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For four years, Lucille’s Jazz Lounge— housed within the TolHouse members’ club on the outer edge of the Vistula District— has been a wellspring of music and community. Hot on the heels of TolHouse’s quadrennial in late November, Lucille’s will be celebrating its own fourth birthday on December 27. To mark the occasion they’re calling upon Toledo’s “First Lady of Song,” jazz vocalist and coach Jean Holden.
A classically-trained mezzo soprano, Holden pivoted from opera to nightclub singing due to
“limited opportunities for African-American opera singers.” Despite its unfortunate origins, her decision didn’t take long to bear fruit, as Holden used her talents to parlay a two-week trial at Toledo’s Park Lane Hotel into a two-year residency. She’s been a pillar of the Northwest Ohio musical community ever since. As her website proudly proclaims, she is the deserving recipient of three Lake Erie West People’s Choice Awards for Best Female Vocalist and a YWCA Milestones recipient for her work in the arts and her mentorship of young musicians. No surprise, she’s also a member of the Sylvania Distinguished Artist Hall of Fame. To call her a local legend would be something of an understatement.
Transforming technique into transfixing performance
Holden employs conversational cadence and remarkable vocal control to craft a performing style that is at turns alluring and heartbreaking. She takes full advantage of the jazz convention for rhythmic flexibility, often delaying entrances and speeding up her vocal lines to create excitement and interest throughout. Meanwhile, her command over her instrument is a testament to her training. Holden brings a sultry rasp to her performance for more down-tempo, contemplative numbers, while opening to a bold vibrato for broad, triumphant finales. By leveraging the skills and training at her disposal she manages to make every single song – most of them jazz standards with hundreds of interpretations laid down on wax – her own.
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Echoing her prominence in Northwest Ohio, Holden has been a mainstay at Lucille’s practically since its opening. She has performed at the cozy jazz club yearly since 2022 when the venue wasn’t even a year old. So, her concert celebrating this four-year anniversary is a fitting, full-circle moment for Lucille’s as a club, courtesy of one of its earliest champions.
Lucille’s throwback charm
Lucille’s Jazz Lounge hearkens back to turn of the 20th century jazz clubs and is worth highlighting as a venue on its own merits. Like its host establishment, Lucile’s is an inimitably Toledo blend of scrappy DIY verve and undeniable ambition. The room itself is unassuming— weathered wood floors, a dropped ceiling and as many surfaces as possible painted black to craft an elegant feel out of humble surroundings. A vivid red curtain adorns the stage and anchors the color palette of the space – a retrained blend of blacks, deep reds and deftly added gold accents. It comes together to create an air of understated, rough-hewn sophistication that calls back to Prohibition-era venues and perfectly suits the overall TolHouse aesthetic. Intimate is the word that first comes to mind first walking into Lucille’s, and it engenders a closeness between performer and audience that is a hallmark of the best jazz clubs.
After nearly a half decade of music, Lucille’s Jazz Lounge and Jean Holden are ready to celebrate. Whether you’re a veteran of jazz appreciation, finding your footing in the genre or just looking for a one-of-a-kind night, take the opportunity to party with them. Toledo’s First Lady of Song would love to perform for you.
7:15pm Saturday, December 17. Lucille’s Jazz Lounge. 1447 N. Summit St. lucilles.tolhouse.com.
