INTERVIEW: PBS to air star-studded holiday concert, set to swinging Ella Fitzgerald songs
Photo: From left, maestro Luke Frazier and singer Vanessa Williams perform holiday favorites by Ella Fitzgerald. Photo courtesy of Kevin Parisi / American Pops Orchestra, Inc. / Provided by press site with permission.
Ella Fitzgerald, the beloved singer who helped to define the 20th century jazz scene, will be celebrated tonight, Dec. 15 with a special PBS broadcast of Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas With Vanessa Williams. Luke Frazier will be in the maestro position, along with his celebrated American Pops Orchestra. Joining Williams on stage will be Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Morgan James, Norm Lewis and Nova Y. Payton.
The evening, which kicks off at 8 p.m. and will be available to stream afterward, is a re-creation of Fitzgerald’s classic holiday album from 1960, which features swinging versions of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland,” among others.
“A lot of people do songbook,” Frazier said in a recent phone interview. “A lot of people are in that niche, and for me what I wanted to do is take classic American music and present it in different ways and really think outside the box with how we preserve this music because I think it still lives and breathes in all of us.”
Disrupting APO’s mission this year was the COVID-19 pandemic, but honestly, Frazier didn’t let the bad news stop him or the orchestra. They were determined to continue with their programming, and this Fitzgerald celebration has been long in the works.
“So as I was thinking about this season even pre-COVID,” he said, “I realized that, of course, Ella Fitzgerald is an icon in American music, and I wanted to figure out a way to do a concert of her music, but a type of concert that was not a typical Ella tribute. Everybody does an Ella tribute.”
What makes APO unique in the orchestra business is that they don’t perform “pre-packaged” shows, as Frazier called them. Every single concert is built from the bottom up. This enterprising spirit was coupled with a connection to Fitzgerald’s charitable foundation, and an idea started to form.
“We thought about the holidays,” the maestro said. “We thought about something beautiful and different. I reached out to [the foundation] and said, ‘Is there a way we could present the entire Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas album,’ and they almost immediately said, ‘Yes, we would love to have you do that.’ Because they’ve gotten to know our work over the last five years and trusted us to do that, and so then I set about figuring out what singers I’d like to include.”
This is another facet of live performance where APO proves its uniqueness. They typically don’t present an evening of music with one or two singers. Instead, their norm is closer to four, five or six performers.
“Audience members are looking for a lot of diversity artistically, and I find that especially new orchestra concertgoers can get very quickly bored if they aren’t immediately in love with the singer on the stage,” he said. “And they’re new to an orchestra or a performing arts venue, so they may have bought a ticket. They may be tuning in, and they think, oh, this is going to be a fun show. Then they listen to a song or two, and they say, ‘That’s not really my favorite way to do this song.’ Click, on to the next channel. So what I like is that I’m able to bring together a lot of different types of singers and performers into each of our programs and that way we are able to reach a broad audience about a central theme.”
This creative idea is how Frazier landed on Williams, Lewis, Bridgewater, Floyd and the other top-notch performers.
“It’s all coming together to preserve a classic album, but to do it in a way that is unexpected,” Frazier said. “So I’m also of the mindset that why in the world just do something that people can go buy a CD and hear. Why not create something that is truly unique, and that’s what this show is, I think.”
Frazier called himself a not-take-no-for-an-answer kind of guy. He credited the attitude to his flinty Appalachian upbringing; he makes a project work, no matter the obstacles. Case in point: how APO responded to the COVID pandemic.
“At the very top of COVID we never put out a statement that we’re postponing a whole season, we’re canceling this, we’re canceling that,” he said. “We kept going, and since March, we’ve had about 80 performances, of all different shapes, sizes, varieties. But again I think you’d be hard-pressed to find organizations that have done that, and by the way, not a single artist who appeared in any of our performances in any way did it for free. I insisted that we pay everyone for everything, and the orchestra took no pay cut.”
Through social distancing and an unfailing can-do spirit, the orchestra has found a way to make 2020 work.
Frazier added: “Nothing holds APO back.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas With Vanessa Williams features not only Williams, Luke Frazier and the American Pops Orchestra, but also Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Morgan James, Norm Lewis and Nova Y. Payton. PBS will air the special Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 8 p.m., and it will be available to stream afterward. Click here for more information.
