Although still very young, Samara Joy sings with an assured maturity that reflects her family background. She was born as Samara Joy McLendon in the Bronx in 1998 and her paternal grandparents were co-founders of gospel group The Savettes. Her father, Antonio “Tony” McLendon, played bass guitar with singers including Andraé Crouch and Donna Summer.
At Fordham High School for the Arts, Samara Joy sang with a jazz band and won an Essentially Ellington Competition Best Vocalist award. Studying at SUNY Purchase, her teachers included guitarist Pasquale Grasso and drummer Kenny Washington, both of whom appear on this, her second album. In 2019 she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, and the following year was awarded a scholarship by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 2021, she celebrated her graduation from SUNY with the release on Whirlwind Records of her eponymous debut album and also appeared at Ronnie Scott’s in London.
Interviews with Joy make clear her abiding interest in black history, commitment to contemporary issues, and belief that performance of black music makes an important contribution to interracial understanding. Here, the song selection reflects not only her love for jazz, several pieces being closely associated with the genre, but also the music of Broadway.
The opener is Frank Loesser & Jimmy McHugh’s 1942 Can’t Get Out Of This Mood, which includes a piano solo by Ben Paterson, and from the 1940s jazz scene comes Thelonious Monk & Bernie Hanighen’s ’Round Midnight, on which her accompanying quartet is joined by trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone.
Well known to jazz fans as an instrumental is Ronnell Bright’s Sweet Pumpkin, performed here at a lively tempo, while Al Neiburg, Doc Daugherty & Ellis Reynolds’ I’m Confessin’ That I Love You, forever linked with Louis Armstrong, is taken at a slow tempo appropriate to the singer’s deeply reflective interpretation of the lyric.
The much-recorded Erroll Garner & Johnny Burke song, Misty, is a vocal delight as is Murray Grand & Elisse Boyd’s melancholic Guess Who I Saw Today from New Faces Of 1952. From the 1920s come Vincent Rose & Harry Owen’s Linger Awhile, here at a brighter than usual tempo with crisp backing from Washington, and George & Ira Gershwin’s Someone To Watch Over Me, an effective pairing of voice with Grasso’s guitar.
An outstanding vocal talent, Joy ensures the future of jazz singing and this excellent album is strongly recommended.
Discography
(1) Can’t Get Out Of This Mood; Guess Who I Saw Today; Nostalgia (The Day I Knew); Sweet Pumpkin; Misty; Social Call; I’m Confessin’ That I Love You; Linger Awhile; (2) ’Round Midnight; (1) Someone To Watch Over Me (41.54)
(1) Joy (v); Ben Paterson (p); Pasquale Grasso (g); David Wong (b); Kenny Washington (d). NYC, 30 March, 1 & 28 April, 28 May 2022.
(2) as (1) add Terell Stafford (t); Donavan Austin (tb); Kendric McCallister (ts, arr).
Verve Records 4826649
