The Charleston Jazz Orchestra will be “Swinging the Blues” during two May 17 shows at Charleston Music Hall that celebrate the breadth of the genre that’s much more than the stereotype of a lone musician tapping his foot and wailing on a guitar.
Count Basie’s big band, for example, could play the blues just as well as T-Bone Walker, and Billie Holiday intimately knew the pain she sang about in “The Blues Are Brewin’.”
Saturday’s programs pay tribute to the artists who freely mixed blues and swing jazz — artists like Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and B.B. King. But the 17-piece CJO is also throwing in some surprises, most notably a spin through the epic James Brown ballad “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” and a big-band treatment of a recent Lizzo tune.
CJO Artistic Director and Conductor Robert Lewis, who also is director of jazz studies at the College of Charleston, created the show. He said the point of the show is to emphasize the common ground between blues and jazz.
“They’re both styles of music that were developed in the American South and they share a lot of characteristics.” Lewis said. “Both styles really grew out of the intersection of traditional African music and traditional Western European music and how they were slammed together in the American South.”
Testone to perform, too
For about half of the “Swingin’ The Blues” show, Charleston vocalist and songwriter Elise Testone will join the orchestra.
Testone, a nationally known performer and former American Idol finalist who once shared the stage with B.B. King will sing the James Brown ballad, a bit of Ella Fitzgerald and two original tunes arranged for the orchestra, “Help Me” and “Lucky Day.”
In addition to being a veteran blues performer, Testone said blues music means a lot to her.
“I’ll always be connected with the blues,” Testone said. “It comes very naturally, because at a young age I started feeling depression. It became a very normal part of my life. There’s definitely some of that sadness inside of me, so to be able to release it through music is always a wonderful gift.”
Lewis and Testone are both excited about the collaboration because they’ve been searching for a project to work on together for almost two decades.
“We’ve always had her on our radar,” Lewis said. “She’s somebody that we’d wanted to have as a guest, and she’s perfect for this show because her voice is incredible. Everything she sings is just drenched in the blues tradition. She can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and it would come out sounding like the blues.”
“I met Robert when I moved to Charleston back in 2006,” Testone added. “I always looked up to him and his musical ability. So to be doing this now is really exciting for me.”
Ultimately, Testone and Lewis said they’d like for the audience to leave the “Swingin’ The Blues” concert with a different perspective on the flexibility of one of America’s most important musical genres.
“The blues is a very broad idea,” Lewis said. “I think sometimes we think of music in what I call ‘record store bin’ terms. The music becomes too narrowly defined. So I hope people get an appreciation for the depth and breadth of the intersection between jazz and blues. For me, that’s pretty exciting.”
“I’d just like people to be aware of the fact that the blues doesn’t always have to be predictable,” Testone said. “I want them to feel pleasantly surprised that jazz and blues can have different faces and go different places.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Two shows at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., May 17, Charleston Music Hall, 37 John St. Tickets are $10-$67: charlestonmusichall.com.
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