Ella Fitzgerald News

Strand Theater Company presents Well by Lisa Kron, June 1-16, 2012. This will be the directorial debut of Artistic Director Rain Pryor. (more...)

Paul Williams will be the special guest at the Emelin’s film extra program, which will present the documentary Paul Williams Still Alive, on Sunday June 3, 2012 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15. (more...)

The Knitting Factory announces its music lineup from May 31 to June 6. Knitting Factory Brooklyn is located at 361 Metropolitan Ave. (at Havemeyer St.). Subway: L to Lorimer. See below for details! (more...)

Baltimore welcomes E. Faye Butler in her all-new act, "What a Difference a Diva Makes". (more...)

The 38th Annual Jazz Record Collectors Bash will be held June 29th - 30th at the Hilton Woodbridge in Iselin, New Jersey. Buy, sell, swap or trade 78s, LPs, CDs, memorabilia, rare jazz films and more. (more...)

CENTRIC, BET Network's signature channel kicks off auditions for its new original series APOLLO LIVE. (more...)

Jazz at Lincoln Center announces the competition at the 17th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival will be video streamed live online. The free webcast from the Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall on May 5th and 6th will feature performances by the fifteen competing high school jazz band finalists, as well as the announcement of the top placing bands. The video will also be available online for one week following the Competition & Festival. (more...)

Uptown Downtown, the new CD by Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist Leslie Uggams (On Golden Pond, King Headley II, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, Jerry’s Girls, Her First Roman, Hallelujah, Baby! and television’s Roots) is now available for download at iTunes, CDBaby.com, and Amazon.com. This 2-CD cast album includes 21 tracks (24 songs) from her critically acclaimed one-woman musical autobiography that charts her historic career from Harlem (Uptown) to Broadway (Downtown), and everywhere in between. (more...)

R&B vocalist Brian McKnight has spent the better part of the last two decades on top of the charts, churning out one romantic hit after another for the Mercury, Motown, Warner Bros. and E1 Music labels. The multi-instrumentalist and 16-time Grammy nominee will explore some relatively new musical territory as a frontman for The Duke Ellington Orchestra from May 16 - 18 at the Blue Note. The Ellington Orchestra will perform without McKnight on May 19. (more...)

Gary Naylor sees a musical full of classic songs. (more...)

Now in its eighth season, Millennium Park will host free concerts, events, exhibitions and open rehearsals that showcase the very best of Chicago throughout the summer. (more...)

Tickets go on sale today for Lincoln Center’s 24th season of Midsummer Night Swing taking place Tuesdays through Saturdays, June 26—July 14. Swing’s 15 dazzling nights of dancing, and one free daytime lesson for children, take place at the bandshell and elevated dance floor in Damrosch Park, on West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Midsummer Night Swing offers an array of dance music styles including salsa, swing, tango, rock ‘n’ roll, and bhangra. Because of the national holiday there will be no Swing on July 4th, so a special Monday night will be added on July 2nd. (more...)

Harlem Stage has film, music, open mic, poetry, and spoken word events this month. Below is a full listing of activities. (more...)

Supported by a superb 10-piece orchestra (including six horn players), Catherine Russell’s set at the Allen Room for Jazz at Lincoln Center was a tribute to songs her dad Luis recorded or performed with the great Louis Armstrong from the late 1920s through the 1930s. By the end of her show, Russell had clearly proven that she has become one of the finest interpreters of jazz and blues on the contemporary music scene. (more...)

The GRAMMY Foundation® Grant Program announced today that $250,000 in grants to help facilitate a range of research, archiving, and preservation projects on a variety of subjects will be awarded to 18 recipients, in the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. Research projects include a project that will use technology to enable parents of premature babies to have a presence at their child's bedside even when they are away from the hospital. Preservation and archiving initiatives include a Los Angeles Philharmonic project that will protect live recordings of such performers as Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Nina Simone, among others; and an effort to digitally transfer and provide access to an archive of fragile reel-to-reel recordings of live performances and related oral histories in the collection of the oldest continuously running folk music coffeehouse. A complete list of grant awards and projects is below. The deadline each year for submitting letters of inquiry is Oct. 1. Guidelines and the letter of inquiry form for the 2013 cycle will be available beginning May 1 at www.grammyfoundation.org/grants. (more...)

The Howard Theatre, the historic arts landmark that launched the careers of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye and The Supremes, announces their grand re-opening after a $29 million renovation and a 32-year hiatus. The Howard Theatre will re-open the week of April 9 with an opening lineup that includes Wale, Wanda Sykes, The Roots, Robert Randolph, Taj Mahal, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Meshell Ndegeocello, Bad Brains, Chuck Brown, Chuck Berry, Esperanza Spalding and a weekly Sunday Brunch featuring the Harlem Gospel Choir. The full schedule is available at www.thehowardtheatre.com. (more...)

The GRAMMY Foundation® Grant Program announced today that $250,000 in grants to help facilitate a range of research, archiving, and preservation projects on a variety of subjects will be awarded to 18 recipients in the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. (more...)

Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist Leslie Uggams (On Golden Pond, King Headley II, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, Jerry’s Girls, Her First Roman, Hallelujah, Baby! and television’s Roots) has launched her new CD Uptown Downtown, now available online at CDBaby.com. This 2-CD cast album includes 21 tracks (24 songs) from her one-woman autobiographical musical that charts her career from Harlem (Uptown) to Broadway (Downtown), and everywhere in between. (more...)

Chicago’s summer concert season kicks off on Memorial Day with the opening of Millennium Park’s popular cutting-edge indie rock and pop music series, Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays. Premiering a week later is Millennium Park’s all-new program, Loops and Variations, a series of six concerts that mix new music with electronica. The music continues with the return of the beloved Grant Park Music Festival celebrating its 78th anniversary and the acclaimed Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series, which this year will showcase jazz with a distinctively Chicago flavor on six separate nights, culminating in the 34th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival. (more...)