Sunday, January 25 –
The late Ella Fitzgerald will be remembered this Sunday, Jan. 25, as one of the Tulsa Jazz Depot’s most popular performers, vocalist Cynthia Simmons, dedicates an entire night to Ella’s songs. During a stunning jazz and pop music career that spanned five decades, Ella Fitzgerald sold more than 40,000 records, won 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She’s a big voice to carry, and Simmons admits there’s some intimidation when producing and singing in a show dedicated to the late great, while at the same time knowing how important a tribute like this is. “I’m not Ella Fitzgerald, I’m not going to sound like Ella Fitzgerald. But I’m going to give the best tribute I can to a musical phenomenon, somebody who had a fifty-year-plus career in music, who kept going even after major illnesses. She was awesome, I love her, and I’m going to give her my best possible tribute,” Simmons says about Fitzgerald and the upcoming performance. Fitzgerald’s career began in 1934, when she won an amateur-night contest at the Appollo Theatre in Harlem. She broke into the mainstream in the 1950s with her best-selling solo records. Today, in 2015, her voice carries on. The tribute will take place at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, located in downtown Tulsa’s Jazz Depot, 111 E. First St., and is set to begin at 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.jazzhalltickets.com
