STELLA HEATH For Billie - full Press release
Nearly seven decades after Billie Holiday’s death in 1959 her influence as a singularly revelatory artist who never flinched from the truth resonates more powerfully than ever. With Stella Heath’s debut album For Billie, the San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalist shines a penetrating light on Holiday’s legacy, interpreting a smartly curated program of songs inextricably linked to the legendary Lady Day. Scheduled for release May 15, 2026 on Matterhorn Records, it’s a gorgeous, consistently captivating album that illuminates the treacherous emotional and political terrain that Holiday navigated as a soul-bearing singer who delivered truths at deep personal cost.
For Billie emerged out of The Billie Holiday Project, a thematic, historically anchored tribute show Heath developed via a deep collaboration with pianist and arranger Neil Fontano. More than an expression of admiration for an era-defining artist, the project reflected her desire to honor Holiday as an artist in full, making deliberate decisions at key moments in her career. Most consequentially, Holiday introduced the anti-lynching anthem “Strange Fruit” at the apex of her visibility in 1939.
“When I began researching her life more fully, I discovered a complex woman — courageous, flawed, and deeply human,” Heath says. “Her decision to sing ‘Strange Fruit,’ and the personal cost she paid for that choice, is what initially compelled me to create The Billie Holiday Project. To me, she stands as a grandmother to the Civil Rights Movement and as a moral figure woven into our American story.”
There is a Holidayish quality to Heath’s voice that evokes billowing cigarette smoke and couples swaying in shadowed corners. And like Holiday, Heath works around the corners of a song, stretching a syllable or clipping a phrase to accentuate a lyric. “My objective, from the beginning, was never to imitate Billie, but to honor her,” Heath says. “It is important to me to stay true to myself and how I sing. Vocally, it’s always been a balance and blend.”
“I feel compelled to tell Billie’s story because I believe her legacy continues to have relevance and urgency,” Heath continues. “I see her as a moral and cultural figure whose courage still resonates in a moment when civil rights, democratic values, and human dignity feel increasingly contested. ‘Strange Fruit’ needed to be sung in Billie's day, and it still needs to be sung today.”
It’s an endeavor that has found an avid audience and considerable support. In 2025, Heath received a Performance Plus grant from Chamber Music America to record the project. She found an invaluable creative ally in Fontano, an ace accompanist known for his work with jazz and blues artists such as Maria Muldaur, Gunhild Carling, and Jenna Mammina.
Neither nostalgic nor self-consciously hip, Fontano’s crisp arrangements provide her with muscular but sensitive support, alternately buoying and caressing Heath’s vocals. The session features the cream of the Bay Area swing scene, built on a superlative rhythm section featuring bassist-for-all-occasions Daniel Fabricant, guitarist Vic Wong, and drummer Riley Baker. The consistently expressive horn solos come courtesy of veteran multi-instrumentalist Clint Baker (Riley’s father), the California Honeydrops’ saxophonist Johnny Bones, and Robby Elfman on clarinet and saxophone.
From the opening piece, a sleekly swinging take on “Now Baby, or Never,” Heath is clearly in command. She can swing briskly with authority, like on the intoxicating version of “Them There Eyes.” Heath is at her most compelling on ballads like “You Let Me Down,” where her sensuous lament is shadowed and answered by Clint Baker’s growling trumpet and Elfman’s skittery clarinet.
The album’s ringer, “These Tears,” is a song written for Holiday by Vilray Blair Bolles of the popular duo Rachael and Vilray. “I wanted a song that would bring this music from Billie’s era into the present day, and Vilray’s writing fits in so seamlessly with Billie’s material, especially the Teddy Wilson era,” Heath says. From the exuberant joy of “Swing, Brother, Swing” to the abject misery of “Good Morning Heartache,” she covers the emotional waterfront.
A Sonoma County native, Heath grew up in Petaluma, raised by her mother, a passionate lover of music. She immersed her daughter in the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald “and all kinds of different artists, the Buena Vista Social Club, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Latin jazz and classical music,” Heath recalls.
Heath attended Interlochen Arts Academy and continued her studies at Syracuse University, graduating with degrees in acting (with emphasis on Shakespeare) and cultural geography. Moving down to New York City in 2009, Heath plunged into the Gotham drama scene, performing Shakespeare in New York City and regionally. But in the course of her five-year New York sojourn she found her way back to jazz via time-honored Harlem pianist Marjorie Elliot’s weekly parlor concerts in her Sugar Hill apartment. Heath started attending every Sunday, reveling in the informal sessions “that felt like jazz church, something sacred and intimate,” she says. “Marjorie invited me to come play music, and we started going through the Real Book, finding songs and keys. It was like listening to my mom’s records, and that was my pathway back to jazz.”
Moving back to the Bay Area in 2014, she immediately established herself on the Bay Area’s thriving Hot Club scene by creating the Gypsy jazz group French Oak (now known as the Bandjango Collectif). Two self-produced albums helped spread Heath’s reputation, and after a few years she decided to spread her wings with The Billie Holiday Project.
In 2022 bassist Marcus Shelby, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, recruited Heath as Education Coordinator for the organization. Heath brings jazz education into low-income schools around Sonoma County. “I whole-heartedly believe that jazz, a uniquely American art form, should be held up and celebrated in our society and should be a vital educational component in our school system here in the United States,” Heath says.
She’s developed several other thematic shows in recent years focusing on Ella Fitzgerald, Edith Piaf and early Nat “King” Cole, and with the release of For Billie, Heath’s reputation is ready for a global leap.
Written by Andrew Gilbert
For Billie emerged out of The Billie Holiday Project, a thematic, historically anchored tribute show Heath developed via a deep collaboration with pianist and arranger Neil Fontano. More than an expression of admiration for an era-defining artist, the project reflected her desire to honor Holiday as an artist in full, making deliberate decisions at key moments in her career. Most consequentially, Holiday introduced the anti-lynching anthem “Strange Fruit” at the apex of her visibility in 1939.
“When I began researching her life more fully, I discovered a complex woman — courageous, flawed, and deeply human,” Heath says. “Her decision to sing ‘Strange Fruit,’ and the personal cost she paid for that choice, is what initially compelled me to create The Billie Holiday Project. To me, she stands as a grandmother to the Civil Rights Movement and as a moral figure woven into our American story.”
There is a Holidayish quality to Heath’s voice that evokes billowing cigarette smoke and couples swaying in shadowed corners. And like Holiday, Heath works around the corners of a song, stretching a syllable or clipping a phrase to accentuate a lyric. “My objective, from the beginning, was never to imitate Billie, but to honor her,” Heath says. “It is important to me to stay true to myself and how I sing. Vocally, it’s always been a balance and blend.”
“I feel compelled to tell Billie’s story because I believe her legacy continues to have relevance and urgency,” Heath continues. “I see her as a moral and cultural figure whose courage still resonates in a moment when civil rights, democratic values, and human dignity feel increasingly contested. ‘Strange Fruit’ needed to be sung in Billie's day, and it still needs to be sung today.”
It’s an endeavor that has found an avid audience and considerable support. In 2025, Heath received a Performance Plus grant from Chamber Music America to record the project. She found an invaluable creative ally in Fontano, an ace accompanist known for his work with jazz and blues artists such as Maria Muldaur, Gunhild Carling, and Jenna Mammina.
Neither nostalgic nor self-consciously hip, Fontano’s crisp arrangements provide her with muscular but sensitive support, alternately buoying and caressing Heath’s vocals. The session features the cream of the Bay Area swing scene, built on a superlative rhythm section featuring bassist-for-all-occasions Daniel Fabricant, guitarist Vic Wong, and drummer Riley Baker. The consistently expressive horn solos come courtesy of veteran multi-instrumentalist Clint Baker (Riley’s father), the California Honeydrops’ saxophonist Johnny Bones, and Robby Elfman on clarinet and saxophone.
From the opening piece, a sleekly swinging take on “Now Baby, or Never,” Heath is clearly in command. She can swing briskly with authority, like on the intoxicating version of “Them There Eyes.” Heath is at her most compelling on ballads like “You Let Me Down,” where her sensuous lament is shadowed and answered by Clint Baker’s growling trumpet and Elfman’s skittery clarinet.
The album’s ringer, “These Tears,” is a song written for Holiday by Vilray Blair Bolles of the popular duo Rachael and Vilray. “I wanted a song that would bring this music from Billie’s era into the present day, and Vilray’s writing fits in so seamlessly with Billie’s material, especially the Teddy Wilson era,” Heath says. From the exuberant joy of “Swing, Brother, Swing” to the abject misery of “Good Morning Heartache,” she covers the emotional waterfront.
A Sonoma County native, Heath grew up in Petaluma, raised by her mother, a passionate lover of music. She immersed her daughter in the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald “and all kinds of different artists, the Buena Vista Social Club, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Latin jazz and classical music,” Heath recalls.
Heath attended Interlochen Arts Academy and continued her studies at Syracuse University, graduating with degrees in acting (with emphasis on Shakespeare) and cultural geography. Moving down to New York City in 2009, Heath plunged into the Gotham drama scene, performing Shakespeare in New York City and regionally. But in the course of her five-year New York sojourn she found her way back to jazz via time-honored Harlem pianist Marjorie Elliot’s weekly parlor concerts in her Sugar Hill apartment. Heath started attending every Sunday, reveling in the informal sessions “that felt like jazz church, something sacred and intimate,” she says. “Marjorie invited me to come play music, and we started going through the Real Book, finding songs and keys. It was like listening to my mom’s records, and that was my pathway back to jazz.”
Moving back to the Bay Area in 2014, she immediately established herself on the Bay Area’s thriving Hot Club scene by creating the Gypsy jazz group French Oak (now known as the Bandjango Collectif). Two self-produced albums helped spread Heath’s reputation, and after a few years she decided to spread her wings with The Billie Holiday Project.
In 2022 bassist Marcus Shelby, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, recruited Heath as Education Coordinator for the organization. Heath brings jazz education into low-income schools around Sonoma County. “I whole-heartedly believe that jazz, a uniquely American art form, should be held up and celebrated in our society and should be a vital educational component in our school system here in the United States,” Heath says.
She’s developed several other thematic shows in recent years focusing on Ella Fitzgerald, Edith Piaf and early Nat “King” Cole, and with the release of For Billie, Heath’s reputation is ready for a global leap.
Written by Andrew Gilbert
