WE (OKAY, THAT MEANS ME) TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN THE WIDE VARIETY OF MUSICAL STYLES that get up on the Birdland stage every Monday night for Cast Party. Last Monday was especially off-the-wall eclectic -- and really good, too, which is not always the case. My guest-host, critic/producer Scott Siegel, who went wild with the clothing choices (more on that in a minute), really brought in a ton of talented people to entertain the masses. One of the show-stopping moments of the evening was the Cast Party debut of thirteen-year-old Beka Goschiashvilla (left, thanks to Stephen Sorokoff) who was the youngest winner ever of some sort of mind-blowing jazz competition. If you weren't told that he was thirteen, you might have thought he was ten, but this kid played like George Shearing. Scott tells me he's coming back next Monday so we (now I mean you and me) are really excited to hear that. Another Cast Party debut, Carole Bufford, a beautiful young slip of a girl, sang Folsom Prison Blues and brought the house down. She's a particular Siegel find. Then there was the UK/European star who last year became a New York Nightclub sensation, Barb Jungr, who came to Cast Party for the first time. Kristin Dausch, who just returned to New York from Dallas with the kind of reviews performers die for for her performance there of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, also made her Cast Party debut. She sang "I'm the Greatest Star" and apparently she is! She was one of Scott's Rising Stars in a concert at Town Hall last July. So many great new people with such interesting names like Sigali Hamberger, Sierra Rein, and Nadine Zahr. Heard they were all fantastic. Great to have the incomparable Ray Jessel back, who turns 80 this month and has a great song to commemorate his birthday. Oh, and of course he sang the weiner song, too. How could he not? Back also was Mark Watson, you know, the Carnegie Hall guy from last week? Well, this week he sang unplugged (no mike, folks) and wowed everybody with that great big, gorgeous voice. Speaking of loud, there was guest host Scott with an ever-changing array of purple and orange pants and eye-popping shirts (I promised his wife, Barbara, that I wouldn't call them blouses). And to top it off, he joined Ray Jessel in birthday-land, announcing at midnight that it was his birthday, too. And he, happily (no offense, Ray), is not eighty. Yet. Happy Birthday, Scott. Heard only great things about the evening and these are just some of them.