Jazz on a Summer’s Day: A Tribute to Anita O’Day
Melanie O’Reilly – vocals, Frank Martin – piano, Fred Randolph – bass, Jack Dorsey – drums.
Fresh from her highly successful performance of Jazz on a Summer’s Day: A Tribute to Anita O Day, at Dublin’s Pavilion Theatre, award-winning Jazz vocalist, Melanie O’Reilly returns to Angelicas to celebrate this legendary hip vocalist, capturing the essence of an unconventional musical genius, who shattered the traditional image of the ‘girl singer’ with her smoky swinging style and brilliant sense of rhythm. The show was created and devised by O’Reilly, and interspersing narration between the songs, Melanie tells and sings the story of O’Day, who overcame the setbacks of poverty and addiction, and went on become one of the world’s most enduring jazz artists –anointed for her legendary performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival captured in the ground-breaking film documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,”
O’Reilly’s riveting Anita O’Day tribute, which garnered four-star reviews and standing ovations at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival and from a growing number of Bay Area audiences, brings new life to the memory of the legendary jazz vocalist and pays tribute to one her great musical inspirations.
“Melanie O’Reilly does more than pay tribute to Anita O’Day. She brings the great singer’s spirit back to life, recalling her unique way of scatting, varying tempos, bending and stretching melodies and generally transforming everything she sang.”
Grainne Farren, Jazz Journalist, Ireland.
..The show is a celebration, and O’Reilly makes every number her own ..effortlessly, rhythmic backbeats, sultry, soulful crooning in virtuoso style”. ,” Edinburgh Fringe Festival/Three Weeks Daily
More about Melanie
Since bursting onto the international jazz scene, Melanie O’Reilly is recognized as one of Ireland’s international jazz ambassadors. Born in Dublin Ireland, O’Reilly is currently based in Berkeley, California as a U.S. distinguished artist in residence, international jazz performer/singer, songwriter and music educator: her unique and compelling bridge between Irish traditional music and jazz has won her a glowing reputation in Europe and the United States.
Having represented Ireland in a major international European Union Jazz festival at UCLA, with her Celtic Jazz Ulysses Trio – Frank Martin on piano and George Brooks, – she has also performed in major festivals and venues internationally, some of them include- , Edinburgh International Festival ,the L’Orient Festival Inter-Celtique in Brittany, Cork Jazz Festival, New York’s Cooper Union, Freight and Salvage CA, the London Barbican, Musique d’Ici et D’Ailleurs in Chalons-en-Champagne France, and Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day Cultural Festival.
After representing Ireland in the international 2013 EU Jazz Festival at Schoenberg Auditorium, Los Angeles, her subsequent performance at the National Concert Hall Dublin garnered the accolade as one of the “Top concerts of 2013″ by the Sunday Independent.
Her most recent Celtic -jazz groundbreaking album, Ceol Ceantair/District Music, is a showcase of her creative Celtic-jazz journey , inspired by and paying homage to Irish literary giants such as Sean O Riordain and James Joyce, while also interweaving her unique tribute to jazz standard classics.
Melanie & California:
Melanie was born into an Irish dynasty of musicians and actors, and has strong connections with the Bay Area California in her family history: –
Melanie’s uncle and godfather Brendan Smith – the founder of the Dublin Theatre Festival, received the Golden Key from San Francisco, in 1962 from the then Mayor of SF . while Brendan was promoting his film production of “Playboy of the Western World”, in NY, Hollywood and SF
Her uncle Ronnie Fagan was one of the chief film editors in Universal Studios during the 1960s,
Her mother Bonnie O’Reilly, who was originally an actress with the Dublin’s Abbey Theatre and the Gate Theatre, was a popular radio broadcaster on RTE Radio with her show “A Woman’s Word”.
Melanie, in carrying on this part of her family tradition, has also has developed a highly successful career in radio broadcasting, as creator and host of her show “Jazz on the Bay“, originally broadcast on RTE Radio 1, interviewing top US jazz musicians and featuring their music, which won a PPI/National Radio Award of Ireland. Among the musicians she interviewed and featured are, Dave Brubeck, Clint Eastwood, Chick Corea, Marian McPartland, , Nancy Wilson,Cleo Laine & John Dankworth, Bobby McFerrin, and including a special feature on Women of Jazz in the Bay Area.
For more info: melanieoreilly.com/
http://www.anitaodaytribute.com