Samara reflects on her Grammy wins and journey behind ‘Portrait’

Samara Joy’s voice has the ability to transform listeners to the early jazz clubs, filling them with warm nostalgia for legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. At 25, Joy is a five-time Grammy winning recording artist, whose album, “Linger Awhile” won her best new artist and best jazz vocal album in 2023. She’s been praised by artists like Chaka Khan, Regina King and Quincy Jones and has amassed a large following of her Gen-Z peers on TikTok, introducing a new generation to jazz.

Last year, Joy released “Portrait,” her third and most personal studio album allowing listeners into the tension between excitement and feeling overwhelmed that often follows a whirlwind of accolades and success. Her first original song “Peace of Mind” fully captures this moment.

“I wrote it in a time where I was really questioning whether I could continue or not because I was so exhausted,” said Joy. “I reminded myself through that Sun Ra composition that I have experienced something wonderful, and it doesn’t have to be the end all be all. This is just the beginning ... this is just a springboard for all of the other creative ideas that I have and what I feel like I have to offer.”

For Joy, releasing “Portrait” was a creative challenge and a turning point toward trusting her creative instincts. “It’s taught me a lot about what I can do and to stand firm in the creative vision and the direction that I see for myself,” she said.

How does it feel to look back on ‘Portrait’ and how have you grown from that moment into the new projects that you’re working on?

This album was a turning point. Because I feel like it was the first time I really had to make a decision about what my path was going to be. With the first two albums, it was just songs that I loved and felt like I could interpret as my own. And this album, “Portrait,” was the first time I felt like I took the reins of creative direction and band mates and songs. And honestly kind of opened up even more to my band mates and said, arrange. I want you guys to orchestrate this next era. So, it was definitely a big leap, I think, from maybe what people thought I should do after the second album after the best new artist.

I want to go back to that moment of winning best new artist. Talk to me about that moment and kind of having this surreal moment of “Oh wow, I’m being celebrated by my idols and by people that I’ve looked up to for years.”

I never expected to be nominated. I never thought that that was a possibility, at least so early on in my career.

Even thinking about it now, I can see everybody still and still feel the way that I felt that night. It’s a night that I will never ever forget. And I’m thankful. I’m really thankful to everybody who believed in me enough to allow me to have that moment, who voted, who listened to my music, who support me then and still support me now. Which is why I never want to lose sight of what I do this for.

You get compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. What does that mean to you?

I feel very honored and sometimes undeserving because of how new my relationship to their music was initially. I hadn’t really listened to their music or their voices at all growing up and getting introduced to them in college, it just felt like another world had opened up and I felt like I wanna sing, I wanna be able to move people the way that they move me with their voices.

Associated Press