Come wish our proprietor a happy birthday!

Acclaimed drummer (and One Flight Up owner) Joe Strasser moved to New York City in 1990 to attend the famed jazz program at the New School. He's since played with a "who's who" of jazz, including George Coleman, Harold Mabern, Etta Jones, Cecil Payne, Jane Monheit, Hillary Kole, Peter Bernstein, and countless others. Joe also co-led the Hotpants, a funk band he founded with Roots/Jimmy Fallon saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith.

Johnny O'Neal is a GRAMMY nominated pianist and vocalist, known for his soulfully swinging, humorous, and emotionally relatable performances. His concerts naturally blend a wide range of musical styles . He has performed or  with  Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Anita O'Day, Rosemary Clooney, Carmen McCrae, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Clark Terry, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, and many more.

​O'Neal began in the music world early on as a prodigious young teenager winning the 2nd Annual James Cleveland youth gospel piano competition in Kansas City.  He would be discovered by bassist Ray Brown who facilitated O'Neal's first album.  In coming years he would tour with  Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Buddy DeFranco, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Carmen McRae and many more, and touring as lead singer with Ray Charles' shortly following the great artist's transition.  In 1988 O'Neal's album "Soulful Swinging" was listed as jazz album of the year in U.S.A Today magazine, as a tie with Branford Marsalis.  

​​​​Since his 2010 return to New York via Alabama and Detroit, Mr. O'Neal was brought in to the silver screen, at piano legend Oscar Peterson's recommendation, to portray Art Tatum alongside Jamie Foxx in the Ray Charles biopic "Ray." Living in New York afforded a reconnection to much of the local hub and chances to perform with Ron Carter, Harry Connick Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Barry Harris and a great many more. He's held residencies at Smalls, Smoke, Birdland, and the Blue Note and was a featured singer and/or pianist at the Village Vanguard with artists like Peter Bernstein, Roy Hargrove, Aaron Parks, and Barry Harris. His Trio takes a seasonal style of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and his rhythm section alumni are footholds in music today. In 2014 he was the first performer at the now staple "Mezzrow."  It was one of the many times the New York Times has interviewed him.​

​​Internationally Mr. O'Neal packs concert halls and clubs, with old friends like the Blue Note Milan and the Duc de Lombards as well as new audiences in Shanghai, Beijing. In 2025 Mr. O'Neal was awarded a Jazz Legacy Fellowship from the Jazz Foundation of America.