Jazz concert is Friday in Lihue

LIHUE — The Kauai Island Singers Showcase is sponsoring a special jazz concert at 7 p.m. Friday at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.

Kauai singers will be performing jazz classics from the “Great American Songbook, accompanied by New Orleans Jazz virtuoso Matt Lemmler.

Special guests include award-winning jazz vocalist Greta Matassa, Seattle-based jazz bassist Clipper Anderson and Kauai’s own singer/musician Alan Van Zee.

Tickets, available at brownpapertickets.com., are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

Lemmler is considered one of the most original musicians to recently emerge from the birthplace of jazz. Known as one of the “New Orleans Jazz Professors,” he is a pianist, vocalist, composer, arranger, educator, producer and musical director for The New Orleans Jazz Revival Band.

Matassa is one of the most talented singers working in jazz today. She’s been voted Northwest Vocalist of the Year by Earshot Jazz seven times in 15 years. In 2014, she was named Vocalist of the Year, honored with a lifetime achievement award and inducted into the Earshot Jazz Hall of Fame.

Anderson is a musician who is equally comfortable with straight-ahead, traditional, free jazz or bebop. He plays with genuine reverence for the music and an unassuming mastery. He performs regularly at jazz festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Van Zee is musical director for St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Lihue. An accomplished vocalist, he also works as a musician and music coach in many of the island’s theatrical and musical productions.