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Lady Gets Her Day
Tabia re-creates the life of jazz great Billie Holiday
By Nicky Baxter
The life and lore of Billie Holiday has etched itself inextricably into this country's cultural history. Though a "jazz" vocalist par excellence, Lady Day, as she was fondly dubbed by saxophone great Lester Young, never received the kind of mainstream acceptance she so richly deserved. For one thing, during her most fruitful years, the late 1930s, her recording dates were restricted to the so-called "race" labels, distributed primarily to black audiences.
Further, Holiday's career was severely hampered by her extramusical activities: the well-publicized narcotics addiction, the mean mistreaters she attracted; the dogged resistance to flagrant white-nationalist actions. And then came the final humiliation of being arrested at bedside in a drug-rehabilitation hospital. In the years following her death in 1959, Holiday's legend has assumed massive proportions--at least in some circles; incredibly, the 1982 edition of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Black Music includes rock guitarist Duane Allman while omitting any mention of Holiday.
Tabia Theatre Ensemble's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is an effort to place Holiday squarely where she belongs: at the pinnacle of the jazz vocal tradition. Set in a low-rent but famous jazz venue in Philadelphia, the play captures one of the troubled singer's final performances. Between songs, she relates bits and pieces of her life to the audience.
Viera Wyhe, Tabia's artistic producer, discusses her take on Holiday and the play. "Actually, when I started working on the play," she confesses, "I had no idea that I was going to become so fascinated." The play attempts, successfully, she believes, to capture a true-to-life club ambiance; there's even a photographer on hand snapping pictures of Billie.
Featured in the title role is Cheryl Bennett-Scales, a Tabia veteran who, coincidentally, Whye says, had been singing Holiday tunes in local clubs like Ola's months before the production got under way. "[Cheryl] brings life to the role," Wyhe says. "Billie didn't have a big voice like, say, Bessie Smith; similarly, Cheryl doesn't have one, either. But like Billie Holiday, she has lots of style."
While conceding that Bennett-Scales' "Billie" bares little physical resemblance to Lady Day--"[Cheryl] looks more like Diana Ross' Billie"--Whye is confident that audiences will embrace Lady Day's lead character. Other featured players include musical accompanists Cass Ballard (piano) and Jeff Jones (bass), both experienced musicians who lend an undeniable air of credibility to the bio-musical. Asked what impressed her most about Holiday, Whye is unambiguous. "I like the fact that she maintained her own artistic vision. That I can relate to."
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Musical Holiday: Cheryl Bennett-Scales
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill plays Feb. 1-3 at the Stage, 490 S. First St., San Jose. Tickets are $10. (408/283-7142)