers, memorable weddings, creative bar and bat mitzvahs, and original fundraisers.

Monday’s event — CTbites’ “It’s a Woman’s World: An Evening to Inspire, Connect and Celebrate CT’s Women in Culinary” — honored “many inspiring and trailblazing females in Connecticut’s culinary industry.” Best Female Caterer was one of 11 categories.

Congratulations, Alison! We’re sure it was a great night.

And we hope the catering was almost as good as yours. (Hat tip: Pat Micinilio)

Alison Milwe Grace, at the CTbites ceremony Monday night.

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The Westport Garden Club‘s annual plant springs to life on Saturday, May 9.

The hyper-local event (9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Jesup Green) features a bumper crop of over 1,000 perennial plants.

While many sales stock nursery-bought inventory, this one’s 100% homegrown.

Every club member either donates at least 20 nurtured perennials from their personal garden, or joins a “digging team.”

Those teams spend weeks visiting local gardens, to divide and pot plants carefully.

So every plant is “Westport-proven” — already acclimated to our soil and climate. They’re hardy, and ready to thrive in your yard.

So far, the Diggers have potted, weeded and labeled over 100 plants. They’re watered daily, ensuring peak condition for the sale.

Beyond the perennials, there are Connecticut native plants, farm-fresh tomatoes and herbs, hand-crafted Mother’s Day planters and arrangements, and a bake sale.

Westport Garden Club’s plant sale: a sneak peek.

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The next Veterans Benefits Luncheon is tomorrow (Thursday, April 30, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), VFW Post 399).

It’s open to all veterans as part of an ongoing effort to check in on all veterans’ welfare, and connect them with the benefits and support they earned.

Representatives will answer questions, and provide information on services and assistance available to veterans.

RSVPs are encouraged (but not required). Email vfw399ct@gmail.com, and include the number of attendees, or call (203) 227-6796.

PS: If you’re not a veteran, but know one: Please pass the word!

VFW benefits luncheon.

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The Harlem Stories Project — a non-profit founded by 2004 Staples High graduate Sarah Bennett, which empowers middle schoolers to tell stories of their West Harlem neighborhood, after interviewing residents — performed their 3rd original show earlier this month. It was co-written by Bennett and fellow Players alum Ginny Levy.

PIX 11 News was there. They reported on the event, and posted a video (click here or below).

You can follow the Harlem Stories Project on Instagram, or click here to support them with a donation.

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Staples High School Class of 1983 graduate, and longtime Westport resident Kristin Thornton died peacefully April 22, after a long illness.

She attended Marymount College. Kristin studied abroad for a year at the University of Stirling in Scotland, an experience she cherished deeply.

She spent 35 years in operations at Morgan Stanley. She was devoted to her work and colleagues.

Kristin was deeply loved by her 3 nieces and nephews. “They eagerly awaited her frequent visits, her brilliantly simple words of wisdom, and the legendary sleepovers that featured far more cartoon marathons than actual sleep,” her obituary says.

She is survived by her mother, Kathleen Thornton; sister Stephanie Moore Girling (Steve); brother William Thornton (Jessica Branson); nieces and nephews, Elizabeth, Savannah and Spencer Girling; aunt and uncle, Gail and Alan Shea; aunt Deenie Thornton, and many cousins.

Kristin was predeceased by her father, Richard Thornton, and uncles Robert Doyle, John Thornton Jr. and William Thornton.

A funeral service is set for St. Luke’s Church on Friday, May 1 (11 a.m.), followed by a reception and burial at Willowbrook Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Healthcare Workers Fund at the Maefair Center for Health and Rehabilitation in Trumbull.

Kristin Thornton

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No, today’s “Westport … Naturally” featured photo is not from “The Wizard of Oz.”

It could be — but Candice Cardenas’ Old Road image is even more glorious.

(Photo/Candice Cardenas)

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And finally … as the music world mourns the death of Nedra Talley Ross — the last surviving member of the Ronettes, the beloved 1960s girl group, who died on Sunday, age 80, in Virginia — there is a local connection.

When the Beatles toured the US in 1966, both the Ronettes and the Remains were opening acts.

And the Remains — the legendary garage band, featuring Westporters Barry Tashian on guitar and vocals, and Bill Briggs on keyboards — served as the backup band for Nedra and her cousins, Veronica (Ronnie) and Estelle Bennett.

Click here for a full obituary. (Hat tip: Fred Cantor)

Barry Tashian (center) and the Remains, backing up the Ronettes on the Beatles’ 1966 tour. (Screenshot from “America’s Lost Band.”)

(“06880” is where the Ronettes meet the Remains — and Westport meets the world. If you enjoy those meetings — or anything on our hyper-local blog — please click here to support our work. Thanks!)