Billie Holiday News

Singing sensation Veronic DiCaire will make her highly anticipated return to Bally's Las Vegas for performances from May 14 - June 13, 2015. The vocal impressionist, who just completed a tour in Europe, will take the stage in VERONIC Voices for 14 performances that go on sale Friday, April 24 at 10 a.m. PT.

Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. will co-headline a very special "Centennial Salute To Sinatra and Billie Holiday" Friday night May 1st at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, NJ, in suburban Philadelphia.

A thrilling new production of Jim Cartwright's much-loved The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse this spring. The Olivier award-winning play about the painfully shy but hugely talented Little Voice and her faultless impersonations of the greatest divas will be directed by James Brining, artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse and stars Vicky Entwistle, Chris Gascoyne and Nancy Sullivan.

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA), headed by renowned dancer/choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the Duke's granddaughter, will celebrate Ellington's 116th birthday this year on Saturday, April 25, with a musical tribute to five other legendary jazz performers from 1 to 3 PM in front of the towering Duke Ellington Statue in the Plaza at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street.

Entertainer, vocalist and jazz aficionado Keith A. Dames presents a centennial celebration of Billie Holiday at 'Homage To Eleanora' on Friday, April 24th at Manna House (338 E. 106th Street) in East Harlem at 7:00pm.

Grammy-nominated jazz singer Barbara Morrison will perform at the Catalina Bar & Grill tonight, April 18. The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

Accomplished jazz clarinetist and tenorman, Frank Griffith travels from England to Lancaster to perform two unique concerts tonight, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. His performance on April 17 is promised to wrap up the Ware Center's season of the Jazz in the Sky performances on a high note. The concert begins at 7:30 pm at the Ware Center located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster. On Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Frank Griffith will join the 10th Annual Single Reed Symposium and finish the evening as a guest artist in the Jazz & Java concert on campus at Gordinier Hall located at 40 S. George Street, Millersville.

Recognized worldwide for her soul-stirring solo performance of "God is Trying to Tell You Something" in the classic film The Color Purple, actress and vocalist Maria Howell - also known for recent recurring roles on NBC's "Revolution" and Lifetime's "Devious Maids" - is making her Los Angeles singing debut on Sunday, April 26 at 7:00pm at The Colony Theatre at 555 North Third Street in Burbank.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its May 2015 schedule, featuring The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, BossaBrasil, Diane Schuur, Freddy Cole Quartet, Barbara Carroll, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more! Scroll down for details.

?Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah (“Chicago”) stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees (“Pariah”) from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

The Hill House Association (www.hillhouse.org) will present six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald in concert for one night only. The performance will begin at 8 p.m. tonight, April 15(th) at the landmark Byham Theater.

MIGHTY REAL: A FABULOUS SYLVESTER MUSICAL, the hit musical celebration of the life and music of the original 1970s "Queen of Disco," Sylvester, returns to Washington, D.C. for one special performance at The Howard Theatre (620 T Street, NW; Washington, D.C. 20001) on Monday, May 25th, 2015 (doors open at 6:00pm; 7:00pm curtain). Tickets are priced from $69.50 - $89.50 and are now on sale online at www.FabulousSylvester.com.

This weekend, April 9-12, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Billie Holiday Festival will honor Billie Holiday celebrating an artist of monumental innovation on the centennial of her birth. The Billie Holiday Festival will include three nights of concerts and pre-concert discussions at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located at Broadway at 60th Street, New York, New York.

Grammy-nominated jazz singer Barbara Morrison will perform at the Catalina Bar & Grill on April 18. The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

Monday night found me back at Zeb's on the West Side for another of Will Friedwald's iconoclastic 'Clip Joints'--this one in honor of the Billie Holiday Centennial. During a year that is already producing a glut of celebratory events (given that it's also the Frank Sinatra Centennial year), leave it to the intriguing and obsessive writer/journalist/producer to come up with something different. Instead of a roster of vocalists live or on film, performing material we now think of reflexively as belonging to Lady Day, we were offered the singular piano interpretations of Lara Downes, recollections by alto saxophonist Jerry Dodgion (who at age 22 played with Holiday), and eclectic clips from television and film appearances of the artist herself.

Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Billie Holiday on April 7, 2015, Universal Music Enterprises honors the iconic artist with the simultaneous digital release of 17 classic Holiday albums.

On the heels of their successful production Brothers from the Bottom starring Wendell Pierce, a play about gentrification, The Billie Holiday Theatre (BHT) is pleased to announce the world premiere of Dancing on Eggshells by award-winning playwright Cynthia G. Robinson and directed by the Billie Holiday Theatre's own Cezar Williams.

In 1948, a decade before Motown, black businessman and entrepreneur John Dolphin opened his soon-to-be world famous Dolphin's of Hollywood record store in South Los Angeles, just off legendary Central Avenue. Bringing this little-known slice of L.A. history to life on stage, the world premiere of Recorded in Hollywood opens at the Lillian Theatre on April 11. Scroll down for photos of the real Dolphin family and their iconic business!

International touring and recording artist Clairdee joins forces with the Capital Jazz Orchestra, Clayton 'Skip' Poole, Music Director, for a very special 100th birthday tribute to the great “Lady Day”, Billie Holiday, on Friday, May 15, at 7:30pm. Based in San Francisco, Clairdee will be performing such Billie classics as “Travelin' Light,” “Any Old Time,” and “God Bless the Child,” along with many other selections featuring both the big band and the more intimate CJO combo.