Joy performed a wide range of jazz standards and new pieces to promote her 2022 album, “Linger Awhile.”
The lights went dark on a packed Missouri Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Quietly, band members took their places. Dressed in an elegant, bright-red gown, Samara Joy stepped confidently onto center stage and began singing acapella.
“Only a dream to me you were,” she sang, covering Charles Mingus’ “Reincarnation of a Lovebird.” After the vocalist finished several lines without any instrumental backup, the band faded in, and the room erupted into applause.
Joy’s performance was part of the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series, a non-profit organization that aims to bring jazz artists from around the world to Columbia.
Joy, a 23-year-old jazz singer from New York, won best new artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards. She also took home the Grammy for best jazz vocal album for her sophomore release, “Linger Awhile.”
While originally slated to perform at Murry’s last spring, the concert was moved to the Missouri Theatre after Joy’s Grammy successes.
“You just don’t hear stuff that sounds like that these days,” said sophomore Ben Rodebaugh, who attended the concert. “[She’s] a very skilled singer. It’s nice to see someone who’s young and successful and making good music.”
Joy performed modern arrangements of classic jazz standards from artists like Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter, while demonstrating her strong vocal ability. Before one arrangement called “Five Stages of Love,” Joy told the audience she was going to perform her take on a TikTok trend where creators try to capture what falling in love sounds like.
“She takes some creative liberties with her work, which I think is great,” former Jazz Series president and contributor Karen Touzeau said. “In her arrangements, she’s not mimicking the people she is copying, and she’s not just trying to sound like them. She is bringing her own really unique arrangements, and her phrasing [is] really different.”
Throughout the show, Joy continuously recognized members of her ensemble who had contributed their own arrangements to the performance and who took turns performing solos. The ensemble included Jason Charos on trumpet, David Mason on alto saxophone, Kendrick McCallister on tenor saxophone, Donavan Austin on trombone, pianist Cameron Campbell, Michael Migliore on bass and drummer Evan Sherman.
“I liked that she is obviously showcasing a lot of young cats in her band,” said Touzeau. “She’s trying to give them an opportunity. She’s introducing us [to them], and she’s really gracious in her introductions. She wants us to know their names, and she wants to keep repeating them so that we know who’s on sax, [so] we know who’s on the piano.”
Joy finished her performance with an encore performance of “Day By Day” by The Four Freshmen, changing the lyrics to “Day by day, I’m falling more in love with Columbia, Missouri.” After the show, Joy met with audience members and signed merchandise items in the lobby.
The next concert in the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series will be The Sun Ra Arkestra, which will perform at The Blue Note on Sunday, Nov. 5.
Edited by Annie Goldman | agoldman@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Katie Hoffman and Sterling Sewell | ssewell@themaneater.com
Edited by Sophie Rentschler | srentschler@themaneater.com