Rising Jazz Vocalist Jazzmeia Horn Makes ‘A Social Call’

Fast-rising, widely-praised jazz vocalist Jazzmeia Horn makes her album debut on the time-honoured Prestige label, part of Concord Music Group, this Friday (12 May) with A Social Call.

The record was made with an all-star acoustic jazz line-up and features Horn’s versions of songs drawn from a deep well of influences. She remakes standards such as ‘West Of The Moon’ and ‘I Remember You,’ but is equally adept at tackling the hard bop of ‘Afro-Blue’ and ‘Moanin” as well as the gospel-leaning staple ‘Wade In The Water’ and ‘Lift Every Voice And Song.’

The album also features Horn’s readings of two songs associated with one of her biggest influences, Betty Carter, in ‘Tight’ (which you can hear above) and ‘Social Call.’ She also visits the R&B world on the much-covered Philly soul number ‘People Make the World Go Round’ and ‘I’m Goin’ Down,’ well-known by Mary J. Blige and earlier recorded by Rose Royce.

Horn was born in Dallas, Texas and moved to New York in 2009 to pursue a career with her group Artistry of Jazz Horn. She was Downbeat magazine’s Vocal Jazz Soloist award winner in 2010 and won prizes in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal competition in successive years. She was also the winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition.

Here’s the trailer for A Social Call:

The singer readily admits to the particular influence of the jazz style and culture of the 1950s and ’60s. Horn says that even her debut album title is a nod to Betty Carter’s 1956 recording, arranged by Gigi Gryce and partly released at the time as Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant, but issued in full as the Social Call compilation in 1980. 

Pre-order A Social Call.