Davis-based pianist Lara Downes has an expansive vision of music, even though she’s mainly identified as a classical artist.
This weekend Downes premieres her latest project, “But Beautiful: Billie Holiday Remembered,” a solo piano tribute to the jazz singer and songs identified with her. Holiday, who was born in 1915, recorded hundreds of songs in career. But there are, of course, several such as “Good Morning Heartache,” “Fine And Mellow,” “God Bless the Child” and “Lover Man” that are indelibly associated with her. Downes will perform those and others in the 19-song program.
“It was a personal choice for me,” Downes said. “She sang so many songs, and she wrote very few of them herself, so it’s really a question of the which songs we associate with her.”
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