Vocalist Cilla Owens has been called “as smooth as Nancy Wilson, as authoritative as Sarah Vaughan, and as informed as Carmen McRae” by JazzTimes.
Now Owens and her Smooth Sailing Jazz Ensemble will present a celebration inspired by Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial year and the birthday of Billie Holiday, as well as the music of Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk and other jazz icons, on Friday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. on the Westermann Stage, Concert Hall at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center.
Owens’ credits include performances at Lincoln Center, the Blue Note, Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, the Cornelia Street Café, the Iridium, and the Brooklyn Museum.
She has performed in Germany and the Caribbean, as well as in the Annual Festival of Jewish Music in Krakow, Poland, and at the Blues to Bop Festival in Lugano, Switzerland, both as part of saxophonist Paul Shapiro’s Ribs and Brisket Revue.
Owens was the guest soloist at The Sinatra Centennial Celebration with the Hunter Symphony and Jazz Ensemble featuring trombonist Ryan Keberle, under the direction of Reuben Blundell.
For several years, she has directed the Hunter Jazz Vocal Workshop and the Jazzvox Ensemble.
And for over a decade, she was a member of The Great Day Chorale, dedicated to the preservation of the Negro Spiritual, founded by the late musicologist Louvinia Pointer.
She has continued this mission with Voices of Vision, which has appeared with Jacques D’Amboise’s National Dance Institute’s Event of the Year since 2015.
Owens was the first Katowitz-Radin Artist in Residence for the Brooklyn Collection of the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in 2015, where she presented Lebendig in Brooklyn, which described the thriving Yiddish theater beyond Second Avenue, and Motown and Beyond, a tribute to the live performances at the Fox and Paramount Theaters.
She has also enjoyed a long association with the popular Greek singer Gregory Maninakis and his Mikrokosmos ensemble, and has been a featured soloist in the Greek blues festival, Rebetiko.
The Smooth Sailing Ensemble’s collective biography reads like a veritable Who’s Who in the music industry.
Comprised of Mario Sprouse, Glafkos Kontemeniotis on piano, Brad Jones on bass, Tony Lewis, Vince Kazi McCoy on drums, Sly Scott, and Paul Shapiro on saxophone, they have performed and/or recorded with artists from all genres, including Sting, Bootsy Collins, Queen Latifah, Lou Reed, Jay-Z, B. B. King, Little Richard, Michael Jackson, King Swallow, Ansel Meditation, Cassandra Wilson, Sheryl Crow, David Byrne, Mercedes Hall, Mabel Lee, Ornette Coleman, Dizzy Gillespie, Cyndi Lauper, David Krakauer, Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello, and John Zorn.
Three of the ensemble, Kontemeniotis, Scott, and Kazi McCoy, can be heard on Owens’ CD, “‘Tis What It Is.”
Collectively these artists have toured practically every continent and crisscrossed the United States and Europe countless times.
Owens is happy to be able to pull these hardworking musicians together for this special evening. `
AUPAC is located at 1 South Ave. in Garden City.
Tickets are currently on sale and are priced at $30, with discounts available to seniors, students and alumni.
Information is available at the Lucia and Steven N. Fischer Box Office at 516-877-4000 or boxoffice@adelphi.edu.
Regular box office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 6 p.m.
The box office is also open two hours before most scheduled performances.
