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Stories   >   Samara Joy Q&A's with Gothamist on her new album, life after fame, and being her own creative director

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Samara Joy Q&A's with Gothamist on her new album, life after fame, and being her own creative director

Posted: October 15, 2024

A native of the Bronx, Samara Joy became entranced by classic R&B as a child and cut her teeth as a singer in her church’s gospel choir. And while her family history is deeply musical — her grandparents helmed the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and her father, the musician and songwriter Antonio McLendon, has produced, composed and arranged his own astounding original work — she didn’t delve into the jazz tradition until college at SUNY Purchase. During her studies there she won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, which introduced her to the larger jazz scene as a rising star to watch. She was heard, by audiences and critics alike, as a masterful interpreter of jazz standards and a rightful heiress of the sound, technique and charisma that defined her jazz heroines — including Vaughan, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln and Carmen McRae.

Joy released her self-titled debut on the Whirlwind label in 2021, followed a year later by Linger Awhile, her breakout Verve debut, of which DownBeat said, “With this beautiful recording, a silky-voiced star is born.” The album earned her a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in addition to a headline-making win for Best New Artist. A deluxe edition of the album was released, as well as the EP A Joyful Holiday. Her new Verve album, Portrait, which Joy co-produced with the veteran trumpeter/bandleader and multi-Grammy winner Brian Lynch, showcases the intimate, soulful chemistry she’s developed with her touring band. Portrait also spotlights her burgeoning gifts as a lyricist, in ingenious arrangements that meld her thoughtful words with music by Charles Mingus, Sun Ra and her late mentor Barry Harris. 
 
“I’m still speechless,” says Samara Joy, reflecting on her 2023 Grammy win for Best New Artist. When the Bronx-raised jazz vocalist, 24, tries to place herself back in that historic moment today, she feels nothing but gratitude.

At the same time, Joy understood then that she couldn’t let the award define her. She still had a lifetime of music to explore, a tight-knit crew of extraordinary collaborators to guide, and a passion for songwriting to nurture. So Joy did what any committed, eternally curious jazz musician would do: She hit the road. For her and her band, a seemingly endless run of sold-out tour dates became a nightly opportunity to reach new creative heights. “I just got back to work, doing what, in essence, got me the Grammy in the first place,” she says. 

Joy’s new Verve Records release, Portrait, is the proper follow-up to Linger Awhile, her 2022 breakthrough LP, and it represents the next phase in her continuing artistic evolution — unbound by expectations. 

Portrait documents the immersive, seemingly telepathic rapport she’s developed with her touring band, which includes musicians she learned the jazz craft alongside while earning her undergraduate degree; in fact, it wasn’t until college that Joy began to pursue jazz singing. On the strength of that cozy dynamic — on the road, "I'm among friends, which explains personal chemistry that translates to our live performances,” Joy says. The vocalist offers an album that both honors jazz heritage while staking out bold, singular territory. Whatever a rote, singer-with-sidemen record is, Portrait is not.  

Joy co-produced Portrait with fellow multiple Grammy winner Brian Lynch, a trumpeter and musical director who has been Eddie Palmieri’s most vital late-career collaborator and was a member of the final lineup of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. The album was tracked in streamlined sessions — just two or three takes of each tune — at one of jazz’s most hallowed sites, Van Gelder Studio. “With this kind of band,” Joy says, “we play very close together on stage,” so the singer and Lynch recreated that vibe in the studio. The band recorded all together in that same fantastic room, feeding off each other’s energy as they would at a fiery live show. “It was the perfect place to capture this sound in its entirety,” Joy says.

Ultimately, though, Portrait is a masterwork that unspools the story of an ensemble — a band that coalesced as friends and student musicians and has continued developing through jazz stardom. “It’s just everything that I could have ever dreamed of in a band,” Joy says. “I hope we stay together for years to come. I really do.”


Gothamist - Alison Stewart and Luke Green write…..Samara Joy returns with her third album, “Portrait,” which was released on Friday. It’s her follow-up to her second album “Linger Awhile,” which won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Joy, 24, was born in the Bronx and attended SUNY Purchase’s jazz program to study voice. She acknowledged that the past couple of years have been overwhelming at times. “I wasn't expecting any of this,” she said. “It wasn't like, 'OK, I have a plan. I'm going to go to jazz school. I'm going to graduate, and I'm going to become a star.'”

And her new career had a learning curve, she said. “I wasn't sure at one point how to handle and adapt to it all,” she said of being on her own and away from her parents. Joy’s solution was to lean into her work. “I was staying focused on music, on growing as an artist and a musician, and surrounding myself with people I want to collaborate with, my peers specifically, on this record,” she said.

In her latest album, she’s performing for the first time with a whole brass section, which she said has expanded her range.

Joy spoke to WNYC’s Alison Stewart on a recent episode of “All of It” about fashion, SUNY Purchase and more. Below is an edited version of their conversation.

Photo by Gus Black

READ THE Gothamist Q&A