Soul Spectacular: A Tribute to Aretha & the Classic Soul Era

Sat, Apr 06 2019, 9:00pm - $15 - Tickets

Doors open at 7 pm.

Aretha Franklin was a trailblazing icon and virtuosic musician whose voice cut straight to the heart of things. She was, in the words of Billy Preston, “the best f*ckin’ singer this f*cked-up country has ever produced.” An extraordinary talent deserves no less of a tribute than a full-on dance-your-ass-off party experience—a revue that harkens back to Motown’s Motortown Revue or The James Brown Show. An event!

Chicago’s Soul supergroup Soul Spectacular honors her departed majesty with Soul Spectacular: A Tribute to Aretha & the Classic Soul Era. On April 6th, 2019, they’ll be be bringing the party to Fitzgerald’s with a star-studded line-up of the city’s best young singers, all paying tribute to the Queen and the music of her era. Sam Trump, Meghan Murphy, Elisa Latrice, Tammi Savoy and the Spectaculars—a funky-as-hell rhythm section complete with costumes, horns, and back-up singers—back this rotating revue of Chicago’s best R&B singers. And when we say best, we mean best.

After years of putting on shows with The Second City, The Kennedy Center, as well as the band he founded JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound, guitarist/director Billy Bungeroth and master musical director, improviser, and Second City alum Julie Nichols started to explore the idea of resurrecting the art of the Revue: concerts that have the thought and direction of a theatrical experience. The result is an homage, a celebration, a cathartic night of music and dancing as this group bands together to send off one of the greatest Soul singers to ever walk the Earth.