Identical twins, and virtuoso musicians, Peter and Will Anderson, return to 59E59 for a month-long residency dedicated to four masters of the Great American Songbook: Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers. Each week, starting August 2, the Anderson brothers and their band, will play popular and lesser known titles by these masters of jazz. We spoke to the siblings about their love of the genre, their favorite songs by the composers in their shows, and who they’d like to see playing them in a biopic.

When did you guys realize you wanted to make music together?

Peter: We started when we were 9, we really set off each other, there was a lot of competition but also comradery and support. We grew up in DC and when we were about 14 our parents took us to the Village Vanguard in NYC, and when we heard that show we knew we wanted to continue playing jazz throughout high school and all through our lives.

What were you like in high school? Did you listen only to jazz albums or did you also listen to rock, punk and the other genres teenagers associate with high school?

Peter: We were pretty focused on jazz, we did some classical stuff, we also played in a ska band, maybe some Latin bands, but jazz was our focus. We were into small group jazz, big bands, and in DC there was just so much going on. There were great teachers, military big bands from the Air Force, Navy and Army.

What artists did you listen to that you wanted to grow up to be like?

Peter: That’s a loaded question. When we first went to the Village Vanguard we listened to Cedar Walton and Jackie McLean, both of whom have passed away by now, but were hugely inspirational. When we moved to NYC we went to Juilliard and Wynton Marsalis who was the director was definitely an influence. There are also people like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Charlie Parker...these people were who we wanted to sound like.

You guys are gonna be playing almost every day for a whole month, and you’ll be dedicating shows to four incredible composers. How was it to narrow the song selection?

Will: This is a very special opportunity for us, not only to delve into a lot of the songs instead of one or two, but also to showcase the different styles of each composer and their strengths. Even if each of them was so prolific, we want to show they had their distinct style. Dedicating a week to each of them is a real luxury.

Peter: All the great musicians I mentioned earlier have played these songs, so they’re very familiar with us, here we have the opportunity to dig more into the lengthy songbooks of each. We’re gonna play about 12 songs per show, and there were maybe about 50 that were good enough to go in. Just imagine the first week, Cole Porter’s songs were sung by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald...they were so hard to do.

Which song from each of the composers do you think is their most underrated, and you’d love to highlight?

Peter: Cole Porter’s songs in jazz are done as uptempos, there’s very few ballads that are often heard, so we’ll be playing “Every Time We Say Goodbye”, that’s one that’s less heard than the other ones. A lot of Arlen songs are very popular, so I’d go with “That Old Black Magic”, on to Gershwin I’d say “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from Porgy and Bess, and Rodgers I’d say “It Might as Well Be Spring”.

Molly Ryan will be your guest vocalist, how did you end up working with her?

Will: We met Molly about 10 years ago now, through her husband who is a saxophone player who is very good friends with us. Molly has a great reverence for these songs, she has lots of experience singing all these songs sung by Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. She knows this repertoire very well, she knows these songs in and out already, she has a velvety sound to her voice, kind of in the lower register which I particularly like. In the Arlen songbook there are a lot of big leaps, they aren’t easy to sing, but Molly always does such a great job.

Will, what’s your favorite song to hear your brother play?

Will: I think it’s a Richard Rodgers’ song we’ll do in the fourth week of the show, called “My Romance”. Whenever Pete plays this song I remind the audience he’s the more romantic between the two of us.

Your turn, Peter.

Peter: “Stormy Weather”.

Will, what song that your brother hasn’t played would you love to hear him tackle?

Will: We’re gonna be doing some new shows I’ve never heard him play so I’m excited about that, I really like Gershwin’s “I’ve Got a Crush on You” so I’m looking forward to that.

What about you, Peter?

Peter: One we really haven’t done is a little bit outside of the American Songbook repertoire is “Rhapsody in Blue” because it’s an instrumental piece. We’re gonna be doing a unique arrangement of it and I’m going to give my brother the clarinet part because he’s awesome and up for the challenge.

If you’d had the opportunity to play in any of the famous big bands which one would you have liked to play in?

Peter: Definitely Duke Ellington’s band. He composed over one thousand pieces, his career spanned many decades, in the 20s he was very traditional and by the 70s he was playing the most modern, avant garde sound.

Will: The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra is incredible, they’re doing a lot of new commissions and traveling all over the world. Playing with that ensemble would be a dream come true.

There was a time when they made incredibly lush biopics and we haven’t seen many of those anymore. If someone made a movie about the two of you, with the same actor playing you both, who would you want to see as yourselves and what standard would you use to call the movie?

Peter: I saw La La Land recently and liked the message of the movie, I liked the authenticity it has about jazz, it gets it right, so I’d say Ryan Gosling.

Will: There’s been some good movies recently like the ones about Chet Baker and Miles Davis, for a title I’d go with “Lush Life”, which is one of my favorites by Billy Strayhorn.

For tickets and more information click here.