Review | Breaking Musical Bread, Sharing the Spotlight

Anticipations ran unusually high when word got out that the UCSB Arts & Lectures series would include the local debut of the meteorically ascendant young jazz vocalist Samara Joy. All of 24, and with a public profile going back only since 2021, she was the rare jazz-related recipient of the coveted New Artist Grammy this year, along with a Jazz Grammy, on top of growing kudos for her bounty of style, respect for jazz tradition, virtuosity, and onstage bonhomie.

What we got last Friday at the Granada Theatre was at least a twofold treat. Joy demonstrated her uncommonly strong and mature way — for a 24-year-old — with the fairly traditional jazz singing art, with her fine trio. Shedrick Mitchell put in inspired overtime, on piano and Hammond B-3 organ, and aligned sensitively with Eric Wheeler and Charles Haynes, on bass and drums.

This particular show/tour also benefited from a strong holiday-family tree component, as Joy brought along a posse of singers from the gifted McLendon family she was raised in. The gospel music-steeped family’s harmonious blend and soulful mesh, on Christmas songs from original and chestnut sources, made for one of the fresher Christmas-themed concerts in memory in these parts.

As an added bonus, the generous and multi-dimensional two-hour show cast light on the trajectory of her musical voice and persona, and one can readily detect the roots of her musical depth via Joy’s family musical bond. That bond includes connections to the respected gospel music universe represented by her father Antonio McLendon, who sang boldly and played electric bass likewise — sometimes in improvisational sync.

In an official capacity, the Granada show was part of a tour promoting Joy’s new six-song EP with the fitting title A Joyful Holiday. From that heartwarming recording, Joy opened with “Warm in December” and a Stevie Wonder tune which deserves to be in the Christmas music rotation, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” — written from the perspective of a Christmas tree star. For the momentous introductory piece with family, the subject was an especially powerful and sacred rendition of “O Holy Night,” also from her new EP.

From the jazz side of things, Joy bedazzled in each distinct case. “Can’t Get Out of This Mood” opens her Grammy-winning 2022 album Linger Awhile, and live as on record, it epitomizes her claim as a singer in the vein of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, those elegant masters of controlled abandon. Joy knows how to respect a melodic line while knowing just how far to stretch out into personal, ornamental and chops-flaunting terrain.

But Joy is more than just a torch-keeper for the famed standard bearers of old school jazz tradition. Her new single is a gymnastic and captivating — and Grammy-nominated — version of Betty Carter’s study in syncopation and romantic self-determination, “Tight,” with rhythmically slinky drum solo from Haynes. (Joy’s taut performance triggered fond memories of hearing the iconoclastic Carter herself sing that signature song in concert at the Lobero Theatre years back).

As the dramatic concert closer, Joy ushered out what is a kind of signature tune of her own, albeit strange to suggest that a 24-year-old artist has a “signature” tune. “Guess Who I Saw Today” is a tour de force, slow-brew crescendo exercise in emotional restraint and final release, creatively interpolated with an inset of Stevie Wonder’s “Lately.” She artfully wends her way to the final word “you,” but it’s a highly loaded “you,” flecked with betrayal and, we’re guessing, the seeds of personal retrenchment.For a coup de grace at the Granada, the McLendon family returned to the stage for a sweet benediction piece, a peaceable ending to a very full, multi-dimensional debut occasion. Holiday ornaments and sacred additives were part of the musical menu this time. Next time, we may get Joy in straighter jazz mode. Either way, the welcome mat is out.