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Sunday, May 25
4:00pm
Recognizing that you can’t be a jazz singer unless you put the work in, jazz
newcomer, Kemba Cofield has done just that. She has been “shedding” for the past few years, gaining an intimate |
knowledge of the jazz standard and developing a respect of how to approach the music. Her time spent in jazz clubs, concert halls, hotel ballrooms, church choir stands and high school auditoriums brought her to the moment she released her debut record Shades of Kemba.
Growing up in Frankfort, KY, Kemba always sang in talent shows, beauty pageants, musicals and church. After seeing Sarah Vaughan perform at age 12, she knew that she wanted to sing jazz, but it wasn’t until she moved to Atlanta, Georgia that her opportunity to learn the technical aspects of jazz came. Whether singing in the church choir, teaching scales to students, gigging with the likes of Wycliffe Gordon, Don Braden, or Bernard Linnette, or with her own ensemble, when Kemba sings, there is a soulfulness that wraps itself around the song. She reminds us of how music transforms and how the essence of jazz transcends.
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