BroadStage's Blackbox Series to Present Queen Esther With Jeff McLaughlin On Guitar

Next in BroadStage’s 2023/2024 blackbox series is a performance by Queen Esther with Jeff McLaughlin on guitar. They will perform on The Plaza on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 8:00pm. Curated by The Reverend Shawn Amos, this BroadStage signature series of blues rhythms lights up the night and includes dancing and drinks on The Plaza.

Making her BroadStage debut, the “brutal, original, explosive singer” (Vanity Fair) Queen Esther performs selections from her substantial body of alt-country, jazz, and Black Americana to fearlessly subvert all-too-common historical narratives, revealing the powerfully triumphant resolve of Black folk in the 19th century and now. On vocals, guitar, ukulele, she leans heavily on her latest release, “Rona,” a pandemic album that explores themes about love: those we hold close, near, and far, the ever-evolving landscape of a desolate city, and finding a place to call home in a changing and restless world. Queen Esther is joined on stage by guitarist Jeff McLaughlin whose “solos glowed and flashed... an aurora borealis of guitar” (Indianapolis Star).
 
Tickets starting at $20 are available at https://broadstage.org/ or by calling 310.434.3200. The Jazz & Blues Sponsors are Richard and Lisa Kendall. The blackbox Series Sponsors are Ann Petersen and Leslie Pam.
 

More About Queen Esther

After doing hard time in New York City as a bandleader, songwriter, lyricist and vocalist for everything from swing big bands to punk rock while working internationally as frontwoman for guitar icon James Blood Ulmer's various projects (including a stint with his powerhouse collective Odyssey), Lowcountry ATLien-turned-Harlemite Queen Esther landed an admin publishing deal with Bug Music and began producing and self-releasing her music, her way on her label EL Recordings.  Five critically acclaimed reclamation-driven alt-country/Black Americana + jazz albums later, she came out swinging in 2024 with Things Are Looking Up, a heady mix of original songs + Billie Holiday’s lost classics – released on April 9th, Lady Day’s birthday.  
 
“I was listening to one of my favorite songs by Miss Holiday – If The Moon Turns Green,” Queen Esther says, “and I couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t love it as much as I did. That’s when I realized that once upon a time, they did. Somewhere along the way, someone decided to see her in a particular light, so they framed certain songs around whatever narrative they created. This is why we hear the same 25 songs from her – and she recorded hundreds. What about the rest of her body of work? My epiphany is that this is not unlike my life, as a Black woman in America. They see me in one way and treat me accordingly – but I’m really so much more.” 
 
Queen Esther is a member of Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA, Dramatists Guild and the Recording Academy. Her work as a vocalist, lyricist, songwriter, actor, solo performer, playwright and librettist has led to creative collaborations in neo-vaudeville, alt-theater, various alt-rock configurations, (neo) swing bands, trip-hop DJs, spoken word performances, jazz combos, jam bands, various blues configurations, original Off-Broadway plays and musicals, experimental music/art noise and performance art.  Her 2018 TED Talk about the true roots of country and bluegrass is being heralded by some as a clarion call for seismic change in country music. For Queen Esther, everything changed for her when she wrote, arranged, produced and released her Black Americana album Gild The Black Lily (2021). 
 
“I created that album because I really miss my grandmother. I miss calling her up in the middle of the night, when I can’t sleep and I’m alone,” she mused. “I miss her voice. I still can’t believe she’s gone.” With this album, Feedback (Norway) describes her as “...the unknown queen of Americana…” while LIRA says, “It's almost as if Buddy Miller, Rosanne Cash and Leyla McCalla would have made a record together.” Of her pandemic album Rona (2023), Bill Bentley (Americana Highways) says, “Her voice possesses feelings inside it that sound like they originate in a place that no normal humans can reach, and at the same time are as simple as the South Carolina low country where she once lived." 
 
Recent artist residencies include the Swedish based non-profit Keychange (US), Joe's Pub Working Group, The Orchard Project and an artist fellowship with the National Arts Club. Her playwriting residency in the 2022 - 2024 WP Theater Pipeline Playlab this spring culminated in an invite only reading for The Tears of a Megyn as well as an Off-Broadway staged reading for Blackbirding, a requiem for Reconstruction, The Civil War and the Black people who built America.
 
Funded by the NYC Women's Fund for Film, Music and Theater – and written while in residency on the battlefield at Gettysburg National Military Park – Queen Esther will sing a few songs from
the upcoming alt-Americana/alt-country album Blackbirding, to be released in Spring 2025 along with a mini-doc about how all of it came together. For now, Queen Esther would like to make her debut at BroadStage a special one, so this performance will be an unofficial West Coast album release for Things Are Looking Up.
 
With plays in development, a solo show in the works, a new jazz album in 2024, a Black Americana album on its way in 2025, and more performance dates in the works, things really are looking up for Queen Esther.
 

More About Jeff McLaughlin

Jeff McLaughlin (guitarist) creates musical soundscapes filled with passion, depth, and a progressive spirit. His playing and composition are both steeped in tradition and focused on new directions in creative music. He has appeared around the world including the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Banff Jazz Workshop, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Brooklyn Americana Festival, the NAMM Bass Bash, the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. He has performed as a sideman and with his own projects in famed venues such as NYC's Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 55 Bar, Blue Note, Minton's Playhouse, Bar Next Door, City Winery, and LA's Blue Whale.

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