Story: Ralph Greco, Jr.
The Blue Note Jazz Club is excited to announce the return of acclaimed vocalist Samara Joy for four nights of performances from January 18-21, 2024. The Bronx-born jazz singer won Best New Artist at the 2023 GRAMMY awards and just completed back-to-back sold out shows at the Apollo Theater.
Tickets are available HERE and more on Samara can be found below.
At just 23 years old, Samara possesses a unique ability to reinvigorate beloved songs and standards for a fresh audience, as evidenced by her proliferating TikTok following. Music has always been central to the Bronx native’s family – her grandparents led the acclaimed Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes, and her father toured with the Andrae Crouch – yet it wasn’t until Samara was asked to sit in with her high school jazz band that she discovered her passion for the genre. In 2019, Samara took home the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition prize while earning her degree from SUNY Purchase’s jazz studies program, and eventually graduated as the Ella Fitzgerald Scholar.
2022 found Samara Joy dazzling crowds at jazz clubs, festivals, and cultural institutions across the globe, including her “glowing, auspicious debut” (NPR) at the Newport Jazz Festival, and performing on NBC’s Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The New York Times praised the “silky-voiced rising star” for “helping jazz take a youthful turn” while NPR All Things Considered named her a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.” Her Verve Records debut album Linger Awhile was spotlighted on “Best of The Year” lists by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Ebony, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Slate, JazzTimes and more. In 2023, Samara appeared and/or performed on CBS Mornings, the Jennifer Hudson Show, the Drew Barrymore Show, among others.
Ralph Greco, Jr. is the devilishly clever nom de plume of professional writer/musician Ralph Greco who lives in the wilds of suburban New Jersey. He is also a podcast co-host, but as everyone has a podcast these days, this fact is of very little consequence.Ralph can be reached by writing ralphiedawriter@gmail.com
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