Samara Joy’s 2024 Verve album Portrait includes original lyrics she wrote to songs by Charles Mingus and Sun Ra — not as homage, but as creative conversation. That instinct, to work inside the tradition rather than around it, is what makes a six-time Grammy winner worth the drive to Buffalo in February.
About the Show
Joy came to jazz through an unusually direct lineage. Her grandparents led the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes; her father, Antonio McLendon, was a musician and songwriter who toured with Andraé Crouch; and she grew up singing in her church’s gospel choir in the Bronx before discovering jazz at SUNY Purchase. She won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition while still an undergraduate. The competition is named for one of the singers she’s most often compared to; Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Carmen McRae are others in that company.
Her breakthrough album Linger Awhile (2022, Verve) earned Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist. Portrait followed in 2024, co-produced with trumpeter Brian Lynch and recorded at Van Gelder Studio with an octet she tours with. The album features original compositions and reimagined standards, including lyrics Joy wrote to songs by Mingus and Sun Ra. It earned her a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2026 and the 2025 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. She also co-wrote “Why I’m Here” with PJ Morton for the Netflix film Shirley, about Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.
UBCFA Executive Director Jamie Enser described Joy as an artist who “honors the jazz tradition while making the music feel fresh and relevant to a new generation.” DownBeat called her debut “a beautiful recording” and declared “a silky-voiced star is born”; NPR characterized her as “a classic jazz singer from a new generation.”
Venue & Logistics
Joy performs at the UB Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre in Buffalo on Saturday, February 20, 2027, at 7:30 p.m. The Mainstage is a university performing arts venue; Joy has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the room fits that company. For more western New York concerts, see our regional listings.
Tickets
Tickets are $45–$100. A presale runs through October 22 at 10 p.m. using code CFAJOY at ubcfa.org. Public on-sale is Friday, October 23 at noon, via ubcfa.org, Ticketmaster, or in person at the UBCFA Ticket Office. University at Buffalo community members receive $5 off per ticket with a valid university ID (limit six tickets; excludes VIP tickets and prior purchases). Buy tickets