Ella Fitzgerald tribute night

Ella Fitzgerald tribute night

4 January 2017

STELLA Bass is celebrating the centenary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth later this month in Down Arts Centre.

‘Stella Sings Ella’ will be performed in Down Arts Centre on Sunday, January 14.

One of the most unique, innovative singers ever, winning 13 Grammys and selling 40 million albums, Ella could sing ballads, jazz, and pop tunes. Her famous songbook series covered the works of Gershwin, Porter, Ellington and more.  

In her Downpatrick performance, Stella Bass pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by internationally acclaimed guitarist, Hugh Buckley.

Dubliner Stella Bass studied singing and piano accordion from a young age, Stella is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Music in Dublin’s Conservatory of Music.

Many years of singing in musicals, bands and cabarets helped her finely-tune her craft; running parallel to this was a successful career in marketing and public relations. Combining study and on-the-job gigging has generated a versatile repertoire crossing over jazz, classical and musical theatre.

Having long since abandoned the corporate world for music, Stella is still most at home singing her beloved jazz standards, inspired by her big influences, Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.

In 2014, Stella released her first album ‘Too Darn Hot’, featuring songs from Cole Porter (the title track) and Jerome Kern as well as newly-arranged songs by Amy Winehouse and Robert Palmer – to critical acclaim.

Upon hearing Stella’s album cover of her daughter’s song Back to Black, Amy Winehouse’s mother got in touch with Stella directly to say how much she loved the version, and the album gets regular radio airplay on the national airwaves in Ireland.

In January 2015, she performed her jazz-inspired take on the music of Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim, which sold out the John Field Room in Dublin’s National Concert Hall. Stella returned there in September as part of her two-month nationwide tour celebrating Sondheim’s music, in partnership with the Irish Arts Council.

No stranger to the art of the big band, Stella sings with the Hot House Big Band, has recorded with the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, while she is also into the sixth year of her own quartet’s Sunday residency in Dublin’s chic and trendy Café en Seine. Amongst the jazz festivals in which she has performed are Cork, Derry, Bray and Howth.

The ‘Stella Sings Ella’ performance on Saturday, January 14 in Down Arts Centre starts at 8pm. Tickets cost £12/£10 concession. Contact the box office on 028 4461 0747 or visit www.downartscentre.cpm.