Dance Superstar Kristine W Brings Jazz Grooves to Fire Island's Ascension Weekend

As if there weren't enough going on Ascension Weekend, an opening concert brings one of the most popular singers in the world to Fire Island!

We all know about Sunday main party, which sprawls along the beach in Fire Island Pines. This daylong oceanside dance has grown into one of the "musts" on the calendar of any serious party animal. Along with it has come a pool party with plenty of bubble butts packed into Speedos, a Tea Dance on a dance floor built onto Great South Bay, and a closing party also overlooking the bay with DJ superstar Tony Moran.

As if all that weren't enough, on Friday night, Kristine W will be performing from her double CD of jazz-mixed dance singles, as well as selections from the Great American Songbook, on Friday night, Aug. 19. The concert will take place at Brandon Fradd Theater, which is inside Whyte Hall, the community center on Coast Guard Walk.

Kristine W long ago reached "most favored" status of dance divas among gay audiences. The tireless performer is well known for her outreach at gay clubs and Pride events. But to be able to hear this deep-throated soul crooner do an entire evening is an all-too rare treat in the New York area, let alone Fire Island.

Kristine's latest effort doesn't mark a turning point in her career so much as another mountain to scale. She'd already gotten to the Everest of the dance-music world. Sure, you can't get "One More Try" out of your head; and "Feel What You Want" has become a House anthem --�just to name two of her best-known songs.

Maybe she's not as in-your-face as Madonna and that Gaga person, but Kristine W holds the record for the most Billboard Dance #1 songs in a row, and has had 16 #1 songs on the chart. With Madonna and Beyonc�, Billboard named her top dance-music artist of the last decade.

The double CD released late last year, "Straight Up With a Twist," is homage to her mother, who sang in a lounge act in Washington State, where she grew up. "My mom was a jazz singer," Kristine said in a recent interview. "I grew up in jazz clubs. I learned all the old standards from musicians from the Seattle area."

Unsurprisingly, Kristine got her start in a high school jazz choir. After winning the Miss Washington pageant and gaining recognition for her performance at the Miss American competition, she decided to base herself out of Las Vegas, where she still lives (not that she's there much). Her songs quickly attracted the top remixers, such as Junior Vasquez, Hex Hector and Jonathan Peters.

She sees "Straight Up" "as "going back to my roots --�but with those distinctive Kristine W vocal swoops. Wait until you her do scat! As if to show that she doesn't know the meaning of limits, she's going to cover the Chaka Khan R&B ballad "Sweet Thing."

The songs on the album have their roots in jazz, but she describes the arrangements as "more of an electro lounge, Buddha Bar-ish vibe, something completely different." What makes this concert even more special is that this is the first time she'll be doing songs from the album on the East Coast.

Trekking out to the island along with her will be two well-known back-up singers, one of whom will be especially familiar to Pines and gay audiences, Jason Walker. There will also be a trio and a DJ. All proceeds will go the charities benefiting from all of the Ascension-related events, as overseen by the Fund in the Sun Foundation.

This concert marks the first time Kristine W has been to the island since Broadway Bares in 2008. She was the headliner at the very first Pines Party in 1999, the now-legendary Arabian Nights. For Friday's concert, she'll be flying into LaGuardia the night before and catching a ferry.

The intimate space in Whyte Hall and especially the ambience of the island will make this concert an extra-special event. "Fire Island is like a family reunion," she says. "It's such a magical place. There's no place like it on the planet. It's unique and there's a very loving energy there."

Before descending into the whirl of the weekend's parties, take time out to groove on one of today's premier artists.

Kristine W. Fire Island. An evening concert.

Life doesn't get any better than this.

To get a taste of the concert, enjoy this cover of "Feel What You Want" from "Straight Up with a Twist":

For more information and tickets, go to Ascension's website.