ELLA! ELLA! ELLA!
A Musical Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald
Featuring the 3 Ellas:
Frieda Lee
Spider Saloff
Dee Alexander
This magical music evening was created as a tribute to The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald. The “3 Ellas” were initially chosen by the famed Chicago Jazz Orchestra to perform a concert of Ella’s American Songbook arrangements.
The formal concert was such a great success and the 3 ladies had such a wonderful time working together, that they have created this special tribute that is a more intimate look at Ella Fitzgerald.
Lee, Saloff, and Alexander, all acclaimed vocalists, have distinctly different voices but all perform the Ella songbook with true reverence to the jazz legend.
Another unique feature of the concert is that the harmonious energy that these 3 divas have onstage together is unsurpassed.
They were received with standing ovations in such venues as:
Jazz Festival, Poznan, Poland
Millennium Park, Chicago Jazz Festival (over 26,000 in attendance)
Rockefeller Chapel: Hyde Park Jazz Fest (over 1500 in attendance)
Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
Chicago Humanities Festival
Thornton Auditorium
Room 43 concert space, Chicago
Wentz Auditorium, Naperville
The University Club of Chicago
Katerina’s Supper Club
Pritzker Auditorium
Pick-Staiger Hall
Prairie Arts Center
City Winery, Chicago
The show not only is an energetic and fun evening of music, but has a level of glamour and showmanship that thrills audiences of all ages.
This concert can be performed with just piano or with a jazz duo, trio or quartet. For full symphony production you must contact http://www.chicagojazzorchestra.org/
“Each singer had something significant to say….Singer Lee hardly could have sounded more gauzily seductive in Embraceable You. …Saloff with her lightning quick riffs and ultra-high-register cries a fitting tribute to Fitzgerald….to hear Alexander was to recognize her prowess in extending Fitzgerald’s legacy. “Jazz singing is a profoundly sensual art, at least when Dee Alexander, Frieda Lee and Spider Saloff are standing before the microphones. These vocalists revel in the voluptuousness of their sound, its lush tones, its breathy phrases, and its palpable ardor. Yes, the words remain important to these artists, but it’s the lustrous beauty of their lines that ultimately sell the song.”
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune.
Dee Alexander
Frieda Lee
Spider Saloff
