Bronx-native Samara McLendon, a vocal jazz student at SUNY-Purchase, claimed first place in the eighth annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition on Nov. 24. The competition, held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Sarah Vaughan Way in Newark, N.J., throws a spotlight on talented up-and-coming vocalists from around the globe, helping them to advance their developing musical careers. Also called the “Sassy Awards,” in reference to Vaughan’s popular nickname, the competition acknowledges singers for their improvisatory skills, vocal jazz technique, and creative interpretations of the Great American Songbook.  

Of the hundreds of jazz singers who apply for consideration each year, only five make it to the finalists circle, and three take home cash awards —$5,000 for first, $1,500 for second, and $500 for third. In previous years, first-place winners also received a recording contract with Concord Records, but beginning in 2017, the top Sassy Award singer earned a set in the high-profile Newport Jazz Festival instead.

With this prize, McLendon joins a distinguished cohort of previous winners. Former first-place singers include Cyrille Aimée (2012) and Jazzmeia Horn (2013), both of whom are contenders for Grammy Awards this year, and Nicole Zuraitis (2015), a third-place singer, garnered a Grammy nomination last year. Grammys aside, however, Sassy finalists typically go on to perform, record, and tour in the upper echelons of the jazz world—think of Ashleigh Smith  (second, 2012; first, 2014), Alexis Cole (finalist, 2012), Hilary Kole (finalist, 2012), Camille Thurman (third, 2013), Shacara Rogers (second, 2014), Arianna Neikrug (first, 2015), Quiana Lynell (first, 2017), and Laurin Talese (first, 2018).

Assuredly, McLendon can hold her own in this company. (For the record, Alexis Cole is her prof at SUNY.) As she sang “Sophisticated Lady”, her first selection, she held the melody deep in her chest, as Vaughan did, and alluded to Ella Fitzgerald’s nimble alteration of the vocal line, signaling her familiarity with the Songbook masters. But she sang the usual ballad as a swinging mid-tempo, modulated away from the initial key, and added new lyrics, proving that she has her own mind about things, too. She went on to tackle a precisely articulated vocalese as her intro to “Perdido”, the winsome Vaughan classic, with much fealty to the original version. But it was her throaty, extended scat that showcased her confidence as a soloist—one of the primary competencies that the judges look for. As a final song, she performed the little known “Autumn Nocturne”, by composer Josef Myrow, using the tender down-tempo popularized by Cassandra Wilson to explore the emotive side of her vocalism.  

Before taking second-place honors in the Sarah Vaughan Competition, Daniela Spalletta had already nabbed several big awards in her native Italy—the Multiculturita Europe Contest, Premio Claudio Abbado, Premio Nazionale delle Arti, and the Lucca Jazz Donna Award. For the Vaughan challenge, she chose some of the most eclectic repertoire of all the finalists: Kenny Wheeler’s “Everybody’s Song But Not My Own”, with lyrics by Norma Winstone, opening with a high-risk, neatly executed a cappella intro, and Pat Metheny’s “The Road to You”, featuring an intricate, self-penned vocalese. While these two numbers showed off Spalletta’s penchant for innovation, it was on the straight-ahead “Stella By Starlight” that she distinguished herself as a powerful, lyrical scatter with an extensive range and a resolute swing.    

Viktorija Gečytė, who took third, hails from Lithuania originally, though she now resides in Paris and performs internationally. Like her first- and second-ranked counterparts, Gečytė is a superb vocal improviser, though her approach to a tune is decidedly cooler than that of the other contestants. Gečytė, too, selected less-familiar standards for two of her three, choosing Dinah Washington’s 1950s effervescent hit, “Destination Moon”, and the moody “Angel Face”, with music by Hank Jones and Abbey Lincoln. In a surprising reversal, however, she closed with the oft-sung “Night and Day,” sweetening the known melody with intriguing twists and unexpected phrasings.     

This year was the second Sassy competition for California-born Christine Fawson, a vocalist and trumpeter currently based in New Mexico, who came in third in 2017. A high-energy, musically astute performer, she’s worked with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and the vocal group Syncopation and spent 14 years teaching on the Berklee College of Music’s brass faculty. In her set, Fawson slipped easily between contrasting vocal personas, one moment fully lost in the pathos of “It Never Entered My Mind” and the next churning out a hypersonic bebop scat on “Night in Tunisia”—arguably the most difficult solo of the afternoon.

Vivian Sessoms, an experienced vocalist who’s worked with the likes of P. Diddy, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Sinéad O’Connor, and Stevie Wonder, received the loudest acknowledgement from the audience for her powerhouse vocals and commanding stage demeanor. She opted for short, tight arrangements on her three pieces, all standards, injecting some earthy R&B into her jazz interpretations of “Love For Sale” and “Stardust”. But it was on her electric, gospel rendition of “At Last” that Sessoms revealed the full extent of her considerable power as a singer, providing a fitting, exhilarating close to the contestants’ program.

The judges for this year’s competition—singers Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jane Monheit, bassist Christian McBride, radio host Monifa Brown, and music producer Matt Pierson—derive from many different parts of the jazz world. Among them they can lay claim to dozens of notable accolades, including multiple Grammy nominations and wins; their experience with the more rivalrous side of the industry doubtless helped them parse the crucial differences among each of the five singers’ commendable performances. 

Notably missing from the competition, however, were male singers. In 2017, the Sassy Awards management made the decision to open the competition to both male and female vocalists, and for two years men made it onto the NJPAC stage: Fabio Giacolone (finalist, 2017) and Oleg Akkuratov (second, 2018). It was with this decision that the Vaughan competition crossed the final hurdle to inclusion: unsigned jazz singers of any gender, nationality, and almost any age (must be at least 16) can now submit their music for a try at a Sassy Award. The organization urges interested singers to check their website this May for information on the 2020 contest.

Photo: Anthony Alvarez 

(Reprinted from the January 2020 issue of New York City Jazz Record)