Since winning the Thelonious Monk Competition in 2015, Jazzmeia’s star has continued to rise, along with her reputation as an artist with an assured maturity and a vocal confidence far beyond her years. JazzTimes exclaims that Jazzmeia’s “vivacity, imagination, gutsiness and sociopolitical savvy echo the likes of Carter and Abbey Lincoln. Simply put, she is as exciting a discovery as Cécile McLorin Salvant or Gregory Porter.” With the ambition to pursue a solo career, Jazzmeia graced the New York scene in 2009 and earned her degree at The New School for Jazz and contemporary Music . It wasn’t much later when she began to perform as a sideman with musicians Winard Harper, Junior Mance, Billy Harper, Lincoln Center Alumni Vincent Gardner, Delfeayo Marsalis, Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein, Johnny O’Neal, Vincent Herring, Kirk Lightsey, Frank Wess, and Ellis Marsalis. Jazzmeia then began to appear in world famous jazz festivals and legendary jazz clubs such as Lenox Lounge, Bill’s Place, The Apollo, The Blue Note, Dizzy’s Jazz Club Coca­Cola, Minton’s, The Jazz Standard, Smalls Jazz Club, Zinc, Jazz Gallery, Birdland, and The New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Her accolades include Downbeat Student Music Award Recipient 2008, 2009, and Best Vocal Jazz Soloist Winner 2010, The 2013 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at The Kennedy Center­Washington D.C., The Rising Star Award for the 2012 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition, Finalist for Mid­Atlantic Jazz Vocal Competition 2014, and The 2015 ­16th Annual Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium’s Young Lioness Award. Her debut album, A Social Call, was released on Concord’s Prestige label to overwhelming acclaim from critics and fans alike, earning Jazzmeia her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Great story-telling, an inspired message, fluid vocals, scat-singing, and spirited group performances – A Social Call features all one would hope to hear from a veteran vocalist of longstanding reputation. As such, the album serves as a clarion call, proudly announcing the arrival of a young, confident musical talent with a bright future ahead of her, blessed with a name that carries its own destiny. Jazzmeia looks forward to her sophomore release in early summer 2019. "A singer who stands apart from many of her peers because she takes on every song she sings so naturally. Jazzmeia is a performer for whom every word, gesture, and ornament becomes an expression of her total conviction and she completely comes alive in the moment" -London Jazz News Find out more about the EFG London Jazz Festival here: www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk