(Reprinted from the July 2021 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
Samara Joy McLendon won the Sarah Vaughan competition in November 2019, just a few months before the clubs closed, the tours stopped, and the music industry went into freefall. McLendon was then in her junior year as a jazz studies major at SUNY-Purchase, and when she graduated this past spring, she had her debut album ready for release and some summer touring lined up. Out of the scorched earth of the pandemic, such green shoots signal a return to something resembling normal. At last.
Bronx-born singer McLendon tackles a dozen standards on the new album, Samara Joy, a multi-platform release by British indie label Whirlwind. For this all-important record she chose a guitar-based trio (with leader Pasquale Grasso, bassist Ari Roland and drummer Kenny Washington), an aptly delicate setting for her rich-hued voice and intuitive delivery of Songbook classics like “The Trouble with Me Is You”, “But Beautiful” and “Everything Happens to Me”.
Whirlwind will release the much-anticipated album on July 9, during the European leg of McLendon’s summer tour (London and Paris with Grasso’s trio, followed by the Umbria Jazz Festival with the Emmet Cohen Trio). She returns to the States for the New York release concert—both live-streamed and in person—at Jazz Gallery on July 25, followed by gigs in several East Coast cities in the days following. That McLendon has been able to initiate her young career during the pandemic speaks volumes not just about her abilities as a singer but about her grounding as an artist. Even so, “[i]t’s still bizarre to think of how fast things have progressed”, she said in the album’s press release.
As the 2019 Vaughan award winner, McLendon was invited to perform at the 2020 edition of the competition, held just last month. The date of the contest, originally slated for November of last year, had moved once or twice before landing on June 6 of this year. This deferral wasn’t the only change to business as usual, however. First, sponsor NJPAC allowed only a limited audience to attend in person and the whole show was broadcast live online. Further, this year the judges decided to split the top prize between two singers—a rarity for competitions of any sort. Gabrielle Cavassa, from Louisiana, and Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, from New Mexico, tied for first, with New York’s Ben Benack III, a singer/trumpeter, coming in third and Philadelphia singer/trombonist Hailey Brinnel coming in fourth. Thanks to the event’s pandemic-driven technical workarounds, however, you can see (and hear) a replay of the entire competition via the NJPAC website—another departure from the norm. Make sure to take in McLendon and Grasso’s preview of two tunes from the new album—a smoothly rueful “Stardust” and a crisp rendition of the swing-era favorite, “Jim”—at the end of the video. For jazz singers inspired to follow McLendon’s lead, note that the cutoff for submissions to this year’s competition is Sept. 7. The Sassy Awards, now scheduled for Nov. 14, will celebrate their tenth anniversary this year.
More immediately, those languishing with pent-up demand for live music will relish the enormous outpouring of vocal talent this month. Bebop master Sheila Jordan fronts her duo with Cameron Brown at Soapbox Gallery on July 1 and at Pangea on July 7. Karrin Allyson appears at Jazz Forum Arts July 2-3. Jocelyn Medina is at Rockwood Music Hall on July 7, and Allan Harris at Birdland July 8-10. Paul Jost performs at Soapbox Gallery on July 13, followed by Anne Cowherd on Nov. 15. Tessa Souter joins pianist Luis Perdomo at Pangea on July 21; Dianne Reeves (cohost for the upcoming Sassy Awards) takes to the 92nd Street Y stage with the Bill Charlap Trio on July 20 and 27; and Lisa Fischer plays the Blue Note Jazz Festival on July 22.
Finally, vocalist Judy Wexler’s deft reworkings of iconic 1960s songs on Back to the Garden (Jewel City Jazz), released last month, deliver a much-appreciated antidote for worrisome times. With tunes by the likes of Bob Dylan, The Youngbloods, Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King, the album’s overarching messages of “love, hope and change” are just as relevant today as they were fifty years ago, Wexler states in her EPK. For those outside of L.A., her CD release will air live from Feinstein’s at Vitello’s on July 31.