Press Play: Samara Joy’s Picks

By UMS

Samara Joy

Vocalist Samara Joy made a dazzling sold-out UMS debut in 2024, fresh off her Grammy Win for Best New Artist. Now, we’re delighted to welcome her back on October 9 in our first jazz presentation of the 26/27 performance season.

What inspires Samara Joy? In an interview with Questlove, Samara talks about the artists she studies to the albums she knows by heart. Samara’s musical influences span generations of jazz, soul, gospel, and beyond. As she returns to UMS, here are the songs, singers, and performances that have shaped her artistry.

Her Inspirations

For Samara Joy, inspiration can change “from phrase to phrase.” Sometimes she wants to sing “really legato and dramatic and sort of operatic,” while other moments call for something more on the powerful side. Then there’s the “sophisticated and elegant” quality of her sound.

Those different approaches lead her to a wide range of singers: Sarah Vaughan and Jessye Norman for drama, Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson for power, and Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, and Betty Carter for elegance.

But when it comes to the singer she most closely patterns her style after, there’s one name that stands above the rest: Carmen McRae.

Samara says McRae “just kind of gets right to the heart of a song,” something she continues to learn from by listening to her “over and over again.” She admires not only McRae’s choices as a vocalist, but also her background as a pianist and her ability to find “the pretty notes” to improvise on a melody without disrupting the song.

The Ultimate Roadtrip

If Samara Joy were making you a mixtape for the open road, what would make the cut? Her picks span jazz, funk, soul, and everything in between.

Best Live Performances

Some of Samara Joy’s favorite live performances go all the way back to childhood. Her first pick is Aretha Franklin at New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which she saw when she was just 11 years old. She remembers sitting “right next to the spotlight”—a nosebleed seat that, in her words, put her close enough to take in the whole experience.

Another standout was the Reunion Tour at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, featuring Kirk Franklin, the Clark Sisters, Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, and more. It was a lineup packed with powerhouse voices, bringing together some of the artists who helped shape gospel and contemporary Christian music. Her most recent pick takes her to one of jazz’s legendary rooms: Christian McBride’s two-week residency at the Village Vanguard.

Across these performances, one thing stands out: Samara is drawn to artists who know how to make a room come alive.

The Album Committed to Memory

For the album Samara Joy has committed to memory from start to finish, she chose Betty Carter’s The Audience with Betty Carter. Recorded live with John Hicks on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums, the album brings together many of the qualities Samara admires most in a musician: strong arrangements, thoughtful song choices, and the freedom to make each performance its own.

There’s a particularly meaningful connection for Samara in hearing Washington on the recording. He was her professor in college, and she has since had the opportunity to perform with him herself. That connection makes an already influential recording feel even closer to home.

Samara says she loves what Carter does with “the arrangements, the songs, the compositions,” and her admiration for Carter is reflected in her own approach to singing. Like Carter, Samara pays close attention to the details of a song while leaving room for improvisation, rhythmic play, and discovery.

From Carmen McRae to Betty Carter, Aretha Franklin to Miles Davis, these are just a few of the sounds that have shaped Samara Joy’s artistry.

Hear her bring those influences to life when she returns to UMS on October 9 at Hill Auditorium.

Buy Tickets

Starting at $30 (+ fees). $15-20 student tickets available