(PRWEB)May, 2010 -- Michael Longo, former pianist and musical director for Dizzy Gillespie, will perform at the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, in the heart of Greenwich Village, on May 4th. Longo will appear with his 18 piece band and jazz and blues great Ira Hawkins. The theater, located in the NYC Baha'i Center at 53 E. 11th St. (between University Place and Broadway), was dedicated to the late Dizzy Gillespie on Jan. 6, 2004, on the eleventh anniversary of Gillespie's death. Longo and his 18-piece band have been raising the roof there with hard-swinging arrangements that won them the #1 band of the year award in the 2004 as well as CD of the year in the 2007 South American Jazz Poll. His appearance in October of 2009 to honor Gillespie's 92nd birthday was to a standing room only crowd of eager jazz fans. "I was just amazed at the response," says Longo, who has been playing jazz professionally for over forty years. "The house was completely sold out with standing room only, and people were even paying five dollars just to stand in the lobby to hear the music without being able to see us."