In popular music, is there such a thing as a New York sound? Ask pianist/cabaret star Mark Nadler, and he’ll point without hesitation to George Gershwin. “Gershwin created this incredibly complex amalgamation of American jazz chords, serious music and Jewish liturgical music,” he says. “It’s a staccato sound, an anti-Viennese phrase, that we hear as New York.” With Nadler and vocalist KT Sullivan, his onstage partner, as interpreters, the songs of Gershwin and his lyricist sibling, Ira, are definitely Here to Stay, which just happens to be the name of their salute to the Brothers G at the Oak Room at the Algonquin (59 W. 44th St., 1-212-840-6800; Mar. 9-Apr. 10)

When Ella Fitzgerald sang a Gershwin tune, audiences melted. “Ella inspired me with her clarity and innate musicianship that was beyond anything that can be taught,” says Freda Payne, whose single “Band of Gold” topped the pop charts in 1970. Payne’s voice has aged like fine wine, and this month her bluesy, soulful sound fills the Iridium Jazz Club (1650 Broadway, 1-212-582-2121; Mar. 25-28) in a heartfelt tribute to her idol.

Singer/pianist Michael Feinstein was 21 years old when he became Ira Gershwin’s assistant. He has since gone on to become a revered keeper of the Gershwin catalog and the owner of a posh nightspot, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency (540 Park Ave., 1-212-339-4095), where rock ’n’ roll legend Chubby Checker marks the 50th anniversary of “The Twist” with a gig (Mar. 23-27). Checker and Feinstein’s might seem like an odd fit, but not to Checker, who says (in the third person), “Chubby’s audience was always high society. In 1961, Zsa Zsa Gabor wanted to have some fun, so she danced The Twist at the Peppermint Lounge and the world went crazy. She and New York City put Chubby on the map.”

Checker is not the only one bringing something different to a New York nightclub this month. Broadway diva Lea Salonga, who won a 1991 Tony Award for Miss Saigon, makes her cabaret debut at Café Carlyle (35 E. 76th St., 1-212-744-1600; Mar. 9-27). “On Broadway, everything is larger than life,” she says. “Here I can reveal myself in a whisper. I love the intimacy. Musical theater is like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I’m going to continue to walk the buffet and do some tasting. Cabaret is a wonderful dish for now.”

Almost every form of popular music heard in nightclubs and jazz joints in New York can be traced back to Salonga’s buffet—Broadway. Without the Great White Way, the Great American Songbook would be a very slim volume. The Gershwins, for example, were prolific composers for the Broadway stage, and many of their show tunes became standards, immortalized by performers like Frank Sinatra. Sinatra appeared on Broadway only once, in a 1975 concert engagement with Fitzgerald and Count Basie, but 12 years after his death, the Chairman of the Board is the undisputed “star” of a new musical, Come Fly Away (Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, 1-877-250-2929). Twyla Tharp has choreographed a love story to original Sinatra recordings and set it in a nightclub with a 19-piece big band onstage.

A self-confessed Sinatra acolyte is jazz guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli, who reveres yesterday’s musical values. “People like Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel taught me how to hold court over a crowd,” he says. “Like them, I have an eye on the material—I’ll do a unique take on a familiar song or I’ll find songs that no one knows at all.” At Birdland (315 W. 44th St., 1-212-581-3080; Mar. 9-13), he practices what he preaches in a homage to Duke Ellington.

Jazz violin virtuoso Regina Carter, like Pizzarelli—and Gershwin before him—is an adventurer, always looking for the next musical line to cross. “I’m classically trained, but jazz haunted me—the rhythm, the improvisation—and I had to follow my passion,” she says of the unusual turn her career took. At Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway, at W. 60th St., 1-212-258-9595; Mar. 23-28), she performs African folkloric pieces rearranged for modern jazz from her new CD, Reverse Thread.

So, if there is a New York sound—and there is—it’s a harmonious hybrid of jazz, soul, world music, Broadway and a little bit rock ’n’ roll. To paraphrase Lea Salonga, it’s an all-you-can-hear buffet.