Christie Nicole Dashiell [1] is an American jazz singer. [2] She was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. [3] She studied jazz voice at Howard University for four years and then at grad school at the Manhattan School of Music, then participated in an artist-in-residence program at the Mansion at Strathmore. She now teaches jazz voice at Howard, where her father, Carroll Dashiell Jr., a bass player, is now chair of the Music Department.
Her debut solo album, Time All Mine , debuted on Billboard’s Jazz Album and Contemporary Jazz Album Charts at numbers 13 and 22, as well as making JazzTimes’ Top 50 Writer's Ballots, Critics’ Poll. [4] Her second album, Journey in Black , was nominated for the 2025 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy award. [5]
Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was also known as "Queen of the Jukeboxes". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Sweet Honey in the Rock are an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are a three-time Grammy Award–nominated troupe who express their history as black women through song, dance, and sign language. Originally a four-person ensemble, the group has expanded to five-part harmonies, with a sixth member acting as a sign-language interpreter. Although the members have changed over five decades, the group continues to sing and perform worldwide.
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, had sold more than 53 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won ten Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the '00s decade chart.
Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her mid-career work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, being nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and winning two. She also has been credited for helping to "spark the neo-soul movement".
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016, and again in May 2024.
Eulaulah Donyll "Lalah" Hathaway is an American singer-songwriter and daughter of Soul musician Donny Hathaway.
Alicia Michelle "Miki" Howard is an American R&B singer who had top 10 hit songs in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, including "Baby, Be Mine" (1987), "Come Share My Love" (1986) and "Love Under New Management" (1990). "Ain't Nobody Like You" (1992) and "Ain't Nuthin' in the World" (1989) both peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.
Ledisi Anibade Young, better known simply as Ledisi, is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, author, and actress. Her name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba.
Sara Gazarek is an American jazz singer from Seattle.
Esperanza Emily Spalding, sometimes professionally known with the stylized name of esperanza spalding, is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: one from her alma mater Berklee College of Music and one from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Brandee Younger is an American Harpist, Composer, and Educator.
Loire Cotler, known as Loire, is an American rhythm vocalist, film score soloist, composer, vocal sound designer, recording artist, educator, and music therapist known for her innovative use of Konnakol, scat singing, overtone singing, world music traditions, inter-dimensional chants, ethno jazz interpretations and melismatic improvisations.
Solána Imani Rowe, known professionally as SZA, is an American singer-songwriter. SZA first garnered attention with her self-released extended plays (EPs) See.SZA.Run (2012) and S (2013), leading to her becoming the first female artist signed to Top Dawg Entertainment. Her third EP, Z (2014), was her first project released to digital retailers and reached the top ten on the US Independent Albums chart.
"Invitation" is a song by Bronisław Kaper with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, which originally appeared in the film A Life of Her Own (1950). Although it was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Score in the original film, it only became a jazz standard after being used as the theme in the 1952 film Invitation. Tony Thomas notes that it was selected for the film for its degree of poignance. It is considered to be Kaper's second best known song after "On Green Dolphin Street". JazzStandards.com describes it as a "lush and haunting score" and notes that it is most associated with John Coltrane, who recorded it in 1958. Howard Morgen, who arranged it for guitar, writes that the "haunting" tune has "long been recognized by jazz players for its potential as an interesting mood piece" and "still sounds fresh and contemporary today."
Joy Angela Villa is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and YouTuber. She is known for her outspoken support of United States President Donald Trump, Scientology, and various conservative and right-wing political and social causes.
Cassandra Monique Batie, known professionally as Andra Day, is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Children's and Family Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award, along with nomination for an Academy Award.
Varijashree Venugopal, born in Bangalore, India on 6 March 1991, is a Grammy nominated Indian singer and flautist. In 2024 she received her first Grammy nomination along with Jacob Collier and Anoushka Shankar for the work A Rock Somehere. She works as an independent artist featuring with bands such as Charkafonics, EYM Trio, Snarky Puppy and is the creator of the art form "Carnatic Scat Singing" which is a blend of carnatic music and Jazz.
Teodora Enache-Brody is a Romanian jazz singer, songwriter and lyricist. She is considered one of Romania's foremost jazz vocalists.
Sierra Elizabeth Ferrell is an American singer-songwriter and musician from West Virginia, whose music incorporates elements of folk, bluegrass, gypsy jazz, and Latin styles such as tango and calypso music.
Journey in Black is an album by Christie Dashiell. The album earned Dashiell a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. In an NPR interview, she said:
I wanted "Journey In Black" to - while the title is - like, black is kind of the central word in the title, I wanted to open up what black looks like and means to people. So often I find I lead my life with, I'm a Black woman, and this is my Black experience, which is incredibly true. And also sometimes that blocks me from experiencing things more from a human space. And I think, like, the human themes of love, loss, grief, joy, friendship - all of us can relate to that, Black, white, brown, whatever.