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Johnaye Kendrick

Johnaye Kendrick was born and raised in San Diego, CA. She received a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University in 2005. During her time at Western Michigan, she received a DownBeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist, and was featured in an honors recital with pianist Fred Hersch. In the fall of 2007, Ms. Kendrick was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

While attending the Thelonious Monk Institute, Johnaye worked with many outstanding jazz musicians, including Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Brian Blade. She received an Artist’s Diploma from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and a Masters Degree in Jazz Studies from Loyola University in 2009.

After graduating from the Monk Institute, Johnaye was immediately hired by trumpeter Nicholas Payton, who raves “Johnaye has the potential to be a vocalist of the highest order; the likes of which we have seen seldom since the grande dames of the golden era of jazz roamed about the earth. She’s got IT!” In addition to her many travels with the Nicholas Payton SEXTET, Johnaye has also been a featured vocalist with the Ellis Marsalis Quartet and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. The Orchestra won a Grammy® Award in the 2009 for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” category for their release Book 1 on which Ms. Kendrick is featured.

Johnaye has performed at numerous festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Rio das Ostras Jazz Festival , Burghausen Jazz Festival, International Jazz Festival Bern, Playboy Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club, Jazz Gallery, Chicago Symphony Center, Snug Harbor and Birdland with Nicholas Payton, Ellis Marsalis, Sean Jones or John Ellis. She has also performed with her own band at the Earshot Jazz Festival, Lima Jazz Festival, Royal Room, Tula’s, Festival Sundiata, NW African American Museum, Chihuly Gardens and other venues.

Johnaye performs her own original compositions as well as fresh interpretations of beloved jazz and blues compositions. She focuses on graceful renditions of jazz standards and composes music and lyrics where she often accompanies herself on harmonium, violin, viola and percussion. The legendary Jimmy Heath says that “Johnaye is not just a vocalist. She is a complete musician with a beautiful instrument and open ears.”

A dedicated educator, Johnaye resides in Seattle, WA where she serves as an Associate Professor of Jazz Voice at Cornish College of the Arts.

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Liner Notes

Thomas Marriott: Live From the Heat Dome

Read "Thomas Marriott: Live From the Heat Dome" reviewed by Paul Rauch


A “heat dome" is created when an area of high pressure hovers over an area for days or weeks, trapping warm air underneath. The meteorological phenomena is much like a lid on a boiling pot. In late June of 2021, residents of the Pacific Northwest became plainly aware of what a heat dome is by experiencing three days of severe heat topping 108 degrees, in an area more accustomed to temperatures in the low to mid seventies. The three days ...

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Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Live From the Heat Dome

Read "Live From the Heat Dome" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Trumpeter Thomas Marriott settled into his groove on the Seattle-based Origin Records. He released more than a dozen discs under his own name there, including the gorgeous Romance Language (2020), a striking ballad set, and Trumpet Ship (2018), a high-energy bop workout. And then there was Crazy: The Music of Willie Nelson (Origin Records, 2008), described as having “a distinctly modern and often brash tone." And “Favoring some serious musical adventurousness." With Live From The Heat Dome that ...

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Profile

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Johnaye Kendrick

Read "20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Johnaye Kendrick" reviewed by Paul Rauch


The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 30's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the south. It has produced such historical jazz icons as Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson. In many instances it has acted as a temporary repose ...

4
Album Review

Johnaye Kendrick: Flying

Read "Flying" reviewed by Troy Dostert


It's been four years since vocalist Johnaye Kendrick released her debut album, but her sophomore outing, Flying, was certainly worth the wait. With finely-honed vocal chops channeled through some compelling compositions of her own and a few distinctively-performed covers, Kendrick is a complete artist, and this record will undoubtedly win her a lot of new listeners. Kendrick has an equal fondness for jazz, pop and R&B, and while all these influences are amply represented here, what's most noteworthy ...

4
Album Review

Johnaye Kendrick: Flying

Read "Flying" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Once, maybe twice in a generation, a singer enters the world of jazz and captivates the genre so dominated by jazz instrumentalists. There are qualities in the voice, delivery, the exquisite phrasing, and inexhaustible ability to deliver a narrative in such a way that expresses the jazz and blues tradition in a special and personal way. Johnaye Kendrick is one of those singers. Upon graduating from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, then sequestered at Loyola University in New Orleans, ...

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Interview

Johnaye Kendrick: In The Deepest Way Possible

Read "Johnaye Kendrick: In The Deepest Way Possible" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Since arriving in Seattle, Johnaye Kendrick has enriched the Seattle jazz community with her performances, recordings, and as Associate Professor of Jazz Voice at the prestigious Cornish College of the Arts, as a mentor to her many students. Her vocal style is centered in the jazz and blues tradition, but embellished by her own interpretation based on her diverse and unique musical and life experiences. After receiving a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University, Ms. Kendrick attended ...

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Recording

Vocalist And Composer Johnaye Kendrick Releases Flying On Johnygirl Records

Vocalist And Composer Johnaye Kendrick Releases Flying On Johnygirl Records

Source: Mouthpiece Music

Attending the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in the late 2000s, vocalist and composer Johnaye Kendrick had the opportunity to learn from and work with legendary jazz masters Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Brian Blade. While studying with Blanchard, her class was often encouraged to write original music for their assignments. “I was relatively shy about performing my music while in the program, because it was so personal,” says the San Diego born and ...

Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

Seattle

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Live From the Heat...

Imani / 88 Keys Productions
2022

buy

"Desert Song" (Single)

Self Produced
2020

buy

Flying

Johnygirl
2018

buy

Here

Self Produced
2014

buy

Desert Song

From: "Desert Song" (Single)
By Johnaye Kendrick

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