'Jazztastic' brings works of Billie Holiday and Cape Verdeans to Cotuit stage

In celebration of Black History and Women’s History Month, Amplify POC Cape Cod and the Cotuit Center for the Arts are hosting “Jazztastic,” two jazz shows from Tish Adams and Candida Rose and the KabuJazz Ensemble on March 16 and 17.

“Jazz, it's sort of the most cooperative thing that I can think of,” Adams said. “It doesn't matter where you came from, what color you are, or how much money you have or anything. If you're a jazz person you fit in and I love that.”

Initially, the shows were set to be part of Black History Month celebrations as this year’s theme was “African Americans and the Arts,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. However, when working with the Cotuit Center for the Arts to pinpoint dates for the shows, the team landed on March – which happens to be Women’s History Month.

With the theme of Women’s History Month, selected by the National Women’s History Alliance, being “Women who advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion,” Jeanne Morrison, a member of Amplify POC’s board, thought the shows would work perfectly as a celebration of both events and as a larger celebration of American history.

“Although this concert is celebrating all African American history and women's history, it's really a history that belongs to all of us,” Morrison said. “That's what we're trying to do. To inspire inclusion.”

Tish Adams has a right to sing the blues, brings Billie Holiday to Jazztastic

Adams, who performs on March 16, will be singing from the Billie Holiday songbook and bringing the story of Miss Lady Day to life throughout her performance, titled “Another Lady Sings the Blues: Songs of Billie Holiday.”

“Billie Holiday has long been referred to as the lady who sang the blues even though she's a jazz singer,” Adams said. “This is a show I've been doing for a while. I do it with a wonderful pianist, Tim Ray … It is not what you would think of as a tribute show. I'm not doing an imitation of her. I like to say it's inspiration, not imitation.”

Adams, like many female singers across the globe, became inspired by Holiday early on in her career. She said Holiday stood out to her because she wasn’t just a singer, but she was also a musician using her voice much like a horn player would use their horn, and for the way she captured the female experience in her music.

“Billie Holiday sang in a way that expressed the trials and tribulations of every woman who ever lived and she thinks all of our pain for us,” she said.

For Jazztastic, she and Ray will grace the Cotuit stage with a lineup of familiar and obscure Holiday tunes, including a rendition of “Comes Love,” a song Adams herself recently discovered Holiday did a version of.

“I walked into the bank one day and they were having a jazz day on their overhead speakers and I heard that song and I heard Billie’s voice and I thought to myself, ‘I never knew she did this’ (and) I just learned it,” she said.

Adams also incorporates parts of Holiday’s story into her set, saying that she was kind of an enigma since so many of the stories surrounding her life are untrue, many false ones coming from Holiday herself.

“There are lots and lots of stories out there, and there's no way of knowing what's true and what's not true,” Adams explained. “... She would tell a lot of stories because  someone like you would say ‘I'd like to do an interview’ and she would tell them whatever she thought they would want to hear so she could make the money.”

Regarding her performance, Adams hopes that the audience not only discovers a love for jazz music and for Holiday, but for herself as well as she works to make a name for herself here on the Cape.

“I haven't been singing on the Cape for very long … but I spent a lot of time here,” she said. “My parents retired here about 25 years ago and I kind of grew up here in the summertime … It was my getaway place and now that I'm spending more time here I'm hoping to do more work here.”

Candida Rose and the KabuJazz Ensemble play Cape Verdean Kreole for Jazztastic

Singer Candida Rose joins her group, the KabuJazz Ensemble, to bring a fusion of Cape Verdean and jazz music to the Cape for her Jazztastic performance.

“What I do is I have this sort of combination of Cape Verdean — it’s Cape Verdean rooted music — with my sort of American influences,” she said. “In this case, it'll be more of the jazz (influences).”

Rose, who has released two albums “Here I Am” and “KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me,” said she plans on pulling from her discography to create a blend of Cape Verdean and jazz music singing songs such as “Afro Blue” and “God Bless The Child,” two famous jazz standards, alongside songs such as “Amor Di Mia” or “A Mother’s Love,” a Cape Verdean classic.

Throughout her career, she said she’s struggled to combine the two genres in her work as she heavily pulls from both. For this performance, she’s excited to see the audience’s reaction to the combination of the two.

“I think what's going to be interesting for the audience is to watch Cape Verdean musicians interpret a jazz song and input,” she said.

However, Rose noted that both genres come from similar inceptions as they both consist of combinations of music from different cultures.

“The inception of jazz in this country was a mixture of European and African sensibilities,” Rose said. “That's almost the same thing as what Cape Verde music is. It's this mixture of our Portuguese side and our African side but it translates a little bit differently than jazz.”

As a second-generation Cape Verdean, Rose said she feels honored to be able to continue the legacy of Cape Verdean music and reignite its presence here on the Cape.

“I feel like I've been passed the torch,” she said. “... To recapture audiences again, it's an honor. It's a blessing. It's an honor to be able to continue to do this.”

Jazztastic tickets and more information

Adams will be on stage at 7 p.m. March 16 and Rose will perform at 2 p.m. on March 17. Tickets for each performance range from $13 to $53 depending on seat selection. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.artsonthecape.org/. The Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Falmouth Road in Cotuit.

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Jazztastic brings Billie Holiday and Cape Verde to Cotuit