(Reprinted from the July 2024 issue of Downbeat magazine. Photo: Downbeat)

In the six decades that the Grammy for Best New Artist has been on offer, arguably only two jazz vocalists have ever taken it home. Esperanza spalding was the first, and Samara Joy the second.    

 “It's a moment that I'll never take for granted,” Joy told Downbeat in a 2023 interview, soon after her win.  

 But Best New Artist wasn’t Joy’s only triumph that evening: Her Verve debut Linger Awhile, surprising in its faithfulness to classic jazz vocalism, also won Best Jazz Vocal Album. And the next year, “Tight”—a self-produced single of Betty Carter’s brisk up-tempo, released via Verve that fall—would give Joy a third statuette.

 At the time of these impressive achievements, Joy had only been graduated from the vocal program at SUNY-Purchase for about two years. And though she had an impressive background in gospel, soul, and R&B, before SUNY she hadn’t sung jazz at all. The young college student was a preternaturally quick study, however, and in 2019 she took top honors at the Sarah Vaughan vocal competition, impressing its influential judges with her composed, erudite scatting.

 For many, such successes would represent the pinnacle of career achievement. For Joy, however, these early accolades are simply the first grounding steps on a purpose-driven career path.

 “I was so intimidated about pursuing music in the first place because I was afraid of whether or not I could still be me,” she said. “Would I have to compromise something, would I have to pursue a certain aesthetic? But I think my purpose is showing people that you can develop your strengths and do it however you see fit. I'm glad that I am able to utilize the strengths that I've been given to not only be a blessing to others, but to nourish my dream.”