Grammy Award-Winning Artist Samara Joy Is the New Face of American Jazz

At just 25, we’re comfortable anointing Samara Joy as the face of American jazz. The Bronx native champions an unsung wave of contemporary jazz musicians who pay equal attention to respecting the classic standards and creating a new, unique sound.

Many of those standard compositions were written close to 100 years ago when jazz ruled at the forefront of American popular music.

“Jazz is not seen as mainstream in any demographic,” Joy says. “It's kind of weird to think that it might not have the same impact as it used to within the African American community.”

Long gone are the days of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk scoring the sound of 1940s America, but their influence is still felt through modern revivalists like Joy. In 2024, the five-time Grammy-winning artist released her third studio album, Portrait, recorded with the same octet of musicians that tours with her. The album was recently awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album.

On May 28, Joy and her band will visit Dallas for an evening of silky melodies at the Majestic Theatre, presented by the AT&T Performing Arts Center. When performing live, Joy remains conscious of her place as a leader in modern jazz.

“There are going to be people in the world that have never heard 'Stardust' in their lives,” Joy says. “There are certain songs that may be standard to some, but other people have never heard. The privilege in that is being able to introduce songs to people. I can introduce Monk, I can introduce Mingus to people who have never heard of them and make it something that they can connect to. It’s not something that feels distant or something where you feel like you have to have years of experience.”

But sometimes, the inverse can also be true.

“I think that standards reach a certain peak,” she says. “The more that you learn about jazz and you learn about the musicians who crafted the sound of it is that you can, you can play standards all day long and enjoy it, but there's so much more music to discover.”

Portrait features eight songs, all recorded at the legendary Van Gelder studio in New Jersey, where classic albums from Donald Byrd and Quincy Jones were also recorded.

“It was so easy and so natural,” she says. “We had been working together and cultivating a sound for two years before I made the decision to say, ‘Yes, this is something that’s worth documenting.’”

The album marks her third full-length release to date, building off of her 2021 eponymous debut. She’s the face of both the record and the genre at large, as it stands, but Joy is intentional about the optics of her on-stage product.

“I wanted things to be a bit more free,” Joy says. “Where it wasn’t just horns in the background, it wasn’t just the band somewhere in the dark and I’m in the spotlight. I wanted it to be a collective.”

That collective and sincere vision will come to life at her Dallas show.

Samara Joy will perform on Wednesday, May 28, at 7:30 p.m. at The Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm Street. Tickets are available starting at $66.50 here.