SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER/FALL, 2017
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER/FALL, 2017
VOLUME FOUR NUMBER THREE
JAZZMEIA HORN
(August 12-18)
ROY HAYNES
(August 19-25)
MCCOY TYNER
(August 26-September 1)
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE
(September 2-8)
AARON DIEHL
(September 9-15)
CECILE MCLORIN SAVANT
(September 16-22)
REGGIE WORKMAN
(September 23-29)
ANDREW CYRILLE
(September 30-October 6)
BARRY HARRIS
(October 7-13)
MARQUIS HILL
(October 14-20)
HERBIE NICHOLS
(October 21-27)
GREG OSBY
(October 28-November 3)
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jazzmeia-horn-mn0003190289/biography
Jazzmeia Horn
(b. April 21, 1991)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
New York-based performer Jazzmeia Horn is a gifted jazz vocalist with an inventive, scat-influenced style that helped her win the 2015 Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition. Born in Dallas, Texas in 1991, Horn
grew up in a creative, spiritually minded family and was first
introduced to singing by her grandmother, a gospel pianist with an
abiding love of jazz. Although she sang from an early age, it wasn't
until her teens attending Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School for
the Performing and Visual Arts that she developed an interest in jazz.
Introduced to Sarah Vaughan by her composition class teacher, Horn fell in love with Vaughan's style and worked to learn her phrasing and inflection. From there, she began listening to other instrumentalists, including John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
After high school, she honed her skills studying at Manhattan's The New
School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. She already gained recognition
as a formidable talent during her time in school, and took home several
Down Beat student music awards. Graduating in 2009, Horn quickly immersed herself in the New York scene, performing alongside such luminaries as Billy Harper, Delfeayo Marsalis, Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein, Vincent Herring, and many more. Horn's profile was raised significantly when she won Newark's 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition. Two years later, she solidified her place as a bona fide star after taking first place in the Thelonious Monk
International Vocal Jazz Competition. In 2017, as part of her Monk
Competition prize, she released her debut full-length album, A Social Call, on Concord Records.
Music
Jazzmeia Horn Wins Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition
The winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition is Jazzmeia Horn. Originally from Dallas, Ms. Horn, 23, is a singer with a smart, steadfast connection to the jazz-vocal tradition, as defined by predecessors like Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan. Since moving to New York in 2009 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, she has been a regular presence on the club scene, often with her band, the Artistry of Jazz Horn.
Ms. Horn won the
competition on Sunday night, in a gala concert at the Dolby Theater in
Los Angeles, which also featured a tribute to the producer Quincy Jones,
this year’s recipient of the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Herbie Hancock
Humanitarian Award. Among the featured artists were several of the
competition’s judges — Patti Austin, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Freddy Cole
— and a past vocal winner, Gretchen Parlato.
The Monk Competition,
which changes its instrumental focus from year to year, is widely
recognized as the most prestigious of its kind for jazz, and an
important boost to young careers. The last time the competition spotlighted singers,
in 2010, the winner was Cécile McLorin Salvant, a relative unknown who
has since become one of the most acclaimed artists in her field.
Ms. Horn sealed her
win with performances of the jazz standards “Moanin’” and “Detour
Ahead,” backed by a house rhythm section of Reggie Thomas on piano,
Rodney Whitaker on bass and Carl Allen on drums. The competition
runners-up, culled from a pool of 11 semifinalists, were Veronica Swift
of Charlottesville, Va., and Vuyolwethu Sotashe of Mthatha, South
Africa.
Two years ago Ms. Horn won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition,
in Newark. As the winner of the Monk Competition she will receive a
$25,000 music scholarship and a recording contract with the Concord
Music Group.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/arts/music/jazzmeia-horn-dizzys-club-a-social-call-review.html
Music
Review: Jazzmeia Horn, a Jazz Vocalist on the Rise, Steps Up to the Microphone at Dizzy’s
The vocalist Jazzmeia Horn began her first set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Monday night with “Tight,” a quick-stepping jazz standard that was a signature of Betty Carter’s repertoire. Ms. Carter is a big influence on Ms. Horn, who delivered the tune with the same playful persuasion as her forebear.
After a run through the bobbing, stop-and-start melody,
Ms. Horn traded improvisations with the tenor saxophonist Stacy
Dillard. She pantomimed tapping keys on her microphone as she scatted,
light and sharp and sweet, with fluid harmonic movements that mimicked a
horn player’s. She outlined a chord, then shifted it up, then trailed
it into the air.
It was a promising coming-out party for the most talked-about jazz vocalist to emerge since Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter both became stars about five years ago. Ms. Horn does not have a conceptual calling card on the level of Ms. Salvant’s archival excursions or Mr. Porter’s sage and nostalgic songwriting. But, like Mr. Porter, she uses a striking command to project a mix of didacticism and sweetness.
And
she’s possessed of some distinctive tools, all of which were on
display: a pinched, sassy tone in the highest register; a fondness for
unguarded duets with her bassist (at Dizzy’s, it was Noah Jackson); an
array of rough, pealing nonverbal sounds that add drama to codas and
interludes, hinting at meanings in the music that go beyond what fits on
the page.
Last week Ms. Horn, 26, from Dallas, released her debut album, “A Social Call.” She recorded the disc with some of New York’s top young players after winning the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition, the highest accolade available to a rising jazz musician. Each year’s winner receives a deal with Concord Records.
“A
Social Call,” on Concord’s historic Prestige subsidiary, collects tunes
that belong to what you might call the straight-ahead jazz canon of
today. That includes some of the more inspirational R&B from the
1960s and ’70s, black spirituals and, of course, standards. Her
influences clearly include contemporary singers, from Cassandra Wilson
to Erykah Badu, as well as jazz’s midcentury staples.
The album’s name, which comes from the jazz standard
by Gigi Gryce, is meant as a kind of political double entendre. On
Monday, standing onstage in a flowing dress of West African fabrics and
matching head wrap, she finished the up-tempo title tune with a neat
cinch: “Maybe we’ll get back together, starting from this sentimental,
elemental, simple, social call.” Then she introduced the next
piece, the Stylistics’ “People Make the World Go Round,” explaining that
the nearly 50-year-old tune’s lyrics of social lament still feel
relevant. “As the old folks say, ain’t nothin’ changed,” she said.
She
delivered a prepared monologue decrying the corruption of political
leaders, the food industry, inveterate racism and neglect of the poor.
Then Ms. Horn and her six-piece band piled into a writhing minor vamp.
Trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone made a squall of crisscrossing
cries — a bright sound that suggested rising flames, but was darker than blue
too. She sang the song with an extra dose of confrontation, a touch
above what’s on the record, sometimes deploying a wordless yowl.
Dizzy’s,
part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is one of the more coveted rooms on New
York’s jazz circuit, and the night had the air of an audition. Ms. Horn
stuck to songs from the album (she also recited one original poem,
“Time”) and never ventured far from the arrangements.
But
there were subtle exceptions. On Bobby Timmons’s gospel-tinged
“Moanin’,” the drummer Henry Conerway III shook a syncopated New
Orleansian tambourine pattern as the horns stated the melody. When the
solo section began he put down the instrument, and Ms. Horn picked it
up, slapping it gamely, more or less replicating Mr. Conerway’s pattern
on the drums.
This
felt unrehearsed, and her bandmates seemed as though they were
adjusting to it. She was pushing into their improvising space, rejecting
demureness or stoicism. When the pianist Victor Gould finished his
solo, she nearly didn’t make it back to the microphone in time for her
final chorus.
There
was your moment of release, a break in the staging. Even inside these
old songs, in this buttressed style, there was room for some new
attitude.
Jazzmeia Horn: A Social Call
by
Coming from a gospel oriented family in Dallas, Texas, given a unique
name and early tutelage by her piano playing grandmother, Jazzmeia Horn was destined to be a jazz singer. After relocating to New York City to pursue music studies, she went on to conquer the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition, topping that by winning the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition in 2015. All of this preparation and recognition has culminated in her debut release A Social Call, on the revived Prestige label, part of the Concord Music Group.
Personally involved in all aspects of the musician selection and production process, Horn decided on an acoustic small group format, which best presents her clear vocal articulation. The sessions have her voice smoothly integrating into the ensemble, becoming a supple instrument, and a musical extension of the band. Horn will readily admit to having a number of major influences, one being Betty Carter, whose "Tight," opens the set, a straight ahead showcase for her natural scatting, and ability to interact with saxophonist Stacy Dillard.
The standard "East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)" is performed with the core band, with bassist Ben Williams, and drummer Jerome Jennings supporting pianist Victor Gould,
who proves he is the ideal accompanist for this project. The trio
shines on the quickened Johnny Mercer classic "I Remember You," and on
the title track, Horns' voice transformed into pure bop expression.
Adorned with sophisticated trumpet lines from Josh Evans,
her rhythmic manipulation of the melody on the tranquil ballad "The
Peacocks," captures her signature sound in all its splendor and grace. The horn section of Evans on trumpet, trombonist Frank Lacy,
and saxophonist Dillard, enhance the arrangement of "Up Above My Head,"
and provide the soulful background for the gospel meets jazz merger
"Lift Every Voice And Sing/Moanin." Singing and scatting through moods,
styles, and tempos, with inherent ease, Horn appears to enjoy the
challenges in musical diversity. The standout three part medley "Afro
Blue/Eye See You/ Wade In The Water," begins with Jennings on African
percussion, while Horn improvises exotic incantations and nuances,
leading into the lyrics. The middle section of "Eye See You," is a
spoken word social commentary on conditions in the African-American
experience; and the hymn "Wade In The Water," represents a soothing
conclusion, drawing comfort and solace from Horns' gospel roots. In
keeping with her contemporary leanings, she re-imagines the R&B hit
"I'm Going Down," with a swinging jazz beat and a taste of neo-soul.
Exhibiting
an advanced artistic development and confidence associated with more
established performers, Jazzmeia Horn exudes an intense sense of
purpose, and delivers an outstanding repertoire skillfully suited to her
talent. Citing influences and mentors as vital in the process of
becoming a musician, Horn was determined to find her own voice, and she
has succeeded.
Track Listing: Tight; East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon); Up Above My Head; Social Call; People Make The World Go Round; Lift Every Voice And Sing/Moanin’; The Peacocks ( A Timeless Place); I Remember You; Medley: Afro Blue/Eye See You/Wade In The Water; I’m Going Down.
Personnel: Jazzmeia Horn: vocals; Victor Gould: piano; Ben Williams: bass; Jerome Jennings: drums, percussion; Stacy Dillard: tenor saxophone (1, 3, 5, 6, 10); Josh Evans: trumpet (3, 5, 6, 7, 10); Frank Lacy: trombone (3, 5, 6, 9, 10).
Title: A Social Call | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Prestige Records
http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/free-jazzmeia/
Free Jazzmeia
On her debut album, an electrifying young singer from Dallas draws on the past, but refuses to be its prisoner.
Whenever the sharp young singer Jazzmeia Horn is obliged to answer a question about her name—and lately, the subject comes up often—she invariably takes the conversation to church. To be more precise, the Golden Chain Missionary Baptist Church, in southeast Dallas, where her grandfather has been pastor for four decades.
“Before I was born, my grandmother was the organist,” recalls Horn one morning this past spring, over herbal tea at a cafe in Harlem. “She wanted to perform jazz and blues, but because she was the first lady, she was kind of pinned down. She wasn’t allowed to venture out and be a musician other than in the church.”
Horn pauses, as if to line up the point of the story just so. “She passed her gift to me by naming me Jazzmeia.” Her pronunciation puts a stress on the second syllable—“jazz-me-uh”—though of course to friends and family it has always been “Jazz” for short.
Say what you will about the notion of naming as destiny, which has its own Roman saying, “Nomen est omen.” For the 26-year-old Horn, who began singing in the choir as a toddler, there’s no doubt that she was ordained as a musician at birth. Her gift and calling have since led her through the most rigorous vetting process available to a present-day jazz singer—and now on to A Social Call (Concord/Prestige), the rangy, self-possessed major-label debut that could herald the next big voice in her field.
On the album’s ten cuts, Horn pointedly evokes a few great jazz voices of yore. In her clarion projection and pliable control, she summons Sarah Vaughan, her first and biggest influence. The mercurial spark in her phrasing, as well as her nimble scatting, points to Betty Carter—whose calling card, “Tight,” is the album’s lead single. Among the other touchstones are Carmen McRae, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn (no relation), and Ernestine Anderson, who sang on one of the first recordings of the jazz standard “Social Call.”
There was a time, not long ago, when you’d consider this set of historical allusions and look for the marketing suit in the room. But A Social Call was emphatically made according to Horn’s own designs. “I went in the door saying, ‘These are the guys I want to play with, this is the theme for the album, these are the tunes I want to do,’ ” she says. “I also make my own clothes. Most of the time when I’m performing, it’s my own outfits. I had all these ideas, and they were like, ‘Okay, let’s go with it.’ ”
Horn’s convictions can be felt in a series of other flourishes on A Social Call, including a cover of the Stylistics’ 1971 anthem “People Make the World Go Round,” prefaced by an earnest spoken-word poem that rattles off a list of societal problems. Horn said she meant the album’s title not in the wistful, flirtatious way that lyricist Jon Hendricks intended, but as a call to action.
“Like Nina Simone always said, ‘Use your platform to talk about what’s going on in the world; otherwise, why are you a musician?’ ” Horn says. “I kind of live by that.”
Horn grew up in the Dallas suburb of DeSoto, though her deeper connection was to the church, where both of her parents were involved in music ministry, and where her grandfather, Reverend B. L. Horn, held fast to Southern Baptist orthodoxy. “There’s no contemporary music at Golden Chain,” Horn explains. “Everything is old Negro spirituals and hymns.”
Horn’s early heroes weren’t jazz divas so much as modern-day strivers like Fantasia Barrino, who won American Idol in 2004. Barrino’s arrangement of “Summertime” formed the crux of one of Horn’s auditions for the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the music magnet whose alumni include Erykah Badu and Norah Jones, two singers who now stand a step or two removed from jazz, in different directions.
After unsuccessfully auditioning as a freshman and again as a sophomore, Horn was finally admitted her junior year. She didn’t know much about jazz, but she was a quick study with obvious command of her instrument. That made her a target of kids who were jealous of her skills. “When I entered performing arts school, people hated me because I was more advanced than some of the other students, and I got put in ensembles right away. They were really upset, like, ‘Who does she think she is?’ ”
One of her teachers at Booker T. Washington was Roger Boykin, an all-around pillar of the Dallas jazz scene, who gave her a CD compilation of vocalists to check out. One track featured Vaughan singing “Shulie a Bop,” a coolly imperious scat aria recorded in 1954. When Horn heard Vaughan, it was as if a key had been turned in a secret door.
“I became so obsessed with Sarah that I would learn every song that she sang, verbatim,” she says. “Every song. Eventually I stopped singing those songs for a while because I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m just imitating Sarah. I’m learning her story versus giving what I have to offer.’ ”
Following graduation, Horn moved to New York City to attend the School of Jazz at the New School. True to form, she found herself operating outside of any clique, amassing experience both in the classroom and on the bandstand, at jazz boîtes like the Zinc Bar and Smalls. Horn grew accustomed to the experience, familiar to many a fresh-faced young jazz singer, of being underestimated by skeptical musicians—until she opened her mouth to sing. She takes a certain satisfaction in recounting these dues, now paid in full.
Jazz singing, at its upper echelons, can be a slippery thing to define: an evolving discipline with a proven lineage but no fixed parameters, and a strong inclination toward the blending of styles. The reigning queens of the art form—Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall—have made digressions into one or another form of pop. Notwithstanding a North Star like Tony Bennett or Freddy Cole, jazz singers tend to be shape-shifters, which can make it difficult to draw a clear bead on the dimensions of the art.
Against this backdrop, one recent barometer for excellence has been the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, which takes place annually in Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. The competition features a different instrument each year, in rotation. Horn won the most recent vocal Monk Competition, in 2015, after winning another major contest, the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, in 2013. For a concise distillation of what makes her special, look up on YouTube her performance at the Monk semifinals, when she scatted her way through the intricacies of the Monk composition “Evidence.” It’s a boss move, and she nails it, taking charge of the house rhythm section as if it’s her own band.
“I was struck by her amazing scat abilities,” recalls Bridgewater, who was one of the judges. “And her choice of material—to choose complicated songs, to do them with the ease that she did. I thought that she took chances, where a lot of the other young singers played it safe. I felt that she was the singer who showed the most promise for the advancement of vocal jazz.”
All of this was in evidence during a recent concert at Manhattan’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Taking the stage in her trademark head wrap, Horn was a riveting presence from the jump, with a daring, spontaneous sense of phrasing and an unmistakable authority with her band. By the standards of a concert jazz audience, the response was rapturous: whoops and hollers routinely punctuated the applause. Still, the performance raised the question of exactly how Horn is advancing the art of jazz singing. Her delivery was impressive for its clarity and charisma; she wasn’t working by rote, on any level. But it feels a little odd to think that Horn might push vocal jazz into the future by way of her foothold in the past.
A Social Call disarms that critique by giving Horn ample room to move—to proceed with chilling composure, for example, from the jazz standard “Afro Blue” to a spoken-word poem about systemic racial oppression to a version of the African American spiritual “Wade in the Water” (all this on a track called “Medley,” the album’s boldest stroke of expressionism).
At its best, the album frames Horn’s idiosyncrasies as an aesthetic reflection of her particular life experience. One standout track, a sprint through the 1941 standard “I Remember You,” can only be seen as her genuflection to Vaughan. In an inspired and more unexpected move, Horn sings “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Episcopal hymn often described as the black national anthem, as a prelude to the classic hard-bop shuffle “Moanin’.” Her voice traces this shift from lofty idealism to gritty realism, creating an efficient metaphor for the African American liberation movement, with a knockout scat chorus to boot.
Horn has never had the luxury of savoring her success in isolation from real-life concerns. When she won the Monk Competition, her first daughter was just shy of a year old. “I couldn’t go to the after-party right away, because I had to go and feed her,” she recalls. “So it didn’t really sink in until I got back to New York that I had won.” Her second daughter was born late last year—she was performing a holiday gig at a private party when her water broke. Both of her children were named after Egyptian deities: Ma’at, the goddess of balance, justice, and truth, and Seshat, the goddess of wisdom and the written word. It should come as no surprise that Horn put a lot of thought into their names. She sees herself carrying on a tradition, on more than one level.
“In a way, I sing in remembrance of my grandmother,” Horn says. “She wasn’t able to speak about what she wanted to speak about. Now I’m just like, ‘I’m Jazzmeia: an open book, a free spirit.’ I feel like I’m doing what I was put here to do.”
Nate Chinen is a former music critic at the New York Times and the director of editorial content at the jazz station WBGO.
http://revive-music.com/2017/03/30/video-vocalist-jazzmeia-horn/
When the legendary Jon Hendricks says a vocalist “has one of the best voices I’ve heard in over 40 years,” that in itself is enough to catch people’s attention. Add to that the fact that she won both the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and the 2015 Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition, and it’s obvious Jazzmeia Horn is a singer to watch out for. Starting off singing in a choir at church where her grandfather is a pastor, Horn cites many influences on her style, ranging from gospel to pop to, eventually, jazz. During this teaser for her upcoming album, A Social Call, she describes a moment many of us may remember well: hearing Sarah Vaughan for the first time. As she walks us through her personal musical history, we are treated to a sample of some of the tunes from the record, and it quickly becomes apparent why she won those competitions and has received so many accolades. With the depth of feeling and personality of Billy Holiday and the virtuosity and playfulness of Sarah Vaughan, the opening few notes that introduce us to Horn’s voice speak volumes to the maturity and talent of the young singer. Joining her on her debut are pianist Victor Gould, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Jerome Jennings, Stacy Dillard on sax, Josh Evans on trumpet and the one and only Frank Lacy on trombone.
Check out the teaser below, and catch them live May 15th at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
http://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/4861-horn-of-plenty-rising-jazz-star-jazzmeia-horn-talks.html
HORN OF PLENTY - RISING JAZZ STAR JAZZMEIA HORN TALKS.
09 June 2017
by Charles Waring
by Charles Waring
"Jazzmeia has one of the best voices I've heard in over 40 years" - Jon Hendricks
"My heart skipped a beat... I didn't know what to do. I was just kind of screaming for days." These are the words of JAZZMEIA HORN, arguably the most exciting new vocalist in jazz right now. She isn't recollecting a nerve-shredding nightmare or reliving a traumatic experience that changed her life but is explaining how she felt when her producer, Chris Dunn, at Concord Records, told her that they were going to release her debut album, 'A Social Call,' on the re-launched Prestige imprint, one of the leading modern jazz labels of the 1950s and '60s. "I thought about Miles Davis and John Coltrane," continues 'Jazz' (as she's known to her friends and familiars), "who were both artists on Prestige. It was super-heavy thing being on Prestige so I didn't know how to carry myself...it was very exciting."
Just 26-years-old, Dallas-born Jazzmeia Horn shows an astonishing maturity on 'A Social Call,' channelling the spirit of classic horn-like vocalists like Sarah Vaughan (her idol) and Betty Carter but fusing those influences with her own contemporary style and sensibility to arrive at something that is simultaneously traditional and modern. She succeeds in marrying virtuosic skill with a soulful sensitivity, achieving a perfect union of technique and deep feeling. Her repertoire on the album ranges from straight-ahead swingers ('Tight' and 'I Remember You') and luminous ballads ('The Peacocks') to sanctified gospel-inflected soul-jazz numbers ('Moanin'' and a medley that includes 'Wade In The Water') to classic '70s R&B songs - the latter are represented by a wonderful take on the Stylistics' Thom Bell and Linda Creed-written 'People Make The World Go Round,' and Rose Royce's Norman Whitfield-penned 'I'm Going Down' (which was also a '90s hit for Mary J Blige). What unites her disparate material is her supple, athletic voice combined with her unique storytelling abilities.
Accompanying Jazzmeia is an ace group of musicians, including bassist Ben Williams, pianist Victor Gould, drummer Jerome Jennings, and saxophonist, Stacy Dillard. Together, they make a beautiful and inspiring noise. The singer's deal with Concord (Prestige's parent company) was a direct result of her winning the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition - in fact, it was part of the prize, along with a cheque for $25,000.
Two years on, and Jazzmeia Horn - who balances a music career with looking after her two young children - is beginning to make some noise internationally, thanks to her sensational debut album. The British public have a chance to see her in person in November when she will perform at Ronnie Scott's as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Here, she talks at length on a range of subjects with SJF's Charles Waring...
Your debut album, 'Social Call,' has just been released. What's the response been like so far?
It's been really, really, really beautiful. We've got good responses all around, and some of the most endearing ones have come from the average person who enjoys music. A lot of people have said to me that the album is very timely and a lot of the elders feel like the music is in good hands. A lot of the younger people, people my age, said I didn't like jazz before I heard your album. I didn't understand it, it was too intellectual, but you make it so that everybody can understand it. So I am really elated. I didn't really realise it was going to bring together the old school and the new school, the older and the newer generation of people together, and that's exactly what has happened. It's so exciting. A lot of the critics in the really big newspapers here, like in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New York Amsterdam News, have all really had wonderful things to say. My publicist sent me a quote sheet about two days ago and there were probably thirty quotes. I didn't think that this was what was going to happen and I'm still trying to take it all in.
What were your hopes and ambitions for the album, then, if you weren't expecting this sort of adulation?
I was hoping that the younger generation would kind of wake up and smell the coffee and the same thing with the older generation of people. I didn't think that was going to happen but that was definitely my hope. It really was just a dream. I thought, what if I could really appeal to both sides and bring them together. I didn't necessarily think that problems were going to be solved or anything like that, but it definitely has brought us together and ... the rest is history! (Laughs).
Do you think that there's a division between the old school and the new school in jazz?
Yes, absolutely. I definitely know that. I've even heard a lot of my peers and colleagues when I was in college before I was married with children, say, "oh man, oh, they ain't got it, they can't phrase that anymore, they're too old, nobody comes up in jam sessions and nobody cares about anything anymore." I would hear things like that and then I have a different way of living and a different way of singing and a different way of feeling than a lot of the younger generation that are my counterparts. I gel with both sides, I'm kind of in between. So for me, I also got a chance and opportunity to hear the elders speak and when they speak, they say things like "oh, you guys don't listen, you're hard-headed" and they'd say things that are true but not understanding that they could learn from us. And I think that we forget that we could learn from them because they've seen and done so many things in life that we haven't experienced or haven't had the opportunity to experience yet. And then vice versa. We have so much that we can teach them like, for example, how to create a Facebook page or advertise on a Twitter account. There's still a lot we can learn from each other, but there's a huge gap, but I'm really excited about what 'A Social Call' is doing. I don't want to jinx it but 'A Social Call' has made the generations merge.
How did it feel to be in the studio recording your first LP?
I was definitely excited but I was very nervous, too, because that was the first time that all of the musicians in the band had played together. I had played with each one individually before but it was the first time that we had all come together and played music.
What was your co-producer, Chris Dunn, like to work with?
He was great. He had great energy. Everything was "is this is how you like it, do you want it this way?" And then if there were moments that he felt that needed to be redone, he didn't overrun it with his own interpretation or didn't make me feel my ideas weren't worth time. He never made me feel uncomfortable. The music industry can be difficult for a woman. Men sometimes can make women feel a certain way because of the persona that they have or the way they carry themselves. Sometimes they don't even notice that they're doing it, but it's intuitive and becomes part of their being. There was none of that with Chris or any of the musicians on the album. The producer, the musicians, and the engineers were all like, "hey, you're the boss lady, let us know what you need is to do." It was just complete support. So it made it much easier.
How did you get to sign with Concord initially?
It was at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. It's not a vocal competition but a competition where every year they choose a different instrument. In 2015 it just so happened that the instrument was voice. There were eleven finalists from around the world and they narrowed it down to three winners but the first got $25,000 and a recording contract with Concord. So I won that competition and that's how I got the record deal.
Who were the judges?
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Al Jarreau - God bless his soul - Patti Austin, Luciana Souza, and Freddy Cole. And the host was Herbie Hancock and there was an award being given to Quincy Jones, so there were jazz celebrities all over the place.
And what did you sing?
I did two performances. We had to do a Monk piece and I did 'Evidence' with 'Four In One.' So I had the piano player play 'Evidence' and then I sang 'Four In One' because it has very similar chord changes. So I just created an arrangement of merging the two songs that Monk wrote, and I think that's what helped me to win because it was so daring. All the other competitors chose the easier songs, you know like 'Ruby, My Dear.' None of Monk's tunes are easy but they were easier than 'Four In One...that was pretty hard (laughs).
You certainly set yourself a challenge with that one, didn't you?
Yeah, but on purpose. I thought, "I must win this competition."
And what was it like to win?
I didn't actually get a chance to think about it as I had so many bills to pay and I had a new baby coming and I also had a one-year-old. I was really thinking about how the competition, if I were to win, would better my life and my child's life. So I treated it like a gig instead of a competition and I was able to completely be myself, which worked out. I knew it was a huge risk but I was willing to take it because I needed to pay my rent. I thought: Let me just do what I know how to do. I can sing, this is what I was born to do. I was born to sing jazz, let me do this and try to do something that is totally outside of my comfort zone but which is going to win me this competition.
You were pregnant at the time you were recording your album...How did that affect the recording process?
It didn't really bother me much because actually my first child was almost born on stage. I performed up until I had the baby with the first and second pregnancies. In the studio I sat down mostly when I felt like I couldn't stand anymore and it wasn't too much strain on my body because it was what I was used to doing. It was really simple. Actually, the children gave me much more creative ideas in terms of improvisation and arranging. I was able to get out of a box that I had been in previously. Before I had children, my thinking on my singing, scatting and storytelling was one-way but after I became a mother, it completely changed everything. So in the studio when I was recording my album, I was thinking about the world as a mother and as an artist, musician and a woman of many hats, really, and how that would look like and what it would be like for the children - and not just my children, but children in general. You just have a different perspective. So It changed my perspective and I was able to really get the story, get the gist, and give my own interpretation and understanding of the story, which became even more powerful because I was able to speak it and tell it to the world better than I was able to do before. So it was definitely a blessing.
What influenced your choice of material?
Before I won the competition, I thought the album had to be recorded like ASAP so when I went in as a finalist I had already decided on what songs I was going to record for the album. This was actually before the songs were recorded. I already had a concept in mind and had decided what musicians I wanted to use. Everything except for the producer and the studio, I already knew. I even knew what the album cover was going to look like. It was like I had overdone it but approaching that way turned out perfect because I kind of got a chance to really work the tunes and spend more time on them instead of it being a rushed situation. I live everything that I sing about and only try to sing what I'm living about. If it's someone else's project, I'll be a side man or side woman, but still interpret those songs as if I'm living the story. So storytelling is really important to me. I can really tell a story with these tunes. All of the songs on 'A Social Call' speak to me. It was pretty easy.
Is there a theme that ties all the songs together?
Love. The entire album is a big love fest (laughs). Love for society, love for life, love for the children, love for the Earth, love for music, love for everything that I'm passionate about, which is all of the above. You know when you love yourself, you have enough love to give someone else and you love people and you love the Earth, the planet that you live on. You want to save it so you speak out about things that are bothering you and the people. All those things bother me.
You cover the Stylistics' early '70s hit, 'People Make The World Go Round.' Do you remember how you first came across that song?
I was riding in the car with my grandmother. She had a really small red car and I used to sit in the middle of the backseat and always looked at the radio station and it was being played. She was a nanny and worked for two different families. Sometimes she would take me to work with her, like in the summer when I was out of school. I remember her always coming home and taking her shoes off and she would say rub grandma's hands or rub grandma's feet for me. That song came on one day and she started crying but she was trying to make sure that I didn't see, that I didn't notice that she was crying, and I did. So I listened to the song and was trying really to understand what the tune meant but it wasn't until I was out of junior high school that I really understood what she was going through as a nanny, that type of labour and not being able to be around her children all the time and grandchildren in the way that she wanted to be because she had another obligation. And that song speaks about that.
You bring a new dimension to it because you begin your version with a spoken narrative about the state of the world.
That's what I mean when I say I like to tell a story because I have a different voice, and it's a different timeframe, so it has to be a little bit different, it can't be completely the same.
Do you feel that for you, personally, jazz has to reflect contemporary life and that's why you've referenced many of the issues that affect us all?
I'm an expression of life, of what I'm going through, and what I've been through in the 21st-century and I don't know how else to be. This is the only way I know how to be.
Some singers shy away from making the social and political commentary but you don't, do you?
As long as I'm not offending anyone, I don't see why music shouldn't be able to speak out about certain things. I'm not putting anyone down, I'm not judging anyone, I'm just hurt and a lot of people are hurting and I'm not just speaking about black American people and even though I am a black American - whatever that means (laughs) - everybody's hurting. There's so much pain everywhere. At the same time I'm only 26 years old and I have a full life ahead of me and this is how I feel today, in 2017. But tomorrow is a different day. You never know. But I definitely know that my love for people and myself is continuing to grow. So it's definitely not something that's going to die.
With a name like Jazzmeia Horn, did it feel like in a way that you were pre-destined to become a jazz singer?
No, when I was a child, I didn't even like jazz. I wasn't introduced to it until I was about 13 or 14. I was a sophomore in high school and I was like, oh, what is that? That's too intellectual, I don't understand it. But then during my senior year I went to a performing arts high school and had a professor and a voice coach who had given me a compilation of vocalists on it and I heard Sarah Vaughan (pictured above). I fell in love with her and jazz and my socks were really blown away completely. The way she played with time, her tone, and the way she sounded like a classical vocalist but was a jazz vocalist and had this raspy tone at the same time. It made me wonder, who are you? And then her improvisation, her musicianship ... she just made me feel like no one else on the planet had made me feel before. And I just followed her to Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. I followed Sarah Vaughan and began her tunes but I decided that I was starting to sound too much like her. She sang 'Fly Me To The Moon' and also 'Tenderly' and I was like, who else sings those songs? So then I got introduced to Nancy Wilson, and then Bessie Smith.... Just like a slew of vocalists came about from me hearing Sarah. I have her to thank but I really have all of them to thank.
At what point did you start to find your own voice? Because you've certainly got your own style.
I felt like I was imitating Sarah too much, this was before I was the winner of the 2013 Sarah Vaughan Competition. I felt like I started to sound like her too much and when you learn anything, like you learn how to write or ride a bike, you learn how the person taught you to learn. You kind of imitate the person who taught you, more so than being yourself. So that's when I started listening to other tunes. Once I started hearing all these different vocalists, I was like oh, this is just to get me started, I can actually be myself. In church, I started to listen to my voice and what my voice sounded like, because I would sing in church probably three or four times a week. My grandfather was a pastor. I started paying attention to my voice even more and then I actually went to school in New York and on the scene right away started playing with different people, like local musicians, in different bars and venues around New York. I just became Jazzmeia Horn. I became myself by being here in New York and really having time to work on my craft.
What music was the soundtrack to your early life growing up in Dallas in the 1990s?
I was really into Brandy (pictured above). I still love her. My mum used to say, "turn it off! Don't you want to listen to anything else but Brandy?" I have all her records. There was something so soulful about her voice, I was also listening to Whitney Houston too, who was Brandy's idol. And I heard a little bit of Nancy Wilson because she's one of those vocalists who is not in a box, so you can't say she's a jazz vocalist or soul or R&B vocalist; she is very eclectic and well-rounded. Then I heard Betty Wright, whom my mother loved, and gospel singers like Yolanda Adams and Shirley Caesar. Also Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Johnnie Taylor, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, the Commodores, Earth Wind & Fire, the Temptations, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, and Donny Hathaway. That's what I grew up with. It was very soulful music and it still resonates with me right now. It's always there, it was just never jazz. And then I came into my dream and created what's going on with my voice now...but over time it may change, who knows?
Do you play any instruments as well as being able to sing?
I play Djembe. I took West African dance in high school and college and fell in love with a lot of the different West African traditions from Mali, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and especially Nigeria, Nigeria. I played Djembe very well actually. I used to play drums in church, so I have a nice pocket, a nice groove, but I cannot swing yet: it's very bouncy and doesn't feel like the swing that I sing. So I'm really attracted to the drums. I feel like the drummer is the second instrument known to man, the voice is the first. I sing and play the drums a lot when I'm on my own and I go to drum circles in Central Park and Union Square where people make a circle and dance and play drums. It's one of the things that made me fall in love with New York because any one can join in.
Tell me about the cover and album artwork for your album - what was the concept behind it?
If you go to the inside page (above), you'll see a picture of me front of the Flat Iron Building (in New York) and you can see the world in my womb. I was pregnant at the time that I was recording and looked at 'A Social Call' as one of my babies because while I was nurturing a child in my womb, I was also nurturing the album. The concept would be how would I feed the people, how would I nurture them in the same way that I nurture my child. I embodied being Mother Earth but I didn't have a chance to put the picture that was on the inside on the cover because that was initially what I wanted but the label was not interested in that. So I just wanted to prove it to the people that I really felt it resonated with my spirit and I also wanted to give them hope - especially a lot of the older people, like my mentors, people like Reggie Workman, Charles Tolliver and Jimmy Owens, who all came to my album release party. (Trumpeter) Jimmy Owens was a huge supporter, even when I was in college. He'd ask me: do you own your licensing? Do you own your publishing? I know you've just got a record deal but are you talking to a lawyer and can I send one your way? Even before I started making a name for myself on the scene, he would ask me things like, are you resting? Are you eating right? Are you studying? Are you making time to study and go to jam sessions? He really, really looked out for me. And he was one of the ones who would say, jazz is in good hands with Jazzmeia (laughs). I was so excited just to hear him say that. He's one of the greats and I'm thrilled to know him and thrilled that the elders are proud of me and proud of the legacy that I'm living on and passing the torch. And I'm not just taking the torch and bringing the light - I'm continuing on, to speak out, and cry out with love about what's going on. And passing on the love down to other generations. So it's a birth: birthing a new generation of conscious people.
You seem to have lots of ideas. What can we expect from you in the future and do you have any ideas in the pipeline?
I have 20,000 ideas and that's probably an understatement (laughs). I have so many. I love children and I want to do something like Sesame Street, a special for children. I also want to write some children's songs. I've actually written a lot and my children have been guinea pigs for the music that I'm writing. And they love the songs. We have a brush your teeth song, an open your eyes song, an I am beautiful song... You know, just words of encouragement. There's a lot in the can and I'm just working on everything bit by bit, piece by piece, but I'm not going to throw all of my ideas out there. I'm working on my next Prestige album.
Will you be writing more as well?
Yes. The next album will be completely my tunes. So I'm very excited about what's next. I didn't want to give it to the people up front. I wanted them to have a chance to get to know me with something that they're familiar with first before I let myself out and give my whole self away. So that's what's coming up.
Carrying on the legacy through conscious music – an interview with Jazzmeia Horn
The Music and Myth proudly presents an
extensive interview with Jazzmeia Horn. At the time of this writing it
is the only one of its kind on the internet.
The twenty-three year old musician, fresh out of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, has certainly been garnering much praise for her determination, her charismatic stage presence and her old school approach to music. I was looking forward to her set and to interviewing her afterwards. While her performance certainly exceeded my already very high expectations, so did the interview, where I discovered that Jazzmeia is just as warm, graceful and charming in person as she appears on stage. She also possesses an outspoken nature and an air of wisdom which seems to contradict her young age. That comes from an acute awareness of her place in the music industry and a powerful feeling of cultural responsibility. Like I’ve mentioned in the article covering her performance, when you are in her presence, you get the feeling that a very bright future awaits this musician. I am certain that the readers of this interview will get the very same feeling.
Jazzmeia, what do you think of the Inntöne festival so far? How do you like it?
It’s great. Look at that! Right there, see…(she points at a lady carrying a tray with plates of pork roast)
It’s why it’s called Jazz at the Farm. This is what it’s all about.
(laughs) Exactly, all this meat. I don’t even eat meat.
You’re in the wrong place then.
Oh no, they have some good pasta. I ate some pasta earlier.
You had a great set, congratulations!
Thank you.
You’ve got a debut record coming up, is that right?
I’m working on it. We’ve only been in the studio one day. What happened was that the bass-player Eric Wheeler plays on the road with Dee Dee Bridgewater a lot. So I don’t want to just tell him ‘hey man, if you don’t get off the road with her you can’t play with me’ (laughs). That would be rude. I’m happy that he’s working elsewhere, you know? But it’s hard. Victor Gould, who plays piano, is occasionally on the road with Wallace Roney. Sometimes getting the guys in to have another session is just really complicated. So I’m working on it.
Can you talk to me about the record? Is it going to be standards or original compositions?
Yeah, original compositions. They sound like standards. They are definitely swinging, definitely classic jazz. If you were checking out Ella or Bettie or Carmen McRae, it would be a mixture of that with maybe some Lauren Hill and a little bit of Erykah Badu and maybe some Jill Scott and Marvin Gaye. You know, it’s just a mixture of soul, really.
My music is conscious music. It’s about being aware of the food that you put in your body, being aware of the community that you’re in and how the environment affects you in the community that you’re in, but in music. ‘Cos that’s what Jazz is, you’re telling a story, you know? And why not speak about the story that’s happening right now? I think the music is definitely important and, especially since my name is Jazzmeia, why not carry on the legacy, right?
Because a lot of the young people are really not that interested in Jazz. I’m talking about the mass population. Especially people of the African diaspora, which is where the genre came from. They’re really not interested in the music because of the way the media portrays Jazz just in general. It’s not on the mainstream. So people are not really conscious about the movement and how it’s going. I just want to free people’s minds, that’s really what I want to do. Everybody: white people, black people, Indian people, orange people, yellow people. Seriously, I’m so serious. I just want people to be happy. Be happy with themselves, ‘cos that’s what we can do. If we’re happy with ourselves we can have love to give to everyone else, you see? So that’s what my album is really about.
What will it be called?
Probably – this is about 70% right, it might not be this – but I’m thinking The Naked Truth Dipped in Culture. I’m hoping it can be released mid-September or early October. It’s coming out this year. Hopefully by the fall, so that way I can submit my music in December or January to festivals, to book them a year in advance. That’s my goal.
You’ve moved from Dallas to Harlem, what can you tell me about the Jazz scene in New York? What are the biggest challenges for you?
I don’t really have any now but I used to. Being in school was really complicated because in America there are no schools that teach you what you want to learn. Especially college, but education in general. You have to be your own school. Schools have their own agenda as far as what they want to teach the students. They’re trying to teach you something that you’re not even going to need, something that’s not necessary for your day to day life, you know? But you can definitely learn from it.
So, with that being said, I moved from Dallas in 2009 and went to school in August 2009. It was very hectic for me because I couldn’t understand why, coming from Dallas, I’m learning less than I learned back home. And I’m in New York, where the Jazz scene is five thousand times better than it is in Dallas. And still I was learning so much more back home. It’s because the people are real to the music. Not to say New-Yorkers aren’t real to the music, because most of the population in New York is not made of people who are from New York anyway, especially in the Jazz scene. You’ll find that 30% of the Jazz musicians in New York are actually from New York . So it was just really hard trying to go to school and deal with somebody else’s agenda, when I have my own agenda. Because I was trying to learn how to improvise better as a vocalist, how to improvise better as a musician in general, how to work on my technique and find out really who it is that I want to be musically and what I have to offer other than a beautiful sound. Sound is there, that’s actually the gift. But then, how do you mold it? How do you manifest it into actually what you want it to be? So that was really hard because the New School was like ‘do this, do that’ and it had nothing to do with the goals that I was trying to reach so that…sucked. (laughs)
And then I learned how to cope with it. I said, ‘ok, this is what the New School wants me to do, and this is what I want do, so this is how I have to balance it out’. That was the good thing about it, I learned how to balance them. Then, once I graduated college, it was so much better for me because now I have my own agenda and I can check out other people and what they’re doing as well. Everything on Earth is recycled. Fashion is recycled. What we wore in the 1920’s, that shit is going to come back around again, we’re going to wear that again (laughs). So that’s what happens. We evolve but we recycle and keep on traditions as we grow. So I feel the same way with Jazz. A lot of cats are not really interested in playing straight ahead. They want to play out, they want to play all this other stuff. And I only know that because I was allowed to go out and check out the scene.
There’s so many killer musicians, I’m not the only killin’ vocalist on the scene. I feel like what I can do for people is just be professional and show musicians and other people that I want to work and that I want to be playing, and be professional about it. If you’re not professional you can definitely get cut. Like, if you don’t show up…forget about it! They can just call another vocalist because everybody’s killin’. You’re not the only killin’ one so…you just got to be on your p’s and q’s with that kind of stuff. And also practicing.
It’s hard because I want to go around and say ‘hey guys, you wanna play, you wanna shed?’ and they’re like ‘no!’ But if I say that to a musician who is not a vocalist, maybe a tenor player or trumpet player, they’ll be like ‘yeah, yeah…what are you working on?’ We just vibe instantly. And I want to feel that way more with vocalists.
The elders – the vocalists who might be in their 50s or 60s – of course, yeah, they can understand it. It’s because they relate to the Jazz. Not that the young cats don’t relate, but the elders understand where I’m coming from and they’ll come to me and say ‘I’ll do it’. We all get together and we sing and stuff. But the vocalists who are my age, they are not trying to hear. They’re like ‘I have my own agenda, I have my own thing, I don’t care’.
Do you think that’s because of competition?
Yeah, and that sucks. I don’t like that. I feel like, if I can go to a trumpet player and say the same thing, I should be able to go to a vocalist as well. We’re all musicians, you know? That hurts my feelings a little bit. I take it personal sometimes. I have to learn how to stop doing that. But I’m working on it.
The scene (in New York) is just great. There’s so many great musicians. If my bass player can’t make a gig, I can just call somebody else. Whereas in Dallas, there’s only five or six other players I can call. So if I didn’t have a bass player I’d have to find another way to make it work, any way that I can. And there’s a club on every corner.
I just wish two things: that the clubs were reachable to the younger generation, kids who are younger than me, so…like…high-school. In a lot of clubs you either can’t go because you’re too young or you can’t go because it’s like fifty dollars. With the way the economy works right now how the hell are you going to charge a kid fifty dollars to get in a club? It’s really inaccessible. And not only that, I wish a lot more of the elders would come out to the sessions. Roy Hargrove comes out to sessions, you know what I mean? We can learn from the elders. So when they come out to the sessions that’s like hip, you know. If you went to the sessions back in the ‘50s or ‘60s, if you went to Lenox Lounge or you went to St Nick’s Pub you could always find…like…Gregory Porter used to hang out at St. Nick’s pub, Jimmy Heath used to hang out and you could just go to them and be like ‘hey man, can I get a lesson?’ Now you can’t do that, and that sucks. That’s why all these cats want to play this out shit that has nothing to do with the legacy of the music. Because the elders have disconnected themselves. So what happens when the young generation falls behind and the elders disconnect themselves? There’s where I feel like I come in.
I know you are heavily influenced by the older generations, but what about the younger artists? Who influences you? Who do you listen to?
Oh, we can go on for years about what I listen to (laughs). But right now my top 5 are: Rachelle Ferrell, Bobby McFerrin, Jason Moran, Christian Scott. I like Ambrose, the trumpet player, he’s killin’. I also love Dee Dee Bridgewater. I like Kirk, of course (piano-player Kirk Lightsey). I like a lot of Gretchen’s stuff but I wouldn’t…I don’t consider Gretchen a Jazz musician, but who the hell am I?
How do you write your music? Can you talk to me about your creative process?
This recorder that you have – let me see! I have one of these, and it’s an Olympus too. So what I do is I take it around with me everywhere. I have it in my pocket upstairs. And sometimes I’ll think of something and it will turn into a song. I’ll just record that little bit and then when I get home I can sit down at the piano and figure out what it was that I was thinking about two hours ago. So I have just this recorder with like a hundred short snippets of something. So what happens is, over time, as I practice and my musicality gets greater, I usually have a tendency to go back and listen to tune number 5, instead of say number 555. And I find that the way I thought about it then is so much different than the way that I think about it now because of the growth spurt. So I’ll go back and fix this and tweak that and do this and do that. I just have sheets of music that either I’ll turn into a song and play or I’ll use it as a jingle. That’s another thing that musicians don’t really know about, writing music for film.
Film scoring and stuff like that – the money is so good. I learned that from Carmen Lundy. I did the Jazz Ahead program in 2013 and she told me about film scoring and how to write compositions for films and for TV shows and for all kinds of stuff that has to do with media. Once I found out about that, some of my songs that I didn’t like or didn’t think that I would be able to perform on stage, I turned them into little jingles or something like that. So it really just depends on where I am and how I’m feeling.
I just keep that recorder with me because if I’m in a bad mood, I’ll sing a song about it ‘cos that’s who I am. I’m a vocalist. I have to vocalize no matter what I’m doing. I’m on the train sometimes singing and people are like “shut the f**k up!” (laughs) But I can’t help it, that’s just who I am. And my voice is the way to do it. I just keep that recorder on me.
One last question: where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your goals?
I would just like to tour all over the world and have my music reach the mass population, simply because I feel like they need healing. There’s not a whole lot of music out there that reaches the mass, like Beyonce’s fans or Jay-Z’s fans. Those people are brainwashed. Seriously, they have no sense of who they are, where they come from. They don’t care because the media tells them who to be, what to eat, what to drink, what to think about, how to dress. And I just want to show them that not everybody is like that. And that can make the world a better place, you never know. I feel like I can choose my gift that God gave me to just bring people to the light. And that’s really what I want to do. Even if it’s on a small stage. Because as long as people are hearing and it’s touching somebody, even if it’s one person , I’m satisfied.
With that being said I thanked her for her time and, with a big hug, we said goodbye. A while later I tweeted the following phrase:
Prediction: you will see Jazzmeia Horn at the 2015 Grammys, you’ve heard it here first folks!
THE MUSIC OF JAZZMEIA HORN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH JAZZMEIA HORN:
Jazzmeia Horn--"Tight"--2017:
Jazzmeia Horn--"Social Call"--2017
Jazzmeia Horn--"East of the Sun, West of the Moon"--2012 Live at Dizzy's in NYC:
Jazzmeia Horn performing "Billie's Bounce--June 2, 2012:
Jazzmeia Horn performing live @ Thelonious Monk Institute Competition Semifinals--November 14, 2015:
Jazzmeia Horn performing "Evidence" by Thelonious Monk in November 2015:
Jazzmeia Horn sings medley of Afro Blue/Eye See You/Wade in the Water:
Jazzmeia Horn sings "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (Black National Anthem) @ Pittsburgh Jazz Festival June 17, 2017:
Jazzmeia Horn--"The Peacocks"--A Timeless Place:
Jazzmeia Horn sings with the Swing Machine Band--March 1, 2017--Emmanuel Baptist Church:
Jazzmeia Horn--Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition--"Sweet Georgia Brown"--October 21, 2012:
Jazzmeia Horn sings live @ Charlie Parker Jazz Festival--August 27, 2016:
The Culture Connection and the Queen's Library presents Jazzmeia Horn--Queens Public Library Central Auditorium--New York--March 18, 2017:
The George Gray Jazz Coalition with Jazzmeia Horn--Set 2--Jazz club 966-- Brooklyn, NY--September 16, 2016:
JAZZMEIA HORN: SOCIAL CALL (ALBUM TRAILER):
JAZZMEIA HORN: "Lift Every Voice and Sing"/"Moanin":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazzmeia_Horn
Jazzmeia Horn
| Jazzmeia Horn | |
|---|---|
Jazzmeia Horn in 2016
|
|
| Background information | |
| Born | 21 April 1991 |
| Origin | Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Labels | Prestige Records |
| Website | www |
Jazzmeia Horn is a Nubian jazz singer of African ancestry. [1] She won the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition in 2015.[2] She sings jazz standards, and her repertoire includes songs and music from other genres such as Stevie Wonder.[3][4] She has been compared to jazz vocalist as Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson.[2] At age 23, Jazzmeia "Jazz" Horn has earned a reputation in New York City as a dynamic music artist.[5]
Contents
Early life
She is a native of Dallas, Texas, United States.[1] She attended the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas.[6]
Music career
Horn moved to New York in 2009. She attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.[1][2] During her first semester at New School Jazz in New York City, a trio which featured Javier Santiago, Nadav Lachishe, and Cory Cox.[7]
She moved to New York City to pursue a solo career, and has since received many accolades from Jazz critics. Her first live radio show was in the Fall of 2009 on the Junior Mance WBGO radio show in Newark, New Jersey. Since her arrival to the New York City area she has performed, at The Apollo, The Red Rooster – Ginny's Supper Club, and the Metropolitan Room.
In 2014, Horn toured internationally to England, France, Moscow, South Africa, and Austria.[8]
She was featured as one of the stars in South Australia's Generations In Jazz 2017, singing along with artists such as James Morrison, Wycliffe Gordon, Gordon Goodwin and Ross Irwin among others.
Discography
- A Social Call [2017], Prestige Records
Awards
- 2008, 2009 – Downbeat Student Music Award’s Recipient[9]
- 2010 – Downbeat Vocal Jazz Soloist Winner[7]
- 2012 – Winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Rising Star award[10]
- 2013 – Winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition[11]
- 2015 – Winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition[2]
References
- "Jazzmeia Horn Biography". theartistryofjazzhorn.com. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
- Chinen, Nate (2015-11-16). "Jazzmeia Horn Wins Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition.". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
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