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MIDDLETOWN: NANCY’S MUSICAL FIREWORKS

Nancy ScharffVeteran denizens of the greater Red Bank Green may remember Nancy Scharff for the annual Christmas extravaganzas she presented in seasons past at the Count Basie Theatre — some big joyous benefits that found the Middletown-based devotional singer, songwriter, musician, choirmaster, producer, conductor, and educator taking on yet another role: that of shepherdess tending to a flock of choral performers, orchestra members, rock bandmates, kid choirs, bell ringers, event volunteers and interactively inclined audience members that numbered in the hundreds.

While those logistically complex events have taken a hiatus in recent times, Scharff remains very much on the scene; as a faculty member with Red Bank’s Monmouth Conservatory of Music, as a busy music-maker who’s even been known to hit the sidewalks as a Red Bank Street Life performer — and as the long-standing music director at King of Kings Lutheran Church, the New Monmouth landmark that’s served as the globally touring artist’s home base for decades.

Nancy’s Christmas shows have long had a summer-season cousin in the annual God and Country Patriotic Concert, the 2016 edition of which returns to King of Kings this Friday evening, June 24.

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RED BANK: STREETLIFE HITS THE BRICKS AGAIN

StLifeStrumberryStrumberry Pie is among the musical acts returning to the sidewalks and storefronts of downtown Red Bank, for the latest edition of Street Life on Saturday. 

Sure, other towns have staked a claim to being that quasi-mystical place Where Music Lives — but when Red Bank StreetLife continues its Saturday evening schedule on June 14, it will transform the Borough of Basie into that place where Music greets visitors who arrive by rail; where Music provides an eclectic soundtrack to shopping and dining; and where Music gets mobile, on the streets of the downtown and West Side business districts.

Having kicked off its 14th season of busking-after-dusk on June 7, StreetLife runs its weather-permitting slate — a shuffle mix that ranges from Americana to ethnic, and from Sweet Adeline harmonies to a friendly bit of harmonic dissonance — every Saturday between 6 and 9 pm, through August 30. Presented by Red Bank Rivercenter, it all happens in a series of outdoor encounters that span Broad Street to Bridge Avenue. You might even (literally) stumble across the next big thing — and you can take it around the bend to learn more about this Saturnight’s lineup.

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STEWART, WILLIAMS TAKE IT TO THE COUNT

Locally connected guys Brian Williams and Jon Stewart — pictured during one of the NBC news anchor’s frequent appearances on THE DAILY SHOW — team up on December 16 for a Hurricane Sandy Relief fundraiser at the Count Basie, with tickets going on sale at noon today.

By TOM CHESEK

Ask anyone who’s ever wound up in line with him at Welsh Farms or Super Foodtown. Scroll through those tweets and Facebook posts from your sister-in-law who was seated at the very next table from him at Blue Water Seafood. Remind yourself that of all the refuges in this great land, the most recognized political satirist of our time chose to make his double-wide domicile on the Red Bank side of the Navesink (a scoop first reported right here on redbankgreen). No two ways about it — Jon Stewart is a Local Guy.

Then consider the case of the internationally renowned newsman, whose first job in media was delivery boy for the old Courier weekly in Middletown. A major figure on the national scene, whose interviews are frequently peppered with references to Brookdale Community College, or the former Perkins Pancake House on Route 35. From his days at Mater Dei High School to his time as a volunteer firefighter, Brian Williams remains at heart a Local Guy.

Although the host of The Daily Show and the anchor of NBC Nightly News have sometimes blurred the discussion of “which one’s the journalist, and which one’s the jokester,” the two titans of television have forged a fast friendship over the years — guesting on each other’s shows (with Williams tallying more than 20 shots on Stewart’s cablecast), and joining forces for the occasional tandem appearance. That is, when they’re not variously hosting the Oscars, reporting from war zones, interviewing heads of state, or drawing over 200,000 people to a rally at the National Mall.

On Sunday, December 16, the two locals team up once again for a one-time, one-of-a-kind live appearance — this time on the stage of the Count Basie Theatre, where they’re scheduled to sit down with moderator (and New York Times media reporter) Bill Carter in a free-form event from which all proceeds go to benefit Monmouth and Ocean Counties for Hurricane Sandy Relief, and for which tickets go on sale at noon today, December 5.

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AT THE BASIE: A MULTITUDE OF VOICES

nancyscharff-493x319Middletown’s Nancy Scharff — and a heavenly host of helpers — present their annual celebration of Christmas in words and music Friday at the Count Basie Theatre.

As the founder of Nancy Scharff Ministries, Middletown-based Christian music artist Nancy Scharff is a globe-trotting singer-songwriter, choirmaster, music educator, producer, conductor, facilitator and a shepherdess tending her flock — so there’s no question she can be a one-woman show when the situation warrants.

But when the curtain goes up on the Count Basie stage this Friday night, December 16, the celebration entitled Nancy Scharff: Christmas — The Gift of Love teams the diminutive dynamo with an orchestra of 16 players, a six-piece contemporary Christian pop band, an ecumenical choir (featuring, in past performances, some 65 voices), an all-star gospel ensemble, a children’s choir that’s numbered as many as 80 kids — plus “Three Tenors” tenoring, and some two dozen bell choir ringers ringing.

Do the math and it tallies up to nearly 200 performers — a total that doesn’t even take into consideration the expected opportunities for the audience to get into the act.

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