Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Wednesday Noon Concerts presents Stella Heath and the French Oak Gypsy Band
Stella Heath was just a tiny girl when the gift for song found her. Rooms full of folks suddenly stilled and leaned in. With a cupful of classical training, a salt pinch of musical theater, a bouquet garni of many-colored jazz stirred in, Stella stepped up, love of music her birthright. Every instrument in a Louis Armstrong album was Stella’s, to vocalize and riff to. Stella’s young heart beat right along with the “Greats” and “Traditions.” Feet movin’ to early Swing, hot horns of New Orleans, globe-trotting round-the-fire Gypsy jazz, Stella sallies forth, with her own taste for happy music making. With big dollops of buttery French, spiced up with Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, a few varietals of English thrown in.
At Interlochen Arts Academy and Syracuse University, and in theaters across the globe, Stella enriched her work with plays, from Shakespeare to Mamet. Stella has a deep love of storytelling, every song a story, new and old. Sending down roots in New York City, branching out in roles across the country (both plays and musicals), Stella’s career in theater began to bend increasingly toward music. She began singing weekly with the one&only Marjorie Eliot and her phenomenal Parlor Jazz Entertainment. She also began putting together her own musical projects: Accordion/Voice Duo, parks, cafés and clubs, Constellation Jazz Band, The Artisans with Paul Nieto (pop, soul, eclectic folk fusion), harmony vocals on Jody Shelton originals, and recording collaborations with songwriter Sam Godin. From her girlhood on a farm near egg-capitol-of-the-world Petaluma, California, after a decade away, Stella answered the Pacific’s tidal pull by returning to the West. Now at home in the San Francisco North Bay once again, Stella hits the home-turf singing, stepping into rich collaborations, with circles of great artists, bands, and musicians of the Bay Area.
ABOUT Wednesday Noon Concerts As part of our ongoing mission to use the transformative power of the arts to inspire and enrich our community, we have opened our doors for the past two years, every Wednesday at Noon, and presented concerts performed by talented musicians that are free of charge to the public. These free noon performances offer listeners the opportunity to discover the beauty of music in an intimate accessible setting, while providing the community with cultural enrichment and exposure to talented performers.
Concerts are in a one-hour format and most performances take place in the intimate Tivoli where both audience and musicians can sit in vibrant, close proximity. Musicians often stay after the performance to informally speak about the program and their upcoming concerts.
