Lady Sings the Blues: A Tribute to Billie Holiday returns to the Alberta Rose Theatre on April 4, 2026.
KBOO Art Focus presenter Joseph Gallivan talked to Jazz Lives’ Marcia Hocker, who is MC for the event and also one of the singers who will interpret Billie Holiday’s classic jazz numbers.
For those who've never attended, what can they expect? Hocker said the vocalists chosen to participate each select three songs from Billie Holiday's repertoire, but not to produce wild interpretations of her songs.
“They're there to deliver the songs the way they are moved to do it. That is the nexus, the aim and focus of what we're doing. And to honor (Holiday).”
So, there won't be any reggae versions of "Strange Fruit" or rock renditions of “All of Me”?
“That is correct,” said Hocker. “It's out of respect for the artist and the period of music. The singers are essentially singing about her lived experience.” And the context of that is 20th Century jazz.
Impression versus Interpretation
Holiday‘s vocal style was strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists and pioneered a way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was also a singer-songwriter with a deeply personal and intimate approach to singing.
The singers also do not offer straight copies of Holiday’s vocal style.
“Any vocalist worth their salt will be…able to connect to the emotions of the message, however that makes them feel, and however they want to deliver it, is the most natural approach,” Hocker says.
Each vocalist chooses her own musicians to make a duo, trio, quartet, or quintet. Featured performers alongside Hocker are Laura Stilwell, Lenanne Sylvester Miller, Holly Resnick, Jessie Marquez, and Linda Michelet.
The Look
On stage, there’s no video or photographic backdrop, but the vocalists and musicians are expected to dress up and match Holiday’s elegance and refinement.
“In that day and age, artists always came to the stage presentable, the women were glamorous, elegant, regal. They may not have had one nickel to rub up against another, but when they stepped out on that stage, they were clean, they had on suits and ties,” says Hocker.
This is something Wynton Marsalis has always encouraged, “to look refined and dignified as a reflection of the music.”
The Life
The event is not set up as a narrative of Lady Day’s life and career, but it cannot avoid her lived experience. Holiday’s legacy is still strong 111 years after her birth, because, “She gave permission to be vulnerable, to bring the full emotion of life in its ups and downs into the message of a song. That took courage,” says Hocker.
The MC cautions against seeing Billie Holiday from one angle only.
“While there's a tendency for jazz artists’ vulnerabilities and their addictions to be the primary part of their story, they have made a contribution despite all that.”
Vulnerability is present, not just in songs about love but in Lady Day’s whole career as a performer in the pre-Civil Rights era.
Hocker says, after snakes, one of the most feared things is to get up and perform before an audience, whether speaking or singing.
“There's a responsibility that one has to be able to convey organically and authentically the message that they're there to deliver,” and that’s what the artists are trying to do at Lady Sings the Blues – A Tribute to Billie Holiday.
Listen to the April 1, 2026 Billie Holiday tribute preview on KBOO’s Jazz Lives
Lady Sings the Blues: A Tribute to Billie Holiday takes place Saturday, April 4, 2026, 7:30pm, at the Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland. Presented by Siren Nation. A portion of each ticket sale will also be donated to KBOO Community Radio.