Jazz plus blues: Hear the ‘Songs We Love’ at the Manship Theatre on Tuesday

The “Songs We Love” show’s mission is “to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education and advocacy.”

Debuting in 2016 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, this year’s “Songs We Love” tour, presented by JALC, is the most extensive in the show’s history. Launched on Jan. 20, the 47-city trek stops at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Singer Brianna Thomas, an original “Songs We Love” cast member, is performing for most of the winter-spring dates, including Baton Rouge. She joins singers Vuyo Sotashe and Shenel Johns and a seven-piece band in performances of timeless jazz and blues from the 1920s through the 1950s.

“We’re everywhere,” Thomas said a few hours before a performance in Toms River, New Jersey.

Based in New York City, Thomas has worked through the years with JALC’s manager and artist director, Wynton Marsalis, and other members of his musical New Orleans family.

“They are very much treasured,” Thomas said. “We’re honored to carry the Marsalis name and the legacy of jazz.”

With Marsalis’ blessing, “Songs We Love” musical director and arranger Riley Mulherkar assembled the show’s singers and musicians.

“Wynton dotes on him,” Thomas said of Mulherkar. “Because Riley knows how to make everything happen, so that we’re all sharpening one another and happy to be together. His arrangements make the vocals and instruments shine.”

The highly collaborative Mulherkar even asked the show’s singers what songs they wanted to sing.

“He wants us to sing songs we love,” Thomas said. “We each have our personal favorites and our own influences. We’re a diverse group of singers, and we all have our own little thing going on.”

The “Songs We Love” set list includes classics popularized by Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ma Rainey. On any given night, selections may include “See See Rider,” “God Bless the Child,” George and Ira Gershwin’s “I Loves You, Porgy,” Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” and Duke Ellington and Paul Francis Webster’s “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good).”