Friday March 6, 2026 7pm

Val Hawk sings “New Standards’ with Nicki Adams and Yoshi Waki

Westbeth Community Space
155 Bank Street
(enter through courtyard)
New York, NY 10014

Jazz composer and singer, Val Hawk performs a collection of her originals. Following in the tradition of the Great American Songbook, Val will have you laughing, crying and tapping your feet, maybe all at once!

Do not miss this unique, sublime and sometimes quirky, original artist/composer in the intimate and acoustically incredible Westbeth Community Room – here at the home of Sound Innovation…historic Westbeth! Free!

VAL HAWK made her Television debut in 1994, playing guitar and singing the voice of Becky Sue in Schoolhouse Rock’s “Dollars and Sense”. As a member of jazz vocal group The Ritz, she played, sang and arranged on their CD, “Almost Blue” (Denon). For the Japanese pop market, she can be heard on “Seventies Reminiscense” (Columbia Japan) and “A Long Vacation” for which she provided English lyrics. Her CD “Dream” with guest star, Bob Dorough, was released in 2013 and streams on Spotify, Apple Music and You Tube. She has appeared internationally at the Fukuoka, Tokyo, and Jakarta BlueNote, and in festivals and concerts in Vienna, Milan and Amsterdam. Val spent many years performing in well known venues like The Blue Note, Kitano, Jazz WaHi and here in the Village at The 55 Bar, NorthSquare Lounge, Entwine and Pangea. In the last several years, Val has produced a collection of eclectic originals, which she is in the process of recording. Her Birthday show will be an autobiographical journey highlighted by anecdotes and originals from her showbiz past. Cake to follow!
@therealvalhawk

YOSHI WAKI
Originally from Fukuoka, Japan, bassist and composer Yoshi Waki played piano in high school, where he developed an interest in jazz. At university in Tokyo, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering, he met another jazz pianist and switched to double bass so they could play together. He had his first gig on bass just three months later. In 1996 he moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. After graduating, he spent two years on the road with the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical, “Fosse,” before settling in New York. A sought-after sideman, Yoshi plays frequently around the city. He appears on over 70 recordings for artists including Art Hirahara, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, Deborah Harry, Freddie Cole, Harry Whitaker, Kenia, Paquito D’Rivera, Randy Johnston, Shunzo Ohno, Bill Ware, Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, William Galison, and many others; he can also be heard on Dan Zanes and Friends’ “Catch That Train!” (Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children), and Chihiro Yamanaka’s “After Hours” (23rd Japan Gold Disc Award for Jazz Album of the Year). Waki taught music theory and jazz ensemble at Long Island University.

NICKI ADMAMS is a New York–based composer and pianist who has worked with artists such as Francisco Mela, Jonathon Pinson, Stacey Dillard, and François Moutin, and has appeared on NPR’s Soundcheck and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre. A Steeplechase recording artist and finalist in the 2022 Bob Ravenscroft International Jazz Piano Competition, he has released six albums as a leader, scored award-nominated films including A Wonderful Way With Dragons, and toured nationally and internationally with his own groups, GADADU,Prism Trio and the Adams Quartet.