Jerry Vivino spent the better part of three decades as the saxophonist in Conan O’Brien’s television band — first with the Max Weinberg 7 on NBC beginning in 1993, then through the TBS run that ended in 2021. It was nightly work at the intersection of jazz, pop, and rhythm section precision, in front of a network audience. An annual December residency at a 150-cap jazz club on Route 9W in the Hudson Valley is not a step down from that. It is a different answer to the same question about what a saxophone player does with an ensemble.
About the Show
For the 2026 edition of his recurring Jingle Bell Jazz Holiday Show at The Falcon, Vivino brings Tomoko Ohno on piano, Rodney Jones on guitar, Jay Anderson on bass, and Adam Nussbaum on drums. Nussbaum appeared in the 2023 edition of this annual show as well; the lineup shifts year to year, though the professional caliber remains consistent. The program draws from jazz, rhythm and blues, and holiday standards — the blend this show has carried through its prior December dates at The Falcon.
Vivino’s résumé runs in every direction from that late-night foundation. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music, toured with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and worked Broadway shows including Annie, Cats, A Chorus Line, and Grease before the television gig arrived. His recording career includes collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, James Brown, and Wynton Marsalis, and he is a member of The Fab Faux, a Beatles tribute band. His contribution to Dion’s 2020 album Blues with Friends helped push that record to No. 1 on the Billboard blues chart. The venue’s own description of the full ensemble is accurate and not oversold: the musicians’ résumés, it notes, “read like a Who’s Who in music.”
Venue & Logistics
The Falcon holds 150. For jazz performed at this level, that is not incidental. The room is intimate enough that the rhythm section’s conversation surfaces underneath the horn, the piano voicing clear behind the guitar. It is the kind of layering that larger halls absorb; here it stays audible. The club sits along Route 9W in Marlboro, in the Hudson Valley. Dining is available from 5:30 to 9 p.m. No reservations are required. Music begins at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 27.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets