L.A. Young & Soul Society - The Phyllis Hyman Songbook
1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington DC 20007
Thursday, November 19, 9:30PM
L.A. Young
L.A. Young is a contralto based in the DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia), the rare, low, dark-toned female voice Phyllis Hyman sang with. That is why her Phyllis Hyman Songbook works where most such shows do not: the songs are not transposed, softened or approximated.
Blues Alley is a fitting home for this show: Phyllis Hyman herself performed there. And Washington, D.C. audiences have followed L.A.’s show for years. Under its original title, The Phyllis Hyman Experience, it sold out a three-night run at the Anacostia Playhouse in August 2019, previewed by the Washington Informer, and it played City Winery D.C. Writing about the Anacostia run, WPKN 89.5 FM’s Tony “Doc” Hardy called it “not an ordinary tribute show,” praising a voice that “made you believe, for just one night, that the Queen was alive and among us.” Safeway and Events DC named L.A. Young’s band the entertainment for their Feast of Sharing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in every live edition from 2017 through 2023, before a house of roughly 5,000.
Now the show returns as The Phyllis Hyman Songbook, with her band, L.A. Young & Soul Society: career players who build each set to the room, live and never to tape. This season the Songbook plays City Winery Chicago on November 3 and City Winery St. Louis on November 5, comes home to Washington, D.C. at Blues Alley on November 19, and closes the year at City Winery Pittsburgh on December 20. Ahead of the tour, L.A. sat down with Paul Lisnek on Curtain Call Chicago to talk about the show.
Raised in the steel-mill towns of 1980s Ohio, where she operated a mill crane before music became her living, Young has fronted bands for more than two decades across soul, R&B, jazz, blues and funk. She has recorded with members of Pieces of A Dream and holds three 2018 Maryland Music Awards nominations: Best Jazz Artist, Best Funk Artist and the Music Icon Award.
1. Final sale, no refunds, not transferable.
2. $15 food/beverage minimum per person not included in ticket price.
3. Seating first come at the door. Doors open 6 PM & 8:45 PM respectively Monday thru Saturday, and 4:30 PM & 7:15 PM Sundays.
4. No Photography or Recording of any kind during the performance.
5. Keep conversation to a minimum during the performance.