In one of the first Proms of this 2025 London Season I heard Samara Joy. I’d never heard her before but she truly is a joy. She’s only twenty-five, her vocal range is amazing and the only sad thing is she’s not planning to come back to Europe for the foreseeable, although she’s got gigs in the States from now till Spring 2026.
You can find videos of her performing on her website here – I especially like the one below, of Billy Strayhorn‘s ‘Lush Life’. It’s so lyrical and so beautifully-timed; her band plays as if they’re all separate streams flowing into and along the same river and they’re recording the song in a studio, so there are no posh performance clothes, no make-up, Joy is even wearing glasses (she didn’t wear them at the Albert Hall – maybe she doesn’t wear them for performances) … and her sound is spectacular: deep, rich, multi-toned and she makes it sound and look so simple. (As Fred Astaire said, ‘If it doesn’t look simple, you’re not working hard enough … .’)
Joy has won all kinds of awards already although she says of herself that she’s, ‘Still a student’. She’s been compared to Sarah Vaughan among others … if you find out she’s singing somewhere near you, go!
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