SAMARA JOY

With a voice as smooth as velvet, SAMARA JOY’s star seems to rise with each performance.  Following her winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, she has completed her debut release last year.

This rising star still resides in the place of her birth, 21 years ago, the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, New York. Growing up, music was a pervasive presence, due to the inspiration of her paternal grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, who led the well-known Philadelphia-based gospel group, The Savettes.  Her father toured with the renowned Gospel artist Andrae Crouch. “Although I didn’t grow up singing in church,” explains Samara, “I constantly heard my family singing inspirational music together, which instilled in me an appreciation for my musical lineage.  During high school, I joined the choir at my church, eventually becoming a worship leader, singing three services a week for nearly two years.”

Samara’s first exposure to jazz was while attending Fordham High School for the Arts, where she performed regularly with the jazz band, eventually winning Best Vocalist at JALC’s Essentially Ellington competition.  However, jazz wasn’t really her focus until the time came to choose a college.  Wanting to attend a state school close to home, she picked SUNY Purchase, gaining acceptance into their acclaimed jazz program, with a faculty that includes many jazz masters (including Pasquale Grasso and drummer Kenny Washington, who both appear on her debut recording).

“My friends were all into jazz and started sharing their favorite recordings with me to check out.  The turning point was when I heard both Sarah Vaughan’s version of ‘Lover Man’ and Tadd Dameron’s recordings featuring trumpeter Fats Navarro.  I was hooked.”

From this point, she began to pursue her jazz studies with an intense passion, eventually being named the Ella Fitzgerald Scholar and entering and winning the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

Although only 21, Samara has already performed in many of the great jazz venues in NYC, including Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Blue Note, and Mezzrow, in addition to working with jazz greats such as Christian McBride, Pasquale Grasso, Jon Faddis, Kirk Lightsey, Cyrus Chestnut, and NEA Jazz Master Dr. Barry Harris.

Her self-titled debut recording (July, 2021 Whirlwind Recordings) presents Samara putting her spin on jazz and Great American Songbook standards, backed by the trio of guitar master Pasquale Grasso.  SAMARA JOY looks forward to sharing her passionate love for jazz as a uniting force and as a catalyst for change in the years to come.

Text by : Samara Joy