Photo Credit: Jerry Dantzic, 1954
Nationwide — New Orleans five-star rated tour company All Bout Dat Tours LLC and The Historic Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club are partnering to present an evening of world-class jazz performed by singer Mikhala “Jazz Muffin” Iversen and The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band headed by bandleader Mr. Gerald French.Mikhala’s shows will be every Friday at Sweet Lorraine’s located at 1931 St. Claude Ave, New Orleans, LA 70116. The Jazz & Creole Dinner shows will held on October 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th & November dates are 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th.
The show will include a Billie Holiday & Lester Young tribute, New Orleans traditional jazz, and some brown sugar blues. “We are honoring Billie Holiday & Lester Young in a tribute concert,” says Mikhala. “I’m fortunate to be working with some of New Orleans’ finest jazz musicians. As jazz singers, we carry the lighthearted and deep songs to the next generation. These are songs that contain truth, vulnerability, and resistance. The best and only real way to do this is to get up on the bandstand and sing them.”
The band is The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, established in 1910 by Papa Celestine and handed down through generations. The current bandleader is New Orleans Native and highly favored drummer, Mr. Gerald French. “It’s happy music for people to enjoy,” says French.
Mikhala is an international recording artist from Copenhagen, Denmark, with Southern roots on her mother’s side. Her mother, Rosita Thomas, was a celebrated jazz and blues singer who stayed in Copenhagen after she met Mikhala’s father journalist Henrik Iversen. He is an award-winning journalist, acclaimed TV producer, and the founder of The Ben Webster Foundation.
She comments, “I grew up in a revolutionary jazz house. My childhood home was a safe haven for travelers, activists, and jazz superstars. My aunties were Josephine Baker, Eartha Kidd, and Nina Simone. My uncles were Ben Webster, Clark Terry, Dexter Gordon, Ernie Wilkins, and New Orleans’ own Louis Armstrong. They were all very close friends of my parents. Because she could cook so well, they called my mother ‘Mama Charlie Parker of the Kitchen!'”
“Where’s your gig at?” Visitors kept asking me. “We all sing on my tours.” Mr. Paul Sylvester, the owner of Sweet Lorraine’s, made it possible. All Black owned and operated.
Dinner and jazz reservations can be made online at AllBoutDat.com
All of the shows start at 8pm and 10pm. Limited seating requires reservations.
For press inquiries, contact blacktours@allboutdat.com or 504-457-9439