I have only two words for you … Samara Joy. Samara is a marvelous young jazz singer from a musical family in the Bronx New York, who has an incredibly bright future and might even out-Ella Ella one of these days! Samara’s album “Linger Awhile,” was released in September 2022, winning the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and she also won Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
The first tune (top) is the Billy Strayhorn tune Lush life … one of my perennial favorites. Next (middle left) listen to her impeccable phrasing on Can’t Get Out of This Mood, followed by Lady Be Good (middle right) as she channels Ella and adds a few ear-popping twists of her own. Finally Samara’s poignant video of Guess Who I Saw Today (bottom), a song originally composed for the Broadway musical revue New Faces of 1952. She was a new face on the jazz scene in 2021, now at the tender age of 24, if she stays on the straight-and-narrow this chanteuse is going places! Currently, she is touring the globe.
