Jazz Articles about Stella Heath

Lady Day Reimagined: Stella Heath’s Jazz Story

by Steven Roby
August 31, 2025

Vocalist Stella Heath describes Billie Holiday the way a director describes a great actor--precise about choices, attentive to subtext, and focused on how a story resonates in the room. “Stories are front and foremost for me," she says. Heath's connection to Holiday starts with feeling. What drew her in wasn't just her timbre or repertoire, but the uncanny way Holiday “makes you feel a song." Heath perceives emotional accuracy--how a single line can convey witness, tenderness, or a ...