STELLA HEATH

FOR BILLIE

Matterhorn Records

Stella Heath, vocals; Neil Fontano, piano/arranger/tambourine; Daniel Fabricant, bass/ arranger; Victor Wong, guitar; Riley Baker, drums/trombone; Robert Elfman, clarinet/tenor sax/flute/arranger; Johnny Bones, soprano, alto & tenor saxophones; Clint Baker, trumpet/ trombone.

Stella Heath had been working on a historical tribute show to celebrate Billie Holiday in collaboration with her pianist, arranger, Neil Fontano. That project developed into this recording.

“My objective, from the beginning, was never to imitate Billie, but to honor her.  It is important to me to stay true to myself and how I sing,” explains Stella Heath.

This vocalist is a Sonoma County native.  Heath grew up living in Petaluma, a Northern California community renowned for its agricultural scene and well-preserved Victorian architecture.  She opens this album with a swing number “Now Baby, or Never.” It’s a production that recalls the music of the 1940s.

Heath follows with a two-step groove on “If You Were Mine,” a moderate tempo ballad. Victor Wong takes a warm guitar solo, sharing bars with Neil Fontano’s piano, then they focus the spotlight on the saxophonist.  Heath’s session features the crème de la crème of the Bay area swing scene.  On “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” the clarinet is king.  A solo by Riley Baker sounds like a tap dancer moving across the skins of his drums.

Stella Heath is a stylist. Sometimes I hear shades of Esther Phillips in her tone and vibrato. But, Heath has her own sound and sings with purpose and sincerity.

On “Crazy He Calls Me” the song becomes a perfect vehicle for her to show off her vocal prowess.  Her attention to melody and selling the song lyrics is consistent.  On a tune called “You Let Me Down” Clint Baker carefully and creatively adds his trumpet to the arrangement, tastily filling in between Heath’s melodic delivery, then taking an impressive, improvised solo.

One song written for Holiday by Vilray Blair Bolles is titled “These Tears” is up tempo and shuffles along beneath Heath’s poignant delivery.  Heath attended Interlochen Arts Academy and Syracuse University, graduating with degrees in acting and cultural geography. In 2009, she relocated to New York City, where she found her path back to jazz.  She began performing around town and developed thematic shows including tributes to Ella Fitzgerald, Edith Piaf, and early Nat King Cole. In 2022, Stella Heath took a position back in California, bringing jazz education to low-income schools around Sonoma County.

“I whole-heartedly believe that jazz, a uniquely American art form, should be held up and celebrated in our society and should be a vital educational component in our school system here, in the United States,” Heath says in her press package.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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