“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lena Horne
Ava Logan
Imagine an evening of songs that have been performed by Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Etta James, Anita Day, Johnny Frigo among others. Then imagine internationally known vocalist (and Chicago resident) Ava Logan singing at one of the premiere listening rooms on the North Shore. It will all be there when the Skokie Theatre presents “Lena Horne and Friends” on Saturday, March 20 at 8 p.m.
Besides being an extraordinary singer and actress, Lena Horne was a transformational figure in the movement for civil rights. At the age of 16 in 1933, Horne joined the chorus line of the famed Cotton Club in New York City. During a club engagement in Hollywood, talent agents caught her act and Horne signed a long-term contract with MGM; the first African American performer to do.
Lorne is perhaps best known on film for her performance of Stormy Weather, in the 1943 film of the same name. Ironically, Horne’s career became increasingly stormy in the 40s and 50s. In the late 1940s Horne sued a number of restaurants and theaters for race discrimination and became politically allied with Paul Robeson in the Progressive Citizens of America, a leftist group combating racism. This landed Horne on the “black list” and kept her from working in radio, television, films, and recordings until the late 1950s.
This did not stop Horne from becoming one of the most sought after night club performers on the post WWII era, appearing in such Chicago hot spots as the Chez Paree, Mr Kelly’s, and the Regal Theatre on 47th St.
After the anti-Communist hysteria loosened its grip on the country, Horne’s career blossomed on Broadway as well as the electronic media of the day.
Lena (Schomburg Center for Research)
Horne’s courage and talent earned her Lifetime Achievement Awards in both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Grammy’s as well as being represented on the Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta.
About Ava Logan, Neil Tesser wrote (Logan is) “a fresh breath of old-school glamour, bringing sass and swing to the classic singer’s repertoire while retaining the swanky class this material deserves.” Logan (or should say Dr. Logan as Ava is a working veterinarian) is a classically trained vocalist who has performed jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Logan has portrayed two of her idols, Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson, at the Black Ensemble Theater.
If hearing such tunes as Stormy Weather, Wild is the Wind , Detour Ahead and At Last by this superb interpreter of the genre sounds like an evening well spent, check out Lena Horne at Friends. Click here for tickets.
Here is a video of Ava Logan performing at the Skokie Theatre…
