On Sunday, Feb. 27 at 2:30 p.m., you’ll have a wonderful opportunity to experience the talents of Lucia as she and Pete Whitman’s exciting band, Departure Point, offer a concert version of their new CD collaboration, Steeped in Strayhorn. The concert will take place at the Artists’ Quarter in St. Paul.

The voice of Lucia Newell has been heard in nightclubs around the world, from Los Angeles to Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro, as well as locally at Orchestra Hall, the Fine Line, the Times, and the Dakota. She can be heard singing background vocals on recordings for Windham Hill, CBS, Warner Bros., MCA, Atlantic, A&M and Virgin Records, and has recorded with Ben Sidran, Thelma Houston, Paula Abdul, Patty Austin, Paul Peterson and many others in London, New York, Los Angeles, Rio, and at home in Minneapolis.

Newell’s concert offering will spotlight the works of one of jazz history’s most important figures: Billy Strayhorn. This brilliant young man approached the mighty Duke Ellington with the hope of interesting the jazz giant in his musical ideas in the late 1930s, and ended up spending the next 30 years with Duke as one of the principal architects of what Strayhorn always referred to as “The Ellington Effect.” Strayhorn’s is an essential legacy, and Lucia Newell is a more than able interpreter of these works. This is beautifully demonstrated on her new Strayhorn-theme CD.

Co-starring and accompanying Newell for the concert, and featured on the CD, is the group Departure Point: Pete Whitman, sax/arranger/leader; Dave Jensen, trumpet/flugelhorn; Jeff Rinear, trombone; Laura Caviani, piano; Gordy Johnson, bass; and Phil Hey, drums. This group of Twin Cities’ legends offers just the right combination of skills, taste, and musical perspective to approach and redefine the Strayhorn song folio. Not incidentally, they are all great accompanists, ideally suited to the Newell vocal stylings.

In his liner notes to the CD, Tom Surowicz has stated, “Lucia Newell glows on this performance. The intense romance, the super-sophisticated swing, the playfulness, the intoxication, the morbid streak— she gets it!” Additionally, Surowicz comments, “Pete Whitman is Minnesota’s craftiest chart writer/bandleader...... (Departure Point) features the creme-de-la-creme of Land-O-Lakes jazz talent.”

TCJS “Jazz from J to Z” concert-goers may expect to be thrilled and entertained by this great presentation on Feb. 27. In addition, this concert (and the accompanying CD) will prove to be a magnificent starting-point for those who have previously been unfamiliar with the specifics of the Strayhorn legacy and its impact on the world of jazz and Ellingtonia.

Admission to the Feb. 27 “J to Z” series concert is $9; $7 TCJS members, and free to those who joins TCJS at the door. The Artists’ Quarter is located at 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul, (651) 292-1359.