Cultural Attaché: Carmen Lundy is ‘the Prince’ of Jazz and has always done it her way
There is a moment during my conversation with Carmen Lundy when she recalls what it took to make her first album. After moving to New York, she booked her own gigs, walked the streets putting posters on bus stops and made demo after demo in pursuit of a record deal that never came. Eventually, she […]
Carmen Lundy Uncorks a Lifetime of Truth and Reflection on Notes from the Wine Cellar
While jazz history celebrates countless vocalists who have transformed familiar standards into deeply personal works of art, Carmen Lundy has spent the better part of five decades taking a different path—expanding the American Songbook one original composition at a time. One of the rare jazz singers whose artistic identity rests as much on her gifts […]
Bistro Awards calls Notes From The Wine Cellar “[A] powerful statement by a true Master of Jazz”
The release of jazz great Carmen Lundy’s sixteenth album, Notes from the Wine Cellar, coincides with her being named a 2026 NEA Jazz Master, the highest accolade a jazz artist can receive. This is a highly personal project with Lundy contributing much more than just vocals. Produced with Elisabeth Oei, Lundy wrote all the songs, […]
Carmen Lundy on the cover of Hot House Jazz magazine
Carmen Lundy: Songs In The Key Of She Eugene Holley Jr. | Hot House Jazz, November 2022 Miami-born, Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer and lyricist Carmen Lundy appears in two shows in her old New York stomping grounds. On Dec. 16, she is going to perform selections from her new Grammy-nominated CD, Fade To Black, at […]
Fade to Black Live at the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival Review
Bob Benenson, Third Coast Review | 09/06/2022 Carmen Lundy Does It Her Way Carmen Lundy, an enduring jazz vocalist, graduated from University of Miami with a music degree and moved to New York at age 24 in 1978. During her Jazz Festival set Saturday evening, she told the audience she started out like most jazz […]
Review of Fade to Black from Dusty Groove
Dusty Groove A really majestic album from the great Carmen Lundy – one of our favorite jazz singers of all time, and one of the few who’ve just kept growing and changing as the years move on! As with all her recent records, Lundy put the whole thing together herself – a tremendous effort as […]
Fade to Black Review on Marlbank
Marlbank | 10/22/2022 “Carmen Lundy peels away the layers to steal away to speak to and for us all.” In a climate when the calamitous reversal of Roe v Wade spells global consequences and has chilled the temperature dramatically and the forces of arch prejudice far right conservatism raise their ugly heads once again from […]
Soul to Soul review in German Audiophile Forum
Karsten Hein | 4/16/2021 I have rarely come across a Jazz album that feels as instantly entertaining and naturally balanced as Carmen Lundy’s 2014 album ‘Soul to Soul’. There are subtle changes in speed and dynamics from song to song that are just different enough to keep us interested and similar enough to preserve the […]
Modern Ancestors review in Downbeat
J.D. Considine, Downbeat | January, 2020 It’s hard not to be impressed by the amount of work Carmen Lundy puts in on Modern Ancestors. Not only did she do all the writing, she sings lead on all the tracks, and provides keyboards, guitars and/or percussion on most. And on the bluesy “Burden Down, Burden Down,” […]