MetroStage is presenting The All Night Strut!, a celebration of the music and dance from the '30s and '40s, through March 27, featuring DC and New York's finest musicians and singers. (DC Jazz members Greg Holloway on drums and singer Yvette Spears are both currently on stage at MetroStage). The reviewers say it best: "With a tight three piece band and charismatic singers who work the scales from blue note to scat, The All Night Strut! is two hours of simple unrelieved joy. Director Thomas W. Jones II has assembled a very talented group of performers, including music director and pianist William Knowles, who sing and play their hearts out on many of the finest jazz, blues and bebop compositions on the last century. The All Night Strut! takes us on a musical journey through the Depression, World War II and the post war boom. Singer-actors William Hubbard ( a 2003 Helen Hayes Award winner for musical direction), Darryl Jovan, Yvette Spears and Lori Anne Williams work their way through early jazz, swing, big band and bebop, never missing a beat or a dance step along the way. It's hard no to jump up and jive, swing or shout with the performers of The All Night Strut!." - Deryl Davis, Washington Theater Review, www.washingtontheater.com "If you yearn to take a sentimental journey back to the 1930s and 40s in an intimate and interesting setting, Alexandria's 130-seat MetroStage has the show for you." - Gwen Gibson, The Washington Examiner "The MetroStage's "joint is jumping" with its The All Night Strut! currently setting the stage ablaze with jazzy versions of old standards with superior jazz sounds coming from the combo of William Knowles (piano), Gregory Holloway (drums), and Yusef Chisholm (bass). "Yvette Spears has the finest range heard since Sarah Vaughn and her lower range is totally deliciously "smoky". " - Bob Anthony

	Spears, whose thick, throaty sound pours over her notes like rich gravy, joins the effervescent Williams late in the second act for a steamy duet of "I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl, " and the two ladies deliver a seductive hotbed of notes that bring Hubbard and Jovan to their knees.
	– “…she imbues a broad range of material with abundant power, charm and emotion.  From the outset, it was clear that Spears has a voice strong and supple enough to truly warrant a booking at one of the nation’s best known jazz venues.” --Mike Joyce

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s an artist continues to stroke her canvas, her goal and struggle are one in the same, to channel her vision into descriptive strokes that define her inspiration. She searches her soul, her spirituality and emotions to give life. Life, she struggles to understand, nonetheless wants to share so her world can be free beyond the boundaries of a society misguided and confused. Holding the golden brush is Yvette Spears, in front of her canvas with a vision of success like no other. Strikingly beautiful, she embodies a diva like flair as she moves into a crowd so naturally to meet and greet what seemed be men who've been locked away for years in solitary confinement. This Creole bijoux makes no apologies for her grace and natural captivating smile, in fact, it's available for a simple hello or a lucky eye contact. Notice the strong hand shake and solid eye contact as she introduces herself, which creates an immediate struggle for her attention among many conversation starved bar philosophers. As I sat at the corner of a bar on a very cold evening when mother nature seemed to draw the curtains limiting our habitual view of her magically lit universe, one rebellious star refuses to remain hidden. It doesn't take long to find out Yvette is a Jazz vocalist, one who's performed at many of DC's famed venues: Blues Alley Jazz Super Club, Takoma Station Tavern, One Step Down, Kennedy Center Grand Foyer Series. Born and raised in the Tradition of New Orleans, Yvette Spears has no choice except to be a ³keeper of the flame.² Yvette's love for jazz and her talents as a ³Jazz Stylist² is simply rooted in her upbringing. Honoring those who came before her... Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Josephine Baker, Abbey Lincoln, Sarah Vaughn, ³Little² Jimmy Scott. This Creole diva commands your attention, yet as she speaks she challenges you to see her as woman of vision with nothing less than success in her scope. For now Yvette invites you to come devour her menu entitled "La Boutique de Jazz" ...  This Creole bijoux promises to be the rare gem that you feel so proud to know you have discovered. DJ Jean-Michel

`Misbehavin' Captures Harlem Renaissance Spirit   The joint was jumpin' -- Cotton Club style. The diversity in swing music was demonstrated during Yvette Spears' performance of "When the Nylons Bloom Again," in which she sounded eerily like opera diva Jessye Norman,. . . By Tina-Renee Johnson The Community News