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Melissa Harris-Perry: This is The Takeaway with Melissa Harris-Perry from WNYC and PRX in collaboration with GBH news in Boston.

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Samara Joy: Nostalgia hit me as I recall the day I knew that I loved you.

You pass me by on a starry night,

How could I forget you were stunning?

Melissa Harris-Perry: Listening to that beautiful voice may transport you back to an earlier era to voices like Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday, but it, in fact, belongs to a very young and very talented artist.

Samara Joy: My name is Samara Joy. I am a 22-year-old jazz singer from the Bronx, New York.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Yes, at just 22 years old y'all, Samara Joy is out with her debut album, Linger Awhile.

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Samara Joy: Stars shine above you.

Linger awhile.

Whisper I love you.

Linger awhile.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Whoo-hoo. Whoo, now. That voice tells us exactly what all the buzz is about. Samara is currently on tour promoting her new album through May of next year, and she's definitely young to be touring for that long, as she's sharing her music with that Z generation via TikTok and social media, while also capturing the attention of fans like Regina King and Angela Bassett. Yet, despite the hype, Samara remains grounded and has a musical wisdom beyond her years. I asked the 22-year-old when she realized she had this kind of vocal talent.

Samara Joy: I was surrounded by music growing up. My father and his siblings, my uncles and aunts, they all sing. My grandparents had a choir called the Savettes of Philadelphia where my grandmother and grandfather were the lead singers. Growing up around music, I've always tried to copy them but I didn't really,I guess, break out on my own until I was really in college. High school and college. I always participated in musical theater and choral performances and stuff like that, but college is where the gigs started coming in. [chuckles]

Melissa Harris-Perry: Even knowing that you took the college route, right, oftentimes, young singers, because they have great talent and because it is a tough business, say, "All right, I go to go out there and do this now." For you when did you decide that you not only had the talent, but also wanted to make this what you do? Maybe you haven't decided that yet. At 22, maybe just the first thing that you've decided you want to do.

Samara Joy: I think the path laid itself out naturally, because when I got to college I wasn't really focused on a career. It was just I want to sing and I think this is the next best step to learning how to sing and how to play with other musicians and gain the necessary skills needed to be a singer and a musician. Then, towards my junior year of college, I entered this competition called the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz vocal competition.

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You miss the love you lost long ago.

It was the first vocal competition I'd ever done and I ended up taking first place. The judges were singers like Diddy Bridgewater and Jane Monheit and great bassist Christian McBride, as well as a radio personality and producer Matt Pearson and Monica Brown. Once I won that and it introduced me, it opened so many doors and introduced me to so many different people, I thought maybe we'll pursue this as a career. Maybe that's too late in the game but that's when I realized it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What did it feel like to grow up in a musical household? Was it about the music being on, was it about hearing your folk singing as they walked around the house? How did you experience it?

Samara Joy: Well, for me, I not only experienced it in the house as listening to music together and maybe even watching videos on YouTube. My mom always cued up either Patti LaBelle or Luther Vandross live at [chuckles] Wembley, I think it was, singing A House Is Not a Home You can't even imagine how many times that video has been played in the house. Also, my dad took us, me and my siblings, to and from school every single day. We were always listening to something and singing harmony along with it.

Even road trips on the way to visit family in Delaware or Philly, listening to music the whole way there, singing when we got there, and listening to music on the way back home to New York, so it was truly surrounding us growing up.

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Look at me.

I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree.

Melissa Harris-Perry: For you, why jazz, and jazz in combination with what else? What do you listen to that leads you to be the creator of this kind of music?

Samara Joy: When I was growing up, I really didn't have much exposure to jazz, or at least the kind of jazz that I listen to now. Whatever my parents listened to, as you know, like Luther or Patty or Chaka or Stevie, that was what I was listening to. I still listen to them [chuckling] but when I got to college, I realized that I'm from New York where jazz pretty much flourished. It was like finishing school for a lot of musicians coming from all over to come to New York and play jazz in New York.

To be from here, and not really have too much exposure, what it sounded like, it was almost embarrassing to say I'm getting into college, and I have no idea what jazz is or anything like that. It was embarrassing, but also, it was fun to be at the bottom. I'm just at zero. I don't know anything about this music but I can only go up from here as far as taking in as much information as possible from my professors and my peers and things like that. Now I feel like, with jazz, even though I had a lot of different influences growing up, including gospel and singing in church which all helped me develop my voice and develop all the music that I really love and develop my approach, I guess, as a singer, I think that with jazz, I feel at home in it.

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There's a somebody I'm longing to see.

I hope that he turns out to be,

Someone who'll watch over me.

I've gotten a chance to really dig deep and study the singers who established this style and musicians who established a style. Yes, I feel at home in it and I feel there's so much more to learn and so much more exploration to do regarding repertoire and singing style and stuff like that. I just really enjoy it. I enjoy singing in an acoustic setting.

Melissa Harris-Perry: There's two different pieces of this creation that I want you to walk us through. One is creating the album, the debut album, and getting it out there. Then I want you to talk about those acoustic settings, about being in space and sharing your music with people as they're hearing it. Which is different than the album where you put the music out there and you don't know. You're not there when people are experiencing it.

Samara Joy: I have to say, I really, as I've gotten over my nerves, I've really grown to enjoy live performance because it's different every night being on tour and playing for different people. You don't really know what to expect that night, but you have the same energy and play the songs as if they're new and it's like the first time so that the audience feels, too, that it's a unique experience to that night. Yes, being onstage and performing live and having the energy of a whole bunch of people, there's nothing like it. I think when you record, I try my best to capture that feeling that I get when I perform live, but at the same time, pretending that the microphone is the listener's ears, which is advice-- I wish that was my line. That's a hard bar but that's not my line.

[laughter]

Melissa Harris-Perry: I was like, wait, wait, wait. You just did what at 22?

Samara Joy: No, that's not mine. That's not my bar. That's not my bar, but [laughs] it's really good advice because it's like I can't think about it just like we're in the studio and this is what we're doing right now. It's like, this is going to be heard by people. They're going to be hearing it for the first time. When they click play, it's going to be in their headphones, it's going to be in their house, and so what do I want to convey on this record that, maybe, doesn't happen live? What do I want to capture, also, energy-wise, that does happen live so that they know what to expect if people hear the record and want to come see a live performance?

Definitely two different types of creation, but I tried to keep the same things in mind as far as the audience is, what's important. Is like I know what I want to sing, I have the arrangements together, the musicians together, now it's like how are we going to convey this story so that people are connecting with it both on record and in person.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Can you even conceive of yourself at 40 or 50? or at 60, and if you can, what does Samara look like? I don't mean physically. I mean who are you in your vision of yourself in those decades?

Samara Joy: At 40? Lord. At 40 or 50, I think that with the way things are moving right now, I'll probably, at that point-- At least I hope to still be exploring and not feeling like, well, I'm used to this by now. [chuckles] I hope to still have that same feeling as the first time as like, yes, I get to do music. This is what I love and this is what I hope to keep sharing when I'm 40 and 50. Maybe at that point, I'll have worked in, maybe, a lot of different settings with musicians, maybe, I've always wanted to play with.

At 40 and 50, I think, and even though, maybe, right now it's scary getting to that point, I think I'd take some advice, maybe, from a Tracee Ellis Ross. I was looking at one of her videos the other day and she was like, "I love aging gracefully and I love getting to this point in my life and being free and being secure in myself and just being confident and realizing that it's not the end. I'm still here, I'm still living, and so there's still things to discover and work to be done."

Melissa Harris-Perry: Samara Joy, jazz singer whose debut album is out now. Thank you for joining us today.

Samara Joy: Thank you so much for having me.

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Maybe we'll get back together

Starting from this and sending all their love and all simple social call.

Starting from this and sending all their love and all simple social call.

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