 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.(March 2016) |
Queen Esther | |
|---|---|
 Queen Esther, Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island, August 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Genres | Jazz, blues, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Labels | El Recordings |
| Website | queen-esther |
Queen Esther is an American actor, playwright, musician, producer, and songwriter. [1] [2]
Queen Esther was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. She grew up in the Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C.), soloing as a vocalist in the choir at an early age. [3] Both of her parents are from South Carolina's Lowcountry and were a part of The Great Migration as well as the New Great Migration, settling the family in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1970s. Queen Esther's mother taught her how to read before the age of five. She was identified as gifted and talented in kindergarten, receiving acceleration in English and creative writing as a part of gifted education while in grade school. [4] [5]
While attending Northside High School in Atlanta, a magnet school for the performing arts (now North Atlanta High School), she studied opera, classical music and music theory, developed an appreciation of jazz, was featured in productions in the city including Leonard Bernstein's MASS with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, sang in city and state chorales, attended the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program in Drama, and competed for and won several scholarships in theater through Arts Recognition and Talent Search (now YoungArts), sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and attended the University of Texas at Austin. [6]
Of her influences musically, Queen Esther said, "I can’t ever remember not hearing that twang, that dissonance. It was in the air. That blue-ing of the note, that was a way of life. That’s as true for me as it is for any other Southerner. It’s not the kind of thing you think about. It just is." [7]
While an undergraduate in Austin, Queen Esther performed frequently on the local cabaret and theater scene in productions directed by Boyd Vance. She was the lead vocalist for the funk band Moving Parts, sharing the stage with guitarist Larry Carlton, [6] the Neville Brothers and Crowded House. [6] She was one of three vocalists in Ro-Tel and the Hot Tomatoes, a regional favorite specializing in theatrically showcasing girl group music from the 1950s and 1960s. They performed events and private parties for Texas luminaries Wendy Russell Reves, Robert Bass and his brothers, and H. Ross Perot and played festivals and regional showcases with The Temptations, Paul Revere and the Raiders and Chuck Berry, amongst others. [8] Guitarist Al Gilhausen introduced Queen Esther to blues musician Hubert Sumlin. Years later, they would reconnect in New York City and perform together frequently. [8]
In 1994, Queen Esther completed a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in screenwriting from The New School in Greenwich Village. Her work led to creative collaborations in neo-vaudeville, alt-theater, various alt-rock configurations, (neo) swing bands, [9] trip-hop DJs, spoken word performances, jazz combos, jam bands, various blues configurations, original Off-Broadway plays and musicals, [10] experimental music/art noise and performance art. [11]
Queen Esther is a member of guitarist James Blood Ulmer's Black Rock Experience [12] with drummer G. Calvin Weston and bassist Mark Peterson, and has toured Europe and Scandinavia with Ulmer, [13] including a stint with his group Odyssey.
After forming the avant-blues duo Hoosegow with Elliott Sharp and releasing the album Mighty (Homestead), [14] Queen Esther introduced Mr. Sumlin to guitarist Elliot Sharp, which led to recording sessions and several European tours for Mr. Sumlin with Sharp's blues collective Terraplane.
Queen Esther's music projects include The Hot Five, The Black Rose of Texas featuring Queen Esther, Kat Edmonson and Synead Cidney Nichols on vocals with Cindy Cashdollar on pedal steel guitar, and various configurations of her Black Americana and jazz collective, which includes drummer Steven Williams, bassist Hilliard Greene, lap steel guitarist Raphael McGregor, guitarist Jeff McLaughlin and multi-string instrumentalist Boo Reiners. [15]
Performances and recordings
Queen Esther started her label EL Recordings in 2004 when she released her first Black Americana album Talkin' Fishbowl Blues. She signed an admin publishing deal with Bug Music in 2006 [16] (now owned by BMG Rights Management) [17] and has released five self-produced albums. [18]
As a vocalist, Queen Esther has performed and/or recorded with Speedball Baby, Mona’s Hot Five, Eyal Vilner Big Band, Burnt Sugar Arkestra, Gordon Webster, The Hot Toddies, Richard Barone (The Bongos), Dusty Wright, JC Hopkins Biggish Band, George Gee Swing Orchestra (formerly known as The Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra), Ron Sunshine and The Smoking Section, Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra, Drew Nugent and the Midnight Society, Dan Levinson's Roof Garden Jass Band, Swingadelic, Dolores "LaLa" Brooks (The Crystals), The New York Jazzharmonic and The Dirtbombs.
Performances include Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center's Summer for the City, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club, The Kennedy Center, [19] The Apollo Theater's Apollo Music Cafe, New Year's Eve Eve, an annual event produced by The Salon, [20] [21] the bi-annual Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island, [22] and in the round showcases with the Black Opry at Woody Guthrie Center [23] and Levon Helm Studio. [24]
A member of the 2023 Joe's Pub Working Group, [25] the 2023 Keychange US Talent Development Program [26] and a 2022 National Arts Club Artist Fellow, [27] Queen Esther received a grant from the 2022 New York City Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theater for her upcoming alt-Americana album Blackbirding. [28]
Theater, Solo Performance and Cabaret
In 1996, Queen Esther joined Actor's Equity and SAG-AFTRA when she was cast as an original member of the first national tour of RENT (musical). [29]
After seeing John Leguizamo’s Mambo Mouth at the American Place Theater, Queen Esther was inspired to write, develop and perform The "Moxie" Show, a one person performance art piece that was subsequently featured at Dixon Place, Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) and The Samuel Beckett Theater. [30]
Her second solo show, the semi-autobiographical Queen Esther: Unemployed Superstar, was performed at Tribeca Playhouse, The New York International Fringe Festival, [31] The Diva Series at George Street Playhouse [32] and the New Work Now! New Performance Now! series at The Public Theater, culminating in a five-week sold-out run at Joe's Pub. [33]
In the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster, Queen Esther hosted and performed in The Tribeca Playhouse Stagedoor Canteen, a weekly hour-long USO-style variety show created and directed by playwright and theater director Jeff Cohen that welcomed performers to entertain Ground Zero relief workers for free. [34] Produced by Cohen and Carol Fineman, the show was featured on NY1, The Today Show , CBS Morning News , The Metro Channel, and Good Morning America , and in Variety and The New York Times . Tribeca Playhouse received a special Drama Desk Award for this production. [35] [36]
In 2002, Queen Esther received a Best Actress AUDELCO award nomination for her work in George C. Wolfe's new musical Harlem Song.
Adapted from newly discovered Harlem-based short stories from the 1930s by Zora Neale Hurston and augmented by Billie Holiday's lost classics, Queen Esther wrote the libretto for The Billie Holiday Project, performing it initially at Lenox Lounge for the Harlem Jazz Shrines [37] and developing it further in performance workshops with Dixon Place and The Field. [38] In April 2012, the show received a performance residency at The Apollo Theater's Music Cafe and featured The Hot Five with a cast that included Queen Esther, Francesca Harper, Charles L. Wallace and Keith L. Thomas. [39]
Queen Esther partnered with The Francesca Harper Project to further explore Billie Holiday's body of work through movement, sound and vision in Billie Holiday: Deconstructed, a theatrical performance that premiered at the Harlem Arts Festival in June, 2012. [40]
Queen Esther was a 2021 New Perspectives Theater Company Short Play Lab Member. Her play That's What Happened was featured in their 2021 Short Play Festival. [41] She is a playwright in residence with the 2022 - 2024 WP Theater "Pipeline" PlayLAB. Her full-length play The Tears of a Megyn premieres Off-Broadway in the spring of 2024. [42]
With Hoosegow
With 52nd Street Blues Project
With J. C. Hopkins Biggish Band
With Elliott Sharp and Henry Kaiser
With The Harlem Experiment
With James Blood Ulmer
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Trixie Smith was an American blues singer. She made four dozen recordings.
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Florence Mills, billed as the "Queen of Happiness", was an American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedian.
Victoria Regina Spivey, sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and record company founder. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey, also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are "Black Snake Blues" (1926), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and "Organ Grinder Blues" (1928). In 1961, she co-founded Spivey Records with one of her husbands, Len Kunstadt.
Jayne Cortez was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist whose voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic and dynamic innovations in lyricism and visceral sound. Her writing is part of the canon of the Black Arts Movement. She was married to jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman from 1954 to 1964, and their son is jazz drummer Denardo Coleman. In 1975, Cortez married painter, sculptor, and printmaker Melvin Edwards, and they lived in Dakar, Senegal, and New York City.
Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) is an art school in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, United States.
Barbara Ann "Bobbi" Humphrey is an American jazz flautist and singer. She has recorded twelve albums over the course of her career, mostly playing jazz fusion, funk, and soul-jazz. In 1971, she was the first female instrumentalist signed by Blue Note and in 1994, she founded the jazz label Paradise Sounds Records.
A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. Jazz clubs were in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz, when bands were large and often augmented by a string section. Large rooms were also more common in the Swing era, because at that time, jazz was popular as a dance music, so the dancers needed space to move. With the transition to 1940s-era styles like Bebop and later styles such as soul jazz, small combos of musicians such as quartets and trios were mostly used, and the music became more of a music to listen to, rather than a form of dance music. As a result, smaller clubs with small stages became practical.
Thomasina Winslow was an American blues musician and the daughter of folk musician Tom Winslow. As a toddler, she sang back-up on her father's folk music classic Hey Looka Yonder ; also singing a solo version of One-Two-Three, another version of which she produced on her own 30 years later. In addition to her solo career, Winslow has been a member of four bands, including a duo with Nick Katzman and Nite Train. Furthermore, she has been a teacher in that genre of music, and has significantly influenced other aspiring musicians. Winslow primarily performed covers of Blues standards and has written a number of blues and gospel tunes in her own right. She was also one of a handful of African-American women producers in the "indy" music industry.
Queen Esther Marrow is an American soul and gospel singer.
Shawn Ellis Amos is an American songwriter, author, blues singer, record producer and digital marketing entrepreneur.
Bonnie & Clyde is a musical with music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black and a book by Ivan Menchell. The world premiere took place in San Diego, CA in November 2009. The musical centers on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the ill-fated lovers and outlaws whose story has been infamous since they achieved folk hero status during the Great Depression. Wildhorn described the music as a "non-traditional score, combining rockabilly, blues and gospel music". The San Diego run was followed by a Sarasota, Florida, engagement in 2010.
New York State is a major center for all types of music. Its diverse community has contributed to introducing and spreading many genres of music, including salsa, jazz, folk, rock and roll, and classical. New York's plethora of music venues and event halls serve as popular markers which have housed many noteworthy artists.
J.C. Hopkins is an American bandleader, writer, record producer, and Grammy-nominated producer, and songwriter.
New Heritage Theatre Group (NHTG) is the oldest Black nonprofit theater company in New York City, established in 1964. Through its multiple divisions: IMPACT Repertory Theatre, The Roger Furman Reading Series, and New Heritage Films, New Heritage gives training, exposure, and experience to new and emerging artists, playwrights, directors and technicians of color. New Heritage was founded by the late Roger Furman and is currently headed by Executive Producer Voza Rivers and Executive Artistic Director Jamal Joseph. NHTG presentations capture the historical, social, and political experiences of Black and Latino descendants in America and abroad.
Lillyn Brown, sometimes credited as Lillyan Brown, was an American singer, vaudeville entertainer and teacher who claimed to have been "the first professional vocalist to sing the blues in front of the public", in 1908. She was billed as "The Kate Smith of Harlem" and "The Original Gay 90's Gal".
Roz Nixon is an American playwright and producer of events. In 2021 she created Roz live “Keeping Artists On Stage” at the Aloft Hotel in Harlem. These exciting events provide artists with work during the ongoing pandemic. Over the years Ms. Nixon has produced Jazz performances that have featured award-winning artists such as Sandra Reeves Phillips, Me'lisa Morgan, and Jazz super star Roy Hargrove. She is the founder and executive producer of Roz Nixon Entertainment, which produces music festivals, concerts, and promotional events. A division of her organization books performers for television, commercials and film projects. Known as a "special's" casting agent. Casting agents on the east and west coast refer to Nixon as the go to person for finding the perfect actor for a special part. Nixon has written four plays, primarily featuring song and verse regarding famous jazz musicians. Several of her concerts, shows and festivals have been produced in New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Istanbal.
"King" Solomon Hicks is an American guitarist, blues, jazz singer, and composer. His style of music ranges from jazz, blues, classical, gospel, R&B, funk, Afro-Cuban, and classic rock. Hicks has been a blues guitarist since he was 13. He plays a Benedetto GA35 guitar. Benedetto jazz guitars are hand crafted by Robert Benedetto an American luthier of archtop jazz guitars. He teaches beginning and advanced guitar along with music theory.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
