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Stories   >   Samara Joy gives us something jazzy to hold on to with 'Tight' / SOULBOUNCE

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Samara Joy gives us something jazzy to hold on to with 'Tight' / SOULBOUNCE

Posted: September 11, 2023

Samara Joy, the Grammy Award-winning singer released her self-titled debut album in 2021 and was subsequently named Best New Artist by JazzTimes. Her second album, Linger Awhile, was released in September 2022, winning the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and herself for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

In 2019, as Samara McLendon, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. Working with producer and eventual manager Matt Pierson, she recorded her self-titled debut album while still in college, graduating magna cum laude in 2021. Samara Joy was released on July 9, 2021, on Whirlwind Recordings. Jazz Times named her Best New Artist for 2021. In February 2021, she was featured in Women of Color on Broadway, Inc.'s music video of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. In an interview, film director Regina King called her "a young woman who seems like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald are both living in her body."

She released a number of viral video performances, including one that had been viewed more than 1.5 million times as of October 2020. These videos had as of November 2022 gained her 200,000 followers on TikTok. Partly on the strength of this success, she toured Europe, including a series of sold-out concerts in Italy and Austria. In 2021 and continuing into 2022, she toured the U.S. including bookings at the 2022 Monterey Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center Summer For The City's Jazz Underground series, Winter Jazzfest, and other festivals, as well as in Europe.

On February 15, 2022, she performed on Today with guitarist Pasquale Grasso and performed again on Today in September 2022. On June 15, 2022, she was featured at Carnegie Hall's 16th Annual Notable Occasion and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. She was featured on jazz pianist Julius Rodriguez's 2022 album Let Sound Tell All.

On September 16, 2022, she released her second album, Linger Awhile, on Verve Records. The album features drummer Kenny Washington, guitarist Pasquale Grasso, pianist Ben Paterson, and bassist David Wong. Her bookings for Winter 2022 included singing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on its Big Band Holidays tour.

She was nominated and won two awards at the Grammy Awards in 2023: Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile and Best New Artist.


SOULBOUNCE - D-Money writes….2023 has been quite the year for jazz star Samara Joy. The singer not only won her first two GRAMMYs (including a win in the much coveted category Best New Artist), but she has seen the whirlwind success of her album Linger Awhile and its subsequent deluxe edition and been whisked around the world on tour. And the 23-year-old phenom is just getting started. In fact, she’s just released her latest single, a studio version of her fan-favorite live track “Tight.”

Samara’s self-produced studio version of “Tight,” a cover of Betty Carter’s 1976 original, was recorded at the famed Electric Lady Studios and features her bandmembers Luther Allison on piano, Mikey Migliore on bass and Evan Sherman on drums. They glide alongside the singer as she flexes her vocal muscle, flittering from notes high to low with crystal-clear precision as she tells the story of looking for a wayward man while simultaneously giving advice to hold on to your love as tight as can be.

The visual for “Tight” takes us along for some of the singer’s journey over the past year. Clips from a live performance and moments with fans are interspersed with scenes from the actual recording in the studio. The video lets us into Samara’s joy in both the creation and performing of her music. It also showcases just how masterful the young upstart is when it comes to her gift, showing that she indeed has the range to become just as much of a legend as those which she emulates.

Samara Joy is the real deal and her undeniable talent is one that we’ll definitely be holding onto for years to come. Listen to “Tight” via Spotify right here and then watch a master at work in the song’s video below.

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