Still reeling from a double Grammy win for her 2022 album Linger Awhile, 23-year-old Samara Joy has seen remarkable success in these early years of her professional career. With a voice already dripping with the tones, history, and artistry of great jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson, it is no wonder her accolades now include the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album─an award first given to Ella herself in 1977, the Grammy Award for Best New Artist─a big win for a jazz artist competing with more mainstream artists in a general category, on top of winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. As the self-proclaimed “first Gen Z jazz-singing star,” she grapples with the external pressure of her musical heritage and influences, while challenging herself to make mistakes, learn, and find her own way.

Linger Awhile, Joy’s major label debut under Verve, is her second album and follow-up to her self-titled album from the year prior for Whirlwind. It comprises some of the most classic jazz repertoire, some well known, and others more obscure. The feat of receiving the Grammy for Best New Artist with an album of songs many times older than the artist themself is something to be praised in its own right, especially given the instrumentation found on the album, a rotating cast that’s as small as two and, in the case of Thelonius Monk’s “‘Round Midnight”, as large as seven. Joy’s voice soars above the band, coupled with time-tested lyrics that at once evoke nostalgia and are immediately relatable to all who have experienced the trials (and errors) of romance.

Joy’s influences are like a walk through the Jazz Hall of Fame: from the legendary vocalists listed above, to Fats Navarro and Lester Young, to the late Barry Harris─a dear mentor to whom Linger Awhile is dedicated. Of note is the depth in which Joy has plunged into the history of jazz. Her exposure to the genre is relatively recent, beginning in earnest during her time in school at the State University of New York’s Purchase College. Her use of vocalese — a technique ubiquitous in the bebop era where one puts lyrics to instrumental solos or melodies — highlights her passion for the history of jazz, just as her artistic vision highlights a desire to build upon that history.