Box Office Opens: 6:30pm
Jazz Talk*: 7:00pm
Theater Doors Open: 7:30pm
*pre-show discussion with performer, all ticket holders welcome to attend! Subject to change depending on artist schedules
22-year-old jazz sensation and winner of two 2023 Grammy® Awards (including Best New Artist) Samara Joy makes her Kansas City debut on the Folly Theater stage this fall! You won’t want to miss this once-in-a-generation vocalist who rivals Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday with her voice “as rich as custard” (The New York Times).
Though she’s young, she relishes the process of digging through the music’s history and learning new standards. “I think maybe people connect with the fact that I’m not faking it, that I already feel embedded in it,” Samara says. “Maybe I’m able to reach people in person and on social media because it’s real.”
The gatekeepers of the jazz world tend to agree. In 2019, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, and she’s since performed with legends like Christian McBride and Bill Charlap. Legendary late pianist Barry Harris was a particularly important influence and mentor. “You inspired me as well as many others with this fire for teaching and playing that couldn’t be dimmed by anything or anyone,” Samara writes in the liner notes for “Linger Awhile,” her sophomore album and winner of her second Grammy® for Best Jazz Vocal Album. She dedicated the project in part to Harris’ memory.