William Tracey

New York based vocalist Teri Roiger recently released her fourth recording as a leader, 'GHOST OF YESTERDAY: Shades of Lady Day', a heartfelt tribute to Billie Holiday. Since Ms. Holiday provided the initial spark that led to a lifelong commitment to jazz, this one is especially personal to Teri.

“If they wrote'm like that today,” Catherine Russell sighs after a particularly saucy number during her show last night at Birdland, “I wouldn't have to go back 90 years.” A Russell show is like actually being there then--primarily from the early 1900s through the 1940s. Which is not to say the artist sacrifices her own, original phrasing for imitation, but rather that feelings evoked by stylish arrangements and spot-on attitude transport us. She offers her audiences vivid authenticity, musical backbone.

Last week, Betty Buckley returned to Joe's Pub to debut her newest cabaret concert DARK BLUE-EYED BLUES. Thrilled to have been recognized as a chanteuse in recent reviews, Buckley programmed the evening to be the "musings of a chanteuse," packing the set with standards and contemporary hits. The Broadway legend performed with tangible vivacity and charm, making this intimate evening a joy to experience.

Vocalist Joey Arias is not what he appears to the uninitiated. This is not a drag performer executing pastiche, but rather an artist serious about music with the talent to offer a full-blooded show. Lifelong affinity for Billie Holiday first professionally surfaced in 1987's Recording Arias on Holiday and continued with the Off-Broadway run of Strange Fruit, an homage to the icon. Her concert Wednesday night for Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, with evocative musical arrangement by Matt Ray, brings Arias' devotion "all the way from downtown above 14th Street."