1 week ago
10
There’s a single framed diploma on an otherwise empty bookshelf in Samara Joy’s apartment. Between graduating from Purchase College Conservatory of Music in New York, collecting her first Grammy for Best New Artist and touring three albums, she’s had little time to settle in.
This year, the 25-year-old jazz singer from the Bronx has been home for just two months. Concerts in Japan, South Korea, France, Milan, Rio, the BBC Proms in London and the Montreaux, Copenhagen, North Sea and Umbria jazz festivals have now become homework.
“I have them on Zoom recordings,” she says, looking more the student than the international star, sans airs and make-up in her glasses and hoodie. “It gives me a chance to listen carefully, regroup and strengthen whatever weak points I had, performance-wise: vocal stamina, music … a chance to assess what I want to do better.
“Because the audience is new every night, I want the music to feel that way too. I don’t want to go into autopilot. When I get to that place, I know I need to do something completely different, otherwise I won’t be working that creative muscle.”
Samara Joy McLendon’s sublime tone and invention as an interpreter won her the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition while she was still at college. On her latest album, Portrait, she sings Gershwin, Ellington, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. Comparisons to Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter pepper her reviews.
Which is gratifying on some level, of course. But having grown up in a gospel-singing family that prayed over her before school each day and joined in harmony in church every weekend, she knows God is the only real star.
“Singing in church helped me understand that the purpose behind doing that is not to draw attention to myself, but to use what I have to draw attention to something greater than that,” she says. “I feel like that’s always going to be a part of me and what I do.”
The payoff for her humility is audible. As a singer, she’s a storyteller first and foremost. Her TikTok versions of Stardust and Take Love Easy went viral in 2021, but the melodrama and acrobatics of some Insta-arrivistes have no place in her repertoire.
“I don’t want to sing in a bland way,” she says, “but what I am going to do is sing with taste and sing with the song in mind, and sing with the people in mind, and not just sing things just because I can … but only to add to it and embellish as needed.”
In thought and deed, Joy’s gospel heritage is embodied in her grandfather, Elder Goldwire McLendon, now 95. It’s worth checking out his big, bluesy baritone and fancy footwork on YouTube. It’s also wise, in the McLendon family, to have his blessing.
“At first he wasn’t too sure about me singing jazz because he grew up in a very, very strict religious environment,” Joy says with a grin. “But now that he sees me doing interviews and stuff like that, he calls me and he’s like, ‘I just saw you on TV! I’m so happy for you!’”
Joy accepting the award for best jazz vocal album at the 2023 Grammy Awards.Credit: AP
Her own attitude to all the accolades remains grounded. On the subject of that Best New Artist Grammy – the only other jazz artist to win the category in 66 years was Esperanza Spalding, in 2011 – she seems more cautious than ecstatic.
“I feel like I need to protect my artistic integrity,” she says, choosing her words carefully. “When that kind of awareness or attention is placed onto a certain artist or person, there’s just an expectation to, like, ‘repeat formula for same results’. And that’s just something I am not down with.
Loading
“These are the songs I wanted to sing. I wanted to record them. These are the arrangements that I picked, hopefully people will like it – and they did. And I think part of it is because it came from a genuine place.
“I want to have longevity in this. I don’t want [people] to just think, ‘Oh, remember Samara from 2022? That was the peak’. No no. There’s so much more, you know? And I want to continue to explore that genuinely.”
Part of that process is composition, as heard on Portrait. Among her contributions are a vocal adaptation of the Charles Mingus tune Reincarnation of a Lovebird, and lyrics to another by her late mentor and bebop great, Barry Harris.
“It’s great. And yet I’m so not used to the process,” she says. “I am glad to be surrounded by writers now who literally say, ‘You just need to write, you just need to start, you just need to do it. And don’t worry about it being clichéd or worry about it being perfect. Just keep doing it’.
“So, yes, I’m excited ... because I think the only way that my music can grow is if I’m growing too. So I just want to keep that going for as long as I can.”
The idea of generational renewal has been key to Samara Joy’s story so far, the viral TikToks supposedly signifying a sudden Gen Z awakening to the great American songbook. But she’s happy to divest herself of that expectation too.
Joy: “Singing in church helped me understand that the purpose behind doing that is not to draw attention to myself.”Credit: AB+DM
“You know, they’re people of all ages, really, who say that they found me on social media, and say, like, ‘You’re my first jazz concert ever. I’ve never listened to jazz before you’. It’s really jarring,” she says with a laugh. “Me? This is your first one? It’s crazy!
“I find that my audience is, for the most part, very diversified, and it’s beautiful … I guess that’s one of the benefits of having social media and being able to reach all of these different people.”
Our time comes in October, when Joy’s debut Australian tour visits jazz festivals in Melbourne and Penrith and other capital-city venues.
“I don’t want to say there’s not many firsts left, but I’ve been to a lot of places multiple times over the past couple of years, so it’s nice to be able to have this new experience,” she says. “I think the furthest I’ve been is Japan, so ... I’m imagining Australia is just even further, with even more dangerous animals.” On which subject, she has, of course, done her homework. “I have heard about the drop bears. I don’t want any part of the drop bears.”
Samara Joy performs at The Joan, Penrith on October 23, at City Recital Hall, Sydney on October 24, and Hamer Hall, Melbourne on October 26.
