BELLOWS FALLS — Only 58 times during the past 400 years has New Year's Eve coincided with a Saturday night.
The New Year's Eve celebration is a modern spectacle that took its big American leap in 1904 when The New York Times turned the night into a secular blowout. It was a Saturday in 1904 when the Times commemorated their new headquarters in the recently renamed Times Square.
A few years later the ball started dropping and Times Square became the center of the universe, at least at midnight on New Year's Eve.
In recognition of this very rare anniversary, Popolo is hosting a jazz extravaganza. Rebecca Holtz performs, accompanied by world-renowned saxophonist Scott Mullett and a cadre of extraordinary musicians from the region, according to a news release.
A native of Walpole, N.H., Holtz discovered her fondness for jazz at age eight and studied at the Vermont Jazz Center. She has shared the stage with Samirah Evans, Charles Neville, and others.
With her musical combo, The Once Hollow, she has performed at the Windham Ballroom, where she sold out the room. Now living on the West Coast, Holtz is making this special holiday appearance in honor of the 59th Saturday New Year's Eve in the last four centuries.
Mullett, also part of the faculty of Keene State College, has performed with Artie Shaw, Mel Tormé, Woody Herman, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Stan Getz and many others. He's joined on New Year's Eve by guitarist Draa Hobbs, bassist Steve Cady, and drummer Jon Fisher.
The performance begins at 10 p.m. and will go past midnight. The next time New Year's Eve falls on a Saturday is in 2022.