SAMARA JOY
Concert On The Lawn presented in collaboration with Jazz At Lincoln Center.
22-year-old Samara Joy makes her case to join the likes of Sarah, Ella, and Billie as the next mononymous jazz singing sensation recorded by the venerable label. Her voice, rich and velvety yet precociously refined, has already earned her fans like Anita Baker and Regina King, appearances on the TODAY Show and millions of likes on TikTok — cementing her status as perhaps the first Gen Z jazz singing star. On Linger Awhile, Samara will introduce that massive audience to a slew of classic standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound.
Samara is still relatively new to jazz. Growing up in the Bronx, it was music of the past — the music of her parent’s childhoods, as she put it — that she listened to most. She treasures her musical lineage, which stretches back to her grandparents Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, both of whom performed with Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and runs through her father, who is a singer, songwriter and producer who toured with gospel artist Andraé Crouch. “Sometimes I catch myself when I’m singing — I’m like, ‘Whoa, that was a dad moment’,” Samara quips. Eventually, she did follow in the family tradition, singing in church and then with the jazz band at Fordham High School for the Arts, with whom she won Best Vocalist at JALC’s Essentially Ellington competition. That led to her enrolling in SUNY Purchase’s jazz studies program, where she fell deeply in love with the music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vernel Anthony Fournier, was born July 30, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a Creole family. He left college to join a big band led by King Kolax, however, after Kolax downsized to a quintet, he moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1948. There he played with Buster Bennett, Paul Bascomb and Teddy Wilson. As house drummer at the Bee Hive club on Chicago’s South Side from 1953 to 1955, he accompanied many visiting soloists, including Lester Young, Ben Webster, Sonny Stitt, J.J. Johnson, Earl Washington and Stan Getz.
From 1953 to 1956, Vernel worked many recording sessions with Al Smith, Red Holloway, Lefty Bates, and others. He joined Ahmad Jamal’s trio in 1957, along with bass player Israel Crosby, and remained with the group until 1962, appearing on a series of recordings on the Chess label. The best known of these, At the Pershing: But Not for Me (1958), became one of the best selling jazz records of all time, remaining on the Billboard jazz charts for over two years.
After leaving the Jamal trio, Fournier joined George Shearing for two years before rejoining Jamal briefly in 1965–66. He then took a long-running gig with a trio at a restaurant owned by Elijah Muhammad. Converting to Islam in 1975, he took the Muslim name of Amir Rushdan.
He worked with Nancy Wilson, Clifford Jordan, Billy Eckstine and Joe Williams, John Lewis and Barry Harris. He was a drumming teacher and worked at Barry Harris’s Jazz Cultural Theater, the New School, and the Mannes College of Music.
Suffering a stroke in 1994 left him unable to use his legs and confined him to a wheelchair. Although he was unable to play drums professionally, after his stroke, he continued his teaching activities. Never leading a recording date, Vernel recorded twenty-eight albums as a sideman with Lorez Alexandria, Gary Burton, Billy Eckstine, Benny Carter, Ahmad Jamal, Etta Jones, Sam Jones, Clifford Jordan, Houston Person, Jimmy Reed, George Shearing, and Frank Strozier.
Drummer Vernel Fournier, transitioned from a cerebral hemorrhage in Jackson, Mississippi on November 4, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-Charles Capon was born on July 29, 1936 in Vichy, France. A virtuoso on the cello, he began playing professionally at the beginning of the 60s before creating the Baroque Jazz Trio. His name was rapidly linked to different cult groups for whom he became the guest star for Confluence, Perception, and Speed Limit, but also with many more or less well-known free jazz musicians including David S. Ware with whom he recorded the impeccable duo From Silence To Music, as well as Philippe Maté, Michel Roques, André Jaume or Joe McPhee with Po Music.
Jef Gilson helped get his career under way (they recorded together as far back as 1968) before Pierre Barouh, owner of Saravah Records with whom Jean-Charles played alongside Brigitte Fontaine and Areski. He offered him the opportunity to record his first album: L’Univers-solitude.
Capon admired Duke Ellington, John Lewis and Gabriel Fauré, as can be heard on his later highly personal versions of Mood Indigo, Django and Après un rêve. As for Pierre Favre, he is not there just to make up the numbers: his timbral research and combinations of complex rhythms offer the French cellist wonderful interaction throughout this remarkable album which had finally been given a dignified rerelease.
The fluidity of the phrasing, timbral research, complex rhythmic combinations and rare sense of improvisation make this one of the best modern jazz recordings on the Saravah label in the 1970s.
Cellist Jean~Charles Capon transitioned on August 22, 2011 in the 10th Arrondissement, Paris, France.
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EUGENIE JONES
Eugenie Jones is an award-winning singer/songwriter/producer based in the Seattle, WA, area with an international fan base. Her recordings and concerts with jazz icons Reggie Workman, Bobby Sanabria, Julian Priester, Lonnie Plaxico, and many others have earned the entertainer praise in every major jazz publication, a #7 ranking on Jazz Week’s Top 50, and a #30 spot on Jazz Weeks top one-hundred albums. Jones is also a 2023 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Jazz Hero award for her efforts intersecting jazz performance events with community service.
Rating her recording Black Lace Blue Tears 3.5 out of 4 stars, DownBeat called the singer “impressive.” At the same time, legendary Blue Note Records artist Joe Chambers describes Jones as “an excellent singer, with a voice, style, and range that encompasses multiple idioms.”
Jones brings an authentic and electric presence to the stage, packaged within a uniquely exquisite voice. Accompanying her performance is an a-list line-up of New York musicians, including Lafayette Harris/p, Lonnie Plaxico/b, and Dwayne Broadnax. This concert will feature reimagined jazz classics, soulful jazz originals, and a taste of soul classics by Nina Simone, Anita Baker, James Brown & more!
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VANESSA RUBIN TRIO
Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed with crystalline clarity, hearth-like warm, emotional depth and keen burnished wisdom she can deliver with playful lioness sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performances. From swing to bossa nova to blues, ballads and contemporary covers performed with small and large ensembles, Rubin’s interpretive ability to move through the Great American Songbook to modern jazz composers/arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Horace Silver to contemporary composers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Sting is masterful. “The Great American Songbook continues to expand with songs by outstanding composers who can paint pictures of the life of our times with their unique melodies and lyric that also stand the test of time”, Rubin asserts.
The Trio: Brandon McCune ~ piano | Kenny Davis ~ bass | Winard Harper ~ drums
Showtimes:
Saturday ~ 7:00pm | 9:30pm
Sunday ~ 6:30pm | 8:30pm
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