Straight Up! feat. Nick Hempton: The Music of Wes Montgomery

($25-$35 Tickets + DICE fees | 6:30pm & 8:30pm Shows | 16+) Brooklyn-based guitar trio Straight Up! and saxophonist Nick Hempton bring a night of swinging Wes Montgomery tunes to the Century Room. The classic 1962 record “Full House”, featuring the meeting of guitarist Wes Montgomery and tenor titan Johnny Griffin, inspired Straight Up! to curate a night of hard-bop classics from Montgomery’s book. Expect groovy deep cuts, soulful standards, and familiar hits with a twist. Straight Up! is a guitar trio featuring Reed Miller on guitar, Sam Trapchak on bass and Andrew Kushnir on drums. Formed in summer 2021 through outdoor concerts in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, the group unearths rarely heard bebop and hard-bop repertoire from mid-century jazz composers. Straight Up! is a recipient of a 2025 Jazz Road touring grant and performs regularly in Manhattan at Smalls Jazz Club, Midnight Blue, The Red Room and more. Nick Hempton is an alto and tenor saxophonist, playing swinging jazz music for the people. A veteran of the New York scene, he fills rooms big and small throughout the city, as well as concert halls and festivals around the world. Influenced by the greats of the instrument– Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderley– and informed by a misspent youth playing Rhythm & Blues and Ska in his native Australia, Hempton’s jazz is “gritty, entertaining, and thoroughly modern.” (Flophouse Magazine) Nick Hempton (axophone) Reed Miller (guitar) Sam Trapchak (bass) Andrew Kushnir (drums)