Anais St. John brings her musical repertoire to the Dew Drop

What will sultry New Orleans jazz singer and entertainer Anaïs St. John do next? She will close out the Dew Drop Jazz & Social Hall’s 2024 spring concert season in old Mandeville on May 11, that’s what.

But it is always fair to ask, on hearing that St. John has a new gig, to wonder where — and exactly what — it will be.

You might have last seen her in The Bombay Club or Chickie Wah Wah, the Windsor Court’s downtown bar, Snug Harbor or the Ritz-Carlton? Or did you catch her doing Porch Fests during the pandemic; in a surprise visit to her neighborhood watering hole, the Old Point Bar, in Algiers; at Jazz Fest, the French Quarter Fest, Satchmo Summer Fest or even some jazz festivals in Europe?

Audiences have already seen this New Orleans native do and be so many things right here at home. She made headlines on the local cabaret circuit, bringing the music and memories of Eartha Kitt and Lola Falana to life. There was also her witty, tongue-in-check “No Reservations” salute to the city’s restaurants and eateries.

She moved audiences with tribute performances to disco queen Donna Summer and brought the extraordinary Josephine Baker’s words and music to life in a stage show of her remarkable journey from East St. Louis to the Jazz Age in Paris, including her wartime service in France and North Africa. And in two of her most challenging roles, she honored the legendary Tina Turner and next starred as Lulu White, staging the compelling story of this New Orleans madam in one of the city’s most in-demand brothels. But as with all the female stories she tells, St. John pours on the research into their lives and says she never tries to portray them, but to be true to them.

St. John is a classically trained musician, a former New Orleans Opera mezzo-soprano before deciding opera was not her calling and moving on to incorporate jazz, R&B and more, becoming the mixologist of her own music. This longtime Trinity Episcopal School music educator is also the daughter of jazz alto saxophonist Marion Brown.

On May 11, the Dew Drop doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the music of St. John and her band starts at 6:30 p.m. Get $10 cash tickets at the door; no charge for kids and students; and as always, the church ladies next door will serve up delicious plates of food. No pets, ice chests or outside food and drinks.