A native of London, England, she is the daughter of British conductor Kerry Woodward, who conducted the BBC Singers, and his American wife Julie Woodward, who was an editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.[3] Woodward's parents mounted the first performances of Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which Ullmann composed while interned in a Nazi concentration camp.[4][5] Woodward's family moved to Amsterdam when her father was appointed musical director of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Two years later her parents separated, and she moved with her mother and brother to New York City to live with her grandparents.
Raised on classical and Middle Eastern music, Woodward studied piano and flute before receiving singing lessons at age 12. She attended high school in the Bronx and sang house music in her friends' basements. During summers she attended music camp and visited her father in the Netherlands, where she frequently locked herself in her father's studio and listened to jazz and R&B records. At the age of 16, Woodward was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz, but after a year she decided to learn songwriting and performing. She spent the next few years in swing organ trios, including The Sugarman 3, working as a session singer, a waitress, and singing jazz standards in restaurants in Greenwich Village.[3]
In 2003 Woodward signed with Atlantic Records and recorded her debut album While You Can, which entered the Top 150 on the Billboard 200.[6][7] The album included Woodward's Top 40 hit "Dumb Girls", which she had written with producer Kevin Kadish before signing with Atlantic.[2][7] Other songs on While You Can were produced at Jim Henson Studios by John Shanks.[3][7] She toured internationally and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[8]
During the following year, Woodward was asked by producer Jaime Houston to record the big-band tune "It's Oh So Quiet" for the Disney film Ice Princess; the song was later used in the Birds of Prey trailer. The song was first recorded by Betty Hutton in 1948 and later covered by Björk on her 1995 album Post. Woodward considers it a turning point in her career and the inspiration for much of her second album, Lucy Woodward Is...Hot and Bothered.[9] The album was released in 2008 and distributed exclusively by Barnes & Noble as part of its Discover Great New Music program.[10][11] It was produced by Itaal Shur and Tim K.[11] The song "Hot and Bothered" takes its melody from a Yiddish lullaby that Woodward's grandmother sang to her as a baby.[12]
Woodward's third album Hooked! (Verve, 2010)[3] was recorded at Stratosphere Sound in New York City and Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood. It was produced by Tony Visconti[13][14] and included contributions by Tim K, Justin Stanley, and Itaal Shur. Woodward wrote much of the album with Dan Petty and Michelle Lewis, saying that she had been inspired by the music of Peggy Lee and Django Reinhardt. The album also received comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Brill Building.[15] The song "Another Woman" was written for her by longtime inspiration Nellie McKay, who sang background vocals. Woodward toured throughout the US, including with jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, which played on her cover version of "Be My Husband" by Nina Simone. In 2011, she was asked by Armed Forces Entertainment to perform at American military bases in Italy, Turkey, and Spain.
In 2011, Woodward started working with Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League. League performed in Woodward's touring band, and Woodward opened for Snarky Puppy with them as her backing band. She sang "Too Hot to Last" on the band's album Family Dinner - Volume 1.[14][16][17]
In 2017, she performed with the Danish group TipToe Big Band at the Aarhus Jazz Festival.[22] A year later she worked with the WDR Big Band and Chris Walden. She has also sung with the Dave Richards Big Band in Los Angeles and with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.[23][24] Woodward recently performed with the hr-Bigband with arrangements and conducting by Jim McNeely.[25]
In 2018, Woodward was asked to perform a duo tour with jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter.[26] As the tour progressed, they decided to create an album of pop covers together, which led to their album Music!Music!Music! (2019). The album included songs by Blind Willie Johnson, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, and Terence Trent D'Arby.[27] The duo's tour for the album included a performance on NPR Music'sMountain Stage.[28]
Woodward contributed songs to the soundtracks for Last Vegas, The Blind Side, Ice Princess, Music and Lyrics, What a Girl Wants, First Daughter, and Accepted. Her version of "It's Oh So Quiet" appeared in the Disney film Ice Princess. She co-wrote the Stacie Orrico Top 40 worldwide hit "There's Gotta Be More to Life", which earned her a BMI Christian Music Award in 2003 and a BMI Songwriter's Pop Award in 2004. Originally called "More to Life", the song was written with Kevin Kadish and Sabelle Breer for Woodward's 2003 Atlantic debut but was released instead on the Japanese import version of the album as a bonus track. In 2010, Woodward co-wrote and recorded "Daylight as Sunset" for Earthrise Soundsystem's debut The Yoga Sessions. Woodward also appeared in the 2011 Garry Marshall film New Year's Eve where she played the backing vocalist for Jon Bon Jovi and Lea Michele.[29] Woodward was featured in the September 2011 issue of Italian Vogue as one of the year's top up-and-coming female recording artists.[30]
Woodward, Holly Palmer, and songwriter Michelle Lewis first came together to sing at a Christmas Party in 2010 and decided soon after to write swing and boogie songs under the name The Goods.[33] They released the single "I'm So Happy That It's You" in May 2013, followed by a five-song debut EP later that year and a holiday EP titled Get Your Holiday Goods! in 2018.[34]
Eulaulah Donyll "Lalah" Hathaway is an American singer. In 1990 Hathaway released her first album titled Lalah Hathaway. After releasing another album, titled A Moment (1994), it debuted at number 34 on the Top R&B albums chart. In 1999 she collaborated with Joe Sample on the album The Song Lives On. After a five-year hiatus, she returned with her fourth album, Outrun the Sky (2004). The single "Forever, For Always, For Love" peaked at number 1 on the Hot Adult R&B Airplay.
N'Dambi is a Grammy nominated American soul/jazz singer from Dallas, TX.
Bob Reynolds is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. A solo recording artist since 2000, he has been a member of the popular "genre-bending" instrumental group Snarky Puppy since 2014, winning Grammy Awards with the band for the albums Culcha VulchaLive at the Royal Albert Hall, and Empire Central.
Desirée Annette Weekes, known by her stage name Des'ree, is a British pop recording artist who rose to popularity during the 1990s. She is best known for her hits "Feel So High", "You Gotta Be", "Life", and "Kissing You". At the 1999 Brit Awards she received the Brit Award for Best British female solo artist.
Michelle Willis is a British-born, Canadian-raised singer/songwriter and keyboard player. She performs regularly as a solo artist and as a side musician with David Crosby and Becca Stevens. She has also worked with Iggy & The Stooges, Laura Mvula, Snarky Puppy, The Parachute Club, and the Zac Brown Band.
Snarky Puppy is an American jazz fusion band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won five Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalists, League described Snarky Puppy as "a pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals".
Becca Stevens is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who draws upon elements of jazz, chamber pop, indie rock, and folk.
Knower, also stylized as KNOWER, is an American independent electronic music duo who have gained success releasing music online. The group consists of Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi. Their full band is a jazz-funk act that includes saxophone, bass and keyboard players.
Family Dinner – Volume 1 is an album by the American jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy that was released in 2013.
Sulene Fleming is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for the band the Brand New Heavies from 2016 to 2018.
Michael League is an American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the bandleader of instrumental band Snarky Puppy and the international music ensemble Bokanté. He also founded the band Forq with keyboardist Henry Hey, and is also an owner and founder of the record label GroundUP Music. League has won five Grammy Awards.
Forq is an American jazz fusion band from New York and Texas.
GroundUP Music is an American record label known for recordings in a variety of genres including jazz, world music, folk, rock, and gospel. The label was founded in 2012 by Michael League as a home for his band Snarky Puppy. The roster of acts on the label has since expanded, with several artists and bands being tied to Snarky Puppy and/or members of that band.
Henry Hey is an American keyboardist, songwriter, producer, arranger and musical director. He has worked with artists such as David Bowie, Empire of the Sun, Rod Stewart, and George Michael. As a solo artist, he is the co-founder of the jazz fusion band Forq and a member of the band Rudder. Hey has been a producer for a number of artists including Lucy Woodward, Tony Kadleck, Shunzo Ohno, Lisa Lisa. Hey's playing can also be heard on several major motion pictures including Ocean's Twelve, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Hundred-Foot Journey.
Malika Tirolien is a Montreal-based singer-songwriter and pianist. She sang on the Grammy Award winning album Family Dinner – Volume 1 by Snarky Puppy.
Larnell Lewis is a Canadian drummer, composer, producer, and educator. He is most well known for playing drums with the Brooklyn-based jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy.
Bill Laurance is an English composer, producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Laurance is a member of jazz fusion and funk band Snarky Puppy, as well as founder and CEO of London-based record label Flint Music.
Mark Lettieri is an American guitarist, composer and producer. He is a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, funk band The Fearless Flyers, and also performs with his quartet, the Mark Lettieri Group. His background spans several genres including jazz, rock and funk. He has released seven solo albums. His 2021 album Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
Robert "Sput" Searight is an American drummer, composer and producer best known for his work with jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy and as co-founder of the percussion-based band Ghost-Note. His background spans several genres including jazz, funk, hip-hop and gospel. He has toured and recorded with a variety of artists including Kirk Franklin, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Erykah Badu and Toto. He has received a Grammy award for his work on the album God's Property.
Genevieve Artadi is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is best known as the co-founder of the jazz-funk duo Knower, along with Louis Cole. She was also the lead vocalist of the electro-pop band Pollyn, which formed in 1998. Additionally, she has recorded and performed with Jacob Collier, Snarky Puppy, and Thundercat.
References
↑ Kergan, Wade. "Lucy Woodward". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
