Ella Swings: A Centennial Birthday Tribute To The First Lady Of Song. Wanda Houston And The Vermont Jazz Center Big Band at Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend Festival at First Congregational Church

The Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend gets into high gear on Friday, June 16, when the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band and Wanda Houston celebrate the 100th birthday of the first lady of song. Performing and breathing new life into the same musical arrangements used by Ella Fitzgerald, the concert includes music she performed with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and others. Featuring acclaimed vocalist Wanda Houston singing Ella’s renowned parts, the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, a 16-piece ensemble of area professionals, is led by music director Rob Freeberg. The repertoire will be a tour-de-force of the great American songbook....

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The Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend gets into high gear on Friday, June 16, when the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band and Wanda Houston celebrate the 100th birthday of the first lady of song. Performing and breathing new life into the same musical arrangements used by Ella Fitzgerald, the concert includes music she performed with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and others. Featuring acclaimed vocalist Wanda Houston singing Ella’s renowned parts, the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, a 16-piece ensemble of area professionals, is led by music director Rob Freeberg. The repertoire will be a tour-de-force of the great American songbook.

The concert is one of two headline events at the 6th annual Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend. Other activities include documentary film screenings, al-fresco jazz in the park, beer and wine tastings, an art show, and a jazz brunch. Events take place in downtown Lee, Massachusetts, known as The Gateway to the Berkshires.

Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century...and one of the first jazz artists to become a household name. One of today’s outstanding interpreters of vocal jazz and blues, Wanda Houston has loved --and sung along with-- Fitzgerald’s music since she was a young girl. Originally from Chicago, Houston grew up singing gospel music in church and with her family’s theater group. She has led an active career as an actress performing on the grand stages of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Broadway. Like Fitzgerald, she is a great singer as well as a superb storyteller; she colors the spaces between her songs with fascinating stories of her youth and the trials and tribulations of life on the road.

The Vermont Jazz Center Big Band is a professional community band that comes together under the auspices of the VJC to rehearse and take on projects. The band is directed by trumpeter Rob Freeberg and features many top-flight ensemble players and soloists.

Schedule and updates on the festival can be found at http://berkshiregatewayjazz.org/

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