Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kat Edmonson was born in Houston, Texas on August 3, 1983 and is the only child of a single mother who enjoyed songs from the Great American Songbook and traditional pop from the 1940s and ’50s. She wrote her first song at age nine while riding the school bus. In 2002, after a year at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, she moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue a music career.
The same year Edmonson auditioned for the second season of American Idol and was one of the Top 48 contestants invited to Hollywood in Losa Angeles, California. Returning to Austin from Los Angeles and spent several years as a regular in the Austin club scene. She worked briefly in real estate but quit her day job in 2005 making the decision to pursue music full time.
2009 saw Kat self-release her debut album, Take to the Sky, which reached the Top 20 on the Billboard magazine jazz chart. Her sophomore release Way Down Low in 2012 was the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It received a warm critical reception from The New York Times and NPR, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Her third album, The Big Picture, was released in 2014, which also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
She would go on to open for Lyle Lovett’s tour, perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, on NPR’s Tiny Desk, Austin City Limits and A Prarie Home Companion. By 2013 she had her first U.S. tour and an invitation to play the Montreux Jazz Festival. Opening for Jamie Cullum the same year she toured France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the UK. She went on to tour with Michael Kiwanuka, Chris Isaak, and Gary Clark Jr.
All this led to film appearances in Angels Sing and Café Society, her songs used in Admission, her song Dark Cloud in the opening sequence of Closure, her song If in Netflix’s Russian Doll, and a Cocca~Cola Winter Olympics commercial.
Vocalist Kat Edmopnson continues to stretch the boundaries of her talent with performances and recordings.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Petra Van Nuis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 1, 1975. Her initial exposure to music came from her father who was a classical pianist. She made her professional debut at the age of eleven with the Cincinnati Opera Company and the following year her first national tour was underway.
Middle and high school saw her attending Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts and continued summer studies at New York City Ballet’s School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School. Van Nuis went on to get her BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Cincinnati’s College~Conservatory of Music. She then performed in regional theaters and national tours until 1999 when she hung up her dancing shoes to sing.
Entering the world of jazz singing she spent nights in her hometown listening to vocalists Ann Chamberlain and Mary Ellen Tanner who supported her early efforts. By 2001 she and husband, guitarist Andy Brown, moved to New York City where she met Marion Cowings and Barbara Lea. Two years later she’s in Chicago, Illinois under the wings of Jeannie Lambert, Judy Roberts and Marc Pompe who mentored her. Forming her own band she sings at all the major venues and festivals around the city.
Vocalist Petra van Nuis, who has five Japanese released CDs, continues to perform, record and tour nationally and internationally.
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LIZZ WRIGHT
A steward of American music, acclaimed vocalist Lizz Wright reclaims her legacy with the launch of an independent record company, Blues & Greens Records. Wright’s label venture is designed to forge an innovative business model where artists are positioned to build sustainable and wholesome careers. Blues & Greens Records launches with the June 15, 2022 release of Holding Space, a brilliant live album capturing a Berlin, Germany concert where Wright and her band close out their 2018 European summer tour. In a short film companion piece, Wright reflects with her bandmates about what it actually feels like to have the presence of a listening world in her life.
Rising out of the pandemic and returning to stages across the globe, Wright embraces her career through an inspired initiative where she is at the helm of her business. After 20+ years of major and indie label contracts, Wright sees the imbalances of power and unfairnesses in artistic ownership. Blues & Greens Records creates a healthy ecosystem for Wright, and inspires her to imagine and develop offerings for emerging artists. Her debut release, Holding Space, becomes the first master recording she owns.
THIS EVENT IS AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS ONLY
In addition to early access to tickets and Members-Only events, Members at the $80 Supporter Level and higher enjoy the following ticket discounts:
25% off select concerts
10% off orders of 10+ tickets
FREE Listening Parties
No Ticket Service Fees (up to $9.50 per ticket)
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SAMARA JOY
Samara Joy performs as part of the DC Jazz Festival along with Kenny Garrett and Sounds From the Ancestors, Dave Holland Trio feat. Kevin Eubanks and Eric Harland, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Isabella Olivier, Ludovica Burtone Quartet, Vinny Valentino feat. Marshall Keys, Frederico Pena, Dennis Chambers, Birckhead, and Mark G. Meadows.
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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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