Join us for our first show at Mississippi Boy Catfish & Ribs! “Birthplace of America’s Music and Great Food.”

This establishment boasts a classy atmosphere, beautiful piano, warm environment, and great food, all settled in the Park Hill neighborhood. We are thrilled to be putting this program of music together for you all.

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This evening will honor the work of icon Billie Holiday on Dr. Martin Luther King weekend. Holiday (1915-1959) is remembered for her songwriting skills, creativity, and courageous views on inequality and justice. Her voice was deeply moving and easily identifiable, despite her never having formal musical training. Rather, she learned by singing alongside Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong in her teens. In 1933 Holiday made her first recordings with Benny Goodman. She wrote “God Bless the Child” along Arthur Herzog Jr., which is now in the Great American Songbook. Thankfully, there are many recordings of Holiday’s singing, and many songs she wrote. She toured Europe, starred in the Hollywood film, “New Orleans” with Louis Armstrong, and signed to Columbia records before her death. Holiday carved out space that was previously unseen in vocal Jazz, especially for women. She captured the attention of many, and changed the course of Jazz for the better. Her courageous expression is an ongoing gift to Jazz and beyond.

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Danette Hollowell is a singer, songwriter and classically trained dancer in Denver, CO. After a chance encounter with an opportunity to take part in a jazz scholarship at UCD, her professional career began to blossom. Hollowell has brought an edge, dynamism, and beautiful charisma to the Denver music scene, and it’s her solo vocals and creative stamina that has carried her through the years and changes in the music industry. Hollowell says, “performance art is my passion and I am grateful to have many ways I can express myself through my passion be it theatre, dance or vocal Jazz.” Hollowell went through phases of questioning her “belonging” in the professional music scene, but found solace in learning about icons like Billie Holiday that prompted her to own her passion for music. “I began to see myself in the stories and my own experiences in that icons and greats and decided that I belonged here, hardships and all. There is real beauty in challenges and to me all that I was experiencing was TRUE art.”

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Vocalist: Danette Hollowell

Piano: Luke Maxon

Bass: Max Hass

Trumpet: Joshua Trinidad

Drums: Alex Armstrong