Billie Holiday News

On Saturday, May 7 at 8:00 pm ET live and in-person, three major, mission-aligned organizations-the Apollo and American Composers Orchestra (ACO), with co-curation by National Black Theatre (NBT)- will present The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout.

After more than two years of anticipation, Farmers Alley Theatre presents the Tony-Award-winning musical play, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, written by Lanie Robertson.  We are once again thrilled to be partnering with the Gilmore Piano Festival (Liberace!, Murder for Two, Old Wicked Songs) to produce this powerful show featuring the life and work of Lady Day herself, Billie Holiday. 

American Composers Orchestra continues its 2021-2022 season, under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and President Melissa Ngan, with The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout co-presented by ACO and the Apollo Theater and co-curated with National Black Theatre in partnership with Gateways Music Festival and Harlem Chamber Players, on Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 8pm at the Apollo.

Custom Made Theatre Co. (Brian Katz, Executive Artistic Director) continues its 23rd season with the Bay Area Premiere of “Blood at the Root” by trailblazing playwright Dominique Morisseau, directed and choreographed by Darryl V. Jones. 

On Saturday, May 21 the Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra (CJRO) returns to the Arvada Center Main Stage Theatre with internationally acclaimed music phenomenon Steve Lippia in his first CJRO appearance since 2018. A long-time Las Vegas headliner and engaging entertainer, Lippia will be singing your favorite American songs of yesterday and today.

 This month marks the launch of New Black Fest at the Apollo, a festival celebrating contemporary Black playwrights from across the nation. On April 22, 23, and 25 at 7pm, audiences will have the opportunity to see original works by 18 playwrights, each commissioned by the Apollo and New Black Fest co-founder Keith Josef Adkins. 

This week, FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club & Private Event Destination, will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

After more than two years of anticipation, Farmers Alley Theatre will present the Tony-Award-winning musical play, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, written by Lanie Robertson. 

New York Youth Symphony Jazz, led by Director Andy Clausen, will finish their season at The Times Center on Monday, May 9, 2022 at 7:00 PM featuring Benny Benack III as a trumpeter and Shenel Johns as a vocalist. Also, they will be performing a NYYS First Music Commission from Benjamin Morris.

CHELSEA TABLE + STAGE – New York’s newest hotspot for intimate dining and extraordinary music – will present award-winning pianist and composer Charu Suri in “Raga Jazz: An Evening of Raga Jazz and Sufi Music” on Wednesday, May 18 at 7:00 PM.

With a mix of perennial favorites and time-tested originals, KAT EDMONSON made her long-anticipated Charlotte debut, charming a latenight Middle C Jazz Club audience

One of the ways The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) fulfills its mission to discover and nurture new, innovative works by skilled and creative artists is its NEC Cutting Edge Playhouse: Emerging Playwrights Competition, which will be mounted for the second time May 5 to 29, 2022.  

Fan-favorite guest conductor Byron Stripling returns to the POPS with a 's marvelous star-studded array of guest vocalists and musicians, celebrating beloved American music legend George Gershwin in 'S Wonderful 'S Gershwin, May 13–15 at the Kimmel Cultural Campus.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts has announced its line-up of shows for its 2022-2023 Subscription Series. Get the schedule and find out how to get tickets. Back by popular demand, multiple series genres will be available on a season ticket basis including Broadway, Curtain Call, Jazz, Cabaret, Chamber, and Family series.

You won't want to miss the Jack Skleinsinger's dynamic final Highlights in Jazz concert for 2022, when today's top jazz players take to the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center stage to celebrate the Return of the Jam Session. The 49th season final is is set for May 12. It features Peter and Will Anderson on saxophones, flutes and clarinets; trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Ted Rosenthal, drummer Victor Lewis, trumpeter Brian Lynch and guitarist James Chirillo, playing together for the very first time.

Craft Recordings is proud to reissue You Must Believe in Spring, the celebrated 70th studio album from the pioneering jazz pianist Bill Evans. Recorded in 1977 and released in 1981, just months after Evans’ death, the album marks the artist’s final studio recording with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Eliot Zigmund and includes stunning performances of “We Will Meet Again (for Harry)” and “B Minor Waltz (for Ellaine).”

Following the hugely successful premiere run of Tomorrow May Be My Last: The Janis Joplin Story at The Union Theatre in August, Collette Cooper now returns to the stage as the original Queen Of Rock, Janis Joplin at The Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington for a three week run from 24th May - 11th June.

This month, FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents  some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more  information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551. 

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is a play with music written by Lanie Robertson and this production is directed by Wren T. Brown. The musical premiered in 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia and its story recounts some events of Billie Holiday’s life leading up to this performance at Emerson’s four months shy of her death in 1959. Emerson’s is a small bar in South Philadelphia and the time is a midnight performance by Lady Day. Set to the backdrop of a piano center stage and a few cocktail tables around the space, we relive some events of Ms. Holiday’s life as told through stories found deep in her memory but living on the surface as if they just happened yesterday.