Portrait, Samara Joy’s third album for Verve Records, grew out of a problem of scale: she wanted the sonic weight of a big band without the logistics of actually traveling with one. “I was inspired by big bands and strings and large ensembles,” Joy has said, “but wanted a little big band that I could travel with.” The album that came from that thinking won Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 68th Grammy Awards in February 2026. Joy brings that seven-piece band to the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater on Wednesday, August 26 at 8 p.m.
About the Show
Portrait is Joy’s third Grammy win in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category. She is 26. The full ledger: Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023, with Linger Awhile also reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart; Best Jazz Performance in 2024 for “Tight”; two more wins at the 67th Grammy Awards in 2025; and now Portrait at the 68th. Six awards from seven nominations. The album also won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album in 2025.
The record marks a compositional turn. Rather than working exclusively from standards, Joy has moved into original writing. Her composition “Peace Of Mind” appears on the album alongside the Sun Ra/Jae Mayo piece “Dreams Come True,” and she has written full lyrics for Mingus and Harris compositions, crafting vocal lines so that, as she put it, “the melody and lyrics work together to tell the story.” Portrait also features contributions from trombonist Donavan Austin and tenorist Kendric McCallister, who wrote original compositions and arrangements for the record. DownBeat named Joy Female Vocalist of the Year for 2024 and described her as “a silky-voiced star.” NPR called her “a classic jazz singer from a new generation.”
That voice has gospel roots. Joy grew up in the Bronx’s Castle Hill neighborhood; her grandparents led the gospel group the Savettes, and her father worked with André Crouch. She won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2019 while still a student at SUNY Purchase, and has since performed at the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals.
Venue & Logistics
The Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater is the principal outdoor stage of a summer campus in western New York whose 2026 season runs through August 30. This show falls in the final days of that season. Showtime is 8 p.m.
Tickets
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