Samara Joy

With a voice as smooth as velvet, SAMARA JOY's star seems to rise with each performance. Following her winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, she has just completed recording her debut release, which features Samara backed by the Pasquale Grasso Trio. This rising star still resides in the place of her birth, the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, New York. Growing up, music was a pervasive presence, due to the inspiration of her paternal grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, who led the well-known Philadelphia-based gospel group, The Savettes. Her father toured with the renowned gospel artist Andrae Crouch, and her home was filled with the sounds of not only her father's songs and songwriting process, but the inspiration of many gospel and R&B artists, including Stevie Wonder, Lalah Hathaway, George Duke, Musiq Soulchild, Kim Burrell, Commissioned, and many others.