Samara Joy is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary jazz. She was the first jazz artist in over ten years to win “Best New Artist” at the 2023 Grammy awards, and has since released the acclaimed album Portrait, worked on music for the Regina King-directed “Shirley,” and won three additional Grammys. She’s bringing her Portrait band on tour to the Berklee Performance Center on Saturday, May 3rd as part of the Boston Celebrity Series. Before the show, two of her biggest fans and hosts of Jazz on 89.7, Al Davis and Va Lynda Robinson, got to speak with Ms. Joy.

Al Davis: This is a real honor. Samara Joy, my goodness! You know, I’ve seen you perform live in a couple places, Newport Jazz Festival, also down at the John Coltrane concert down in North Carolina. And it was just an honor to not just see you, but to feel your presence in the music, which is absolutely fabulous. The way the audience was responding to your singing, everybody was just so engaged. So I wanna say thank you for taking the time with myself and VaLynda Robinson here at 89.7. Welcome!

Samara Joy: Thank you so much.

Al Davis: So tell us a little bit about Samara Joy.

Samara Joy: Well, I am 25 years old. I’m born and raised in the Bronx, New York. I love singing jazz. I love cooking. I love roller skating! And I love to perform.

Va Lynda Robinson: I can’t even talk, I’m so starstruck. You’re amazing. But I wanted to talk about the fact that you encountered jazz in a different way. Initially when you began to sing, it wasn’t jazz, correct?

Samara Joy: Yeah, I grew up around musicians. My dad is a musician and a singer. My grandparents are incredible vocalists and all my aunts and uncles and cousins and whatnot. I loved R&B, I loved gospel and soul and Motown, and Philly soul because my parents are both from Philadelphia. I was introduced to jazz in high school, but I didn’t start becoming really interested in it until college.

Va Lynda Robinson: I know that you went to SUNY Purchase as a voice major, and you were named an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar. Tell me about that.

Samara Joy: Oh yes, that opportunity came about leading into my second year. The Ella Fitzgerald Foundation, the people that she started it with still continue it in her honor. They give scholarships to two seniors who are vocalists at Purchase. Over the pandemic was when I found out I was awarded the scholarship, and so I made a video with my professor at the time to sort of say thank you. And that was one of my first viral videos ever on Facebook. Yeah, I have reason to be thankful to them for more than one thing, but I’m really grateful that they helped me in that way.

Al Davis: One of the recordings that I love is Linger Awhile, and “ Can’t Get Out of This Mood .” Tell us a little bit about that particular CD, and the time when it came out.

Samara Joy: That album sort of changed everything, didn’t it? I recorded it in March of 2022. And by this point, it hadn’t even been a year since I graduated, because I graduated in May of 2021, and my first album, my self-titled one, came out that July. In March of 2022 when we recorded that second album Linger Awhile, I felt that I had some more experience under my belt as far as performing was concerned and I felt confident in choosing my own repertoire.“Can’t Get Out of This Mood” was one of the ones recorded by Sarah Vaughan that was just kind of a b-side to songs that she had done. It wasn’t a part of a specific album release of hers. I think I was inspired by people like her to sort of find songs that weren’t popular, that weren’t sung over and over again so I could really make it my own. So that song as well as pretty much all the other songs on that album was kind of like one of my first steps into sort of choosing and really putting together an album that I felt captured who I was at that moment. I will always treasure that moment in time, even though I listen to it and I feel like I sound like a completely different person.

Al Davis: You won a Grammy award for that with a trio group, and I said, “Now, where do you go from here?” My goodness, I mean, you’re at the top of your game! Then your most recent release, Portrait, you added some acoustic musicians, some trumpet, some horns, and it really lifted your approach to the music. It took it to another level.

Samara Joy: I honestly feel like I had the same thought, you know, I was like, “I don’t know if I want to follow up on this moment with the second album,” because there really is no way to follow up on something that happened so spontaneously, like a spark, like fireworks. So I really had to ask myself, what do I want to do next? What do I feel is calling to me so that I’m not getting too comfortable just singing the same songs. So the next step was, “let me gather peers of mine who I know are listening to classical music and they’re actively pursuing writing and improvisation.” And if I put them all together in one room, maybe we can create something special and unique, even though it’s inspired and founded upon so many of the greats. It’s still our interpretation of this music that we love, but this feels like a natural next step. It doesn’t feel like a way to capitalize off of what happened with Linger Awhile because what happened was just really, really special, you know, and now this just feels like an organic next step.

Al Davis: So you’ll be heading to Boston, and the Berklee Performance Center on May 3rd. Tell us what we can expect to hear [when you come through].

Samara Joy: I’m so excited! I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of peers, a lot of people my age there. I feel certain connections with certain cities, and I think Boston is one of them.

Al Davis: You did something with the soundtrack for the movie Shirley, with Regina King as Shirley Chisolm on Netflix. Tell us about that tune, “ Why I’m Here ,” that was absolutely beautiful.

Samara Joy: Thank you! That was a wonderful full circle moment between myself and Regina King, because a few years before that, she mentioned me in this interview for the Hollywood Reporter during the pandemic. And I think the question was, “What are you listening to get through the pandemic?,” and she mentioned my name! At that time I didn’t really use any of my social media, so I was like, “What, how did you find me?!” I might have still been a senior at that point, in undergrad, when she had said that. Then, you know, a couple years later we were reached out to with the opportunity to collaborate on the end credit song with PJ Morton [of Maroon 5]. I love the prospect of, you know, being a part of movies in that way. I can’t act, so writing music for them will definitely have to do. She’s an incredible, all around actor, director, everything. So it was an honor to be able to collaborate with her on such a special project. The movie was incredible.

Al Davis: Oh, yeah, definitely.

Va Lynda Robinson: And Regina King called you, quote, “A young woman who seems like Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald are both living in her body.”

Al Davis: There you go! I got one more question. Were you nervous when you were being interviewed by “ 60 minutes? ”

Samara Joy: I was a little nervous, I have to say, but the way that they profiled the different aspects of my life through music, through my family, and through my own band, it was an easy experience. The spotlight they put on my grandfather, who is 94 years old, you know, and still singing and is able to see his legacy play out in real time… that made it a very special piece and a special interview.

Va Lynda Robinson: Your grandfather Elder Goldwire McLendon was a finalist on season three of BET’s gospel talent show, “Sunday Best.” That is incredible, your lineage!

Samara Joy: Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like I said before, it really does feel like it was orchestrated in a way that I cannot properly articulate. But I’ll just say that we were all very excited during that time. We were watching every episode of “Sunday Best” to see his next performance and to see who was getting eliminated, and it was finally down to the final two, it was an incredibly exciting time. He might have been the oldest contestant at that point, and so the fact that he made it that far in the competition, it was just a great moment. There’s so much love for him, and people are always asking on the tour if I’ve brought him with me! And I haven’t, he’s 94! But the love for him has been so wonderful.

Va Lynda Robinson: You’ve received five Grammy Awards, sold out huge venues, before turning 25. And so looking at your trajectory, tell me how it feels to be so young and accomplish so much in such a short period of time?

Samara Joy: It feels overwhelming because I genuinely don’t know if I was seeking out this much! I don’t know if my vision could even see this far. You know, there was a time... when I first got to college where I wasn’t even sure what jazz was. I didn’t really listen to it, I didn’t have a background in it. And so to go to have such an organic experience with it... It just felt, I’ll say it like this, it felt orchestrated. I had no part in it except to just say yes, you know? I have to live up to it.

Al Davis: Well we just want to thank you, Samara, for your time. This has been a real honor for both of us. We love your new album, and we’ll see you again soon!

Samara Joy performs at the Berklee Performance Center on Saturday, May 3rd as part of the Boston Celebrity Series. Her latest album is called Portrait.