Samara Joy

Few figures in jazz history have experienced the kind of success that vocalist Samara Joy has, especially at such a young age. At only 27, she leads a career that can safely be called sensational. 

A native of the Bronx, Joy began exploring jazz singing in her teens as a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts in the Bronx, and accolades quickly followed. At Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program, jazz’s most prestigious high school competition and festival, Joy won Best Vocalist. During her collegiate studies at SUNY Purchase, Joy won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, which introduced her to the larger jazz scene as a rising star to watch. She was heard by audiences and critics alike as a masterful interpreter of jazz standards and a rightful heiress of the sound, technique, and charisma that defined her jazz heroines, including Vaughan, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Carmen McRae.

To date Joy has received six Grammy Awards, including one for Best New Artist in 2023 that has given the committed jazz singer the profile of a pop celebrity. Her performance credits read like a list of the most legendary venues and events in all of jazz and R&B, among them the Newport, Monterey, and Montreal Jazz Festivals, the Apollo, the Village Vanguard, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

Her latest album, Portrait, which Joy co-produced with the veteran trumpeter, bandleader, and multi-Grammy winner Brian Lynch, showcases the young artist’s skill as a lyricist as well as the intimate, soulful chemistry that she has developed with her touring band. The album earned Joy an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album and a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album.

Special thanks to our Jazz Series sponsor The Village at Germantown.