Berks Jazz Fest vocalist's meteoric rise has been a Joy to behold

Mar. 28—If you are one of the lucky people who already has a ticket to see vocalist Samara Joy at the Miller Center on Sunday at 3 p.m., the last day of Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest, you will undoubtedly be thankful you have this chance to experience a jet-propelled star on the rise.

On Feb. 6, the day after Joy won two Grammys — one for Best New Artist and one for Best Jazz Vocal Album — the concert was sold out.

People can be forgiven for not having Joy on their radar. After all, this 23-year-old was a college student a minute ago. But those who are looking for new talent have had their eyes on her for quite some time. In 2019, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, and released her eponymous debut album. And before she released her second album, the Grammy-winning "Linger Awhile," she had been busily performing on videos with guitarist Pasquale Grasso, the Grasso Trio and other collaborators. These went viral in the jazz world, some of them scoring more than 1 million views.

The Grammy audience caught a taste of Joy's phenomenal voice in her performance at the 2023 Grammy Awards, singing the Jimmy McHugh/Frank Loesser torch song "Can't Get Out of This Mood," one of the tunes on "Linger Awhile." Accompanied by a first-rate trio — pianist Luther Allison, bassist Mikey Migliore and drummer Evan Sherman — she was radiant, displaying her flawless instrument. From her deep, warm lower range to her clarinet-like top notes, she managed a consistency of character in her voice, like dry champagne held in the still vessel of her body.

But in Joy's videos of the standards "In My Solitude" (Duke Ellington) and "Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael), accompanied only by Grasso, you can ease into her exquisite, unhurried renditions, backed by Grasso's intricate, keyboard-like guitar styling. She is even younger here, but a fully-formed artist, with a depth of interpretive ability far beyond her age.

Her 2019 album opens with "Stardust," and then goes on to an interesting selection of tunes in a range of jazz styles, from the 1920s to 1950s, including lesser-known ones like "Let's Dream in the Moonlight" from the 1939 movie "St. Louis Blues." Accompanied by Grasso, bassist Ari Roland and drummer Kenny Washington, Joy is continuing a legacy left to her by Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, but putting her own distinctive stamp on this repertoire.

She continues this on "Linger Awhile," in which she is accompanied again by Grasso and Washington, along with bassist David Wong and pianist Ben Paterson. Again, she has chosen a unique set of standards and given them gorgeously polished, thoughtful treatments.

Familiar songs like "Misty," "Linger Awhile" and "Someone To Watch Over Me" are offered along with less well-known songs like "Sweet Pumpkin," by Ronnell Bright, and "Guess Who I Saw Today," by Murray Grand. She also performs Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" with alternative lyrics by Jon Hendricks, with a horn section, including trumpeter Terell Stafford, trombonist Donavan Austin and tenor saxophonist Kendric McCallister, who did the arrangement.

Joy has also dug into a lesser-known form, jazz vocalese, in which lyrics are written to improvised jazz solos. For two of the songs, "Nostalgia" and "I'm Confessin'," she transcribed solos (by trumpeter Fats Navarro in the first and saxophonist Lester Young in the second) from recordings, and she wrote her own lyrics to them.

A third-generation singer who was born in the Bronx, Joy (born Samara Joy McLendon) got her start singing in church. Her paternal grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, were founders of Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes, and Elder McLendon was also a finalist on the third season of BET's Gospel talent show, "Sunday Best." Her father, a professional gospel vocalist and bass player, introduced her to gospel, soul and Motown music.

Joy's jazz training started when she sang in the jazz band at Fordham High School for the Arts in the Bronx — she won the Best Vocalist award performing with them at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Competition. At SUNY Purchase, where she was enrolled in the jazz vocal program as an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar and graduated magna cum laude in 2021, she met Grasso, who was on the faculty, and they began working together.

Joy has toured Europe and the United States, and has performed in the 2022 Monterey Jazz Festival and the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival, and was featured that same year in Carnegie Hall's 16th Annual Notable Occasion.