Twice nominated for a Grammy for Modern Ancestors and Fade To Black, Lundy is also the recipient of the RoundGlass Music Award, as well as the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz by Black Women in Jazz and the Arts. She was awarded the inaugural Centennial Medal of Honor in 2023 from the University of Miami as a distinguished alumna; among her other awards and recognitions, especially rewarding was Miami-Dade’s County Office of the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners proclaiming January 25th “Carmen Lundy Day,” along with handing Ms. Lundy the keys to the City of Miami.

Throughout her journey, Lundy has kept her focus on how she can expand her beloved art form. “Some of the greatest contributors to the music that we call jazz are no longer with us, so what do we do?” she has said. “We can ‘boo-hoo’ or we can pick up the torch and the mantle and keep pressing.”

Learn more about her legacy.

Congratulations, Carmen, for receiving the Jazz Legacies Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation . We are proud to honor and celebrate the groundbreaking musicians who have shaped the very nature of jazz.

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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 Aaron Davis Hall. The concert, presented through a grant from Chamber Music America, features Carmen backed by pianist/keyboardist Julius Rodriguez, keyboardist/organist Matthew Whitaker, bassists Ben Williams and brother Curtis Lundy, drummer Terreon Gully, and guitarist Andrew Renfroe. On the 17th and 18th, Carmen leads a quartet at The Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Conn.

All of those musicians, with bassist Kenny Davis instead of Ben, play on Carmen’s recording, along with trumpeters Giveton Gelin and Wallace Roney Jr. and tenor saxophonists Camille Thurman and Morgan Guerin. The CD’s 11 compositions, all by Carmen, reflect what she went through during the pandemic: the dying of loved ones, the isolation of lockdown, police brutality, racial unrest, and the spiritual power of love.

“I could not really ignore the horror of someone being murdered on live TV,” Carmen says. “I couldn’t ignore watching people explode into the streets behind [those atrocities] when we were deep into a pandemic, or having to say goodbye to a young brother who didn’t get the vaccine … having to say goodbye to his sister, having someone dear and close be diagnosed with cancer, or having to address the political social issues. So I decided not to look the other way.”

The selections on Fade To Black – the follow-up to her 2021 Grammy-nominated album Modern Ancestors – are the musical manifestations of what Carmen saw and felt during the pandemic. They range from the elegiac opening number, “Shine a Light,” the bouncy “So Amazing,” and the rhythmically complex “Lonesome Blue Butterfly” to “Daughter of the Universe,” a quiet storm praise song to the power of the sacred feminine. “Ain’t I Human” is a passionate, Coltranesque composition inspired by freedom fighter Sojourner Truth’s suffrage era speech, and the powerful, evocative “Say Her Name” is a mournful dedication to the parents of the children and young adults killed by the police.

Though Carmen’s cool and caressing contralto is the beacon that shines through on this recording, it is her work as a composer that gives her music the extra dimension that is not heard when a singer is merely singing standards. “The compositional part of my expression as a jazz vocalist is the most important part of my narrative right now,” Carmen declares. “I want the jazz audience to ask singers to include music of this time in their repertoire.” Carmen draws compositional inspiration from Mary Lou Williams, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stevie Wonder.

Carmen started playing piano at age 6. She and her brother sang in church with her mother, who also performed in her family group, The Apostolic Singers. “Curtis and I are eleven months apart,” Carmen remembers. “We benefited from going to church seven days a week, and from having a mother who sang beautifully for her entire life with the same five, six, seven or eight women.”

Carmen originally enrolled in the University of Miami to study opera, but switched to jazz at the urging of pianist Dave Roitstein, who is currently the Jazz Program Director at California Institute of the Arts. Carmen was in school with several future jazz stars including Hiram Bullock, Bobby Watson and Pat Metheny. After years of gigging in Miami, Carmen moved to New York in 1978 (she received her degree in 1981), and worked with a wide variety of musicians including Kenny Barron, Ray Barretto, Walter Bishop Jr. and Ronnie Matthews. She released her debut album, Good Morning Kiss, in 1985 and moved to Los Angeles in 1991.
Carmen’s artistry extends beyond music. She is a videographer, and her documentary, Nothing But The Blood: The True Story Of The Apostolic Singers of Miami, premiered at the DTLA Film Festival in Los Angeles in September. She is also a visual artist. Her artwork graces the album cover of Fade To Black, and her sculptures were shown at the Shifting The Narrative: Jazz and Gender Justice exhibit at Detroit’s Carr Center in October. She sees her artwork as a way for her to renew her music with new vitality.
“I think that over time, I needed to get away from the music,” Carmen confesses. “It’s a part of knowing and learning who you are, and coming back fresh.”

Carmen Lundy performs at Aaron Davis Hall on Dec. 16, and at The Side Door Jazz Club on Dec. 17-18.

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 singers, covering classic tunes, and she sang a couple of bars from “My Funny Valentine” to make the point.

But, Lundy added, that’s how you start out. In 1985 she composed her first song, “Good Morning Kiss,” which she performed as her encore. Since then, she has focused almost entirely on performing her own work, with her 15th album, Fade to Black, about to be released.  Unlike most jazz vocal performances, only her dedicated fans could mouth the words to her songs, yet Lundy’s passionate renditions and regal presence commanded the audience’s attention.

Love songs made up most of Lundy’s set list, with titles such as “The Island, the Sea, and You,” “Lonesome Blue Butterfly,” “Meant for Each Other,” “So Amazing,” and “Don’t You Know How I Feel.” She added some Latin influence in “Ola de Color” (Spanish for heatwave), gospel in “Burden Down, Burden Down,” and a call for love and compassion in “Kumbaya” (her own jazz composition, not the familiar hymn by the same name).

Lundy also has not shied away from the political, and the new album has a cut titled “Ain’t I Human?” that goes after those who would take away her right to vote and her right to choose. (“Nothing you can do to keep me down.”)

Ably backed by Julius Rodriguez on piano, Andrew Renfroe on guitar, Kenny Davis on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums, Lundy proved why she has been such a major presence for more than 40 years, even without a funny valentine.

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 a composer and arranger, with a musical vision that’s far greater than the early records that won us over in the first place – as Lundy handles piano and guitar next to her vocals – in a lineup that has additional trumpet, tenor, guitar, and organ – plus bass from brother Curtis Lundy, with whom Carmen first recorded at the start. The scope of Lundy’s songs moves far beyond the usual jazz subject matter – deeply personal, and always very powerful – on titles that include “Say Her Name”, “Ain’t I Human”, “Daughter Of The Universe”, “Rest In Peace”, “Privacy”, “Shine A Light”, and “So Amazing”.

“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 under the dankest of stones this exploration of ”the rethinking of our personal values, loss, a woman’s right to vote and choice, the invasive culture of modern technology, commitment” is vital. Carmen Lundy peels away the layers to steal away to speak to and for us all.

Unique among top vocalists in that Lundy’s composed songs count as much as the way the American sings them Lundy lives in the real world and writes about what matters, forgetting the trivial but never becoming sententious. She eschews being a poet but is definitely poetic whether framed as a night club jazz singer, concert hall artist or studio creator. And Lundy is a true vocal improviser soaked in the best traditions of the music whether you see it beginning with Betty Carter, or another Carmen – Carmen McRae – or find echoes flickering in the magical sound of Al Jarreau or the emotion of Jimmy Scott distant there and still so true, splice these explored in recent years with Sister Rosetta, the quiet storm and even like Cherisefinding ways of doing what Anita Baker did in another idiom on the far side of the blue horizon.

With the singer who also plays keys, guitar and percussion on an album blessed with velvety studio audio tones are a largely familiar company of players – bassist Kenny Davis, trumpeter Giveton Gelin, tenorist Morgan Guerin, drummer Tank ”Vertical Vision” Gully, Carmen’s brother bassist Curtis Lundy, guitarist Andrew Renfroe and the trumpeter Wallace Roney Jr (son of the great Geri Allen and iconic trumpeter Wallace Roney). Pianist Julius Rodriguez excellent this year on Let Sound Tell All returns and tenorist Camille Thurman, Matthew Whitaker on organ and keys is also here and particularly appealing on the moving rites and rituals of ‘Rest in Peace.’

Best arrangement here is on ‘Reverence’ where the horns riff and rumble within a clever and grooving blend. The core register of Lundy’s voice is higher than Betty Carter’s and the improvising method her own certainly more decorative than Carter extravagant. She is less Betty bebop and yet the bedrock of some bebop lines flicker so well say when Camille Thurman steals a few moments on the ”everybody’s talking” track ‘Reverence.’

The centrepiece anti-racism, anti-misogny political song ‘Ain’t I Human’ with its fabulous initial intervallic vocal leap is direct but quietly and very elegantly delivered. In that softly spoken aspect Lundy achieves twice the impact that any ranting ideologue can. ‘Lonesome Blue Butterfly’ and ‘Say Her Name’ are easily the best songs lyrically the former where the band start to react more prominently and Gully sizzles. Rodriguez is moved to contribute a sensational solo. ‘Say Her Name’ has an oblique personality to its melody that Carmen conveys so well. ‘Rest in Peace’ is perfect in its enchantment at the end. Who can truly prove that they can take a single however mundane note for a walk and make it not just run but fly Carmen can.

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 album’s inner harmony. The music is sparsely instrumented, the recordings are tonally accurate, even delicate, with a soft warmth to them. There is a pervasive sense of natural stage depth and dimension throughout. As I am listening to the album on our newly refurbished Technics SL-1310 turntable with its original Shure M75ED entry-level classic, it is difficult to imagine a better sound.

‘Soul to Soul’ is Carmen Lundy’s twelfth music album and, in typical Lundy fashion, features many original recordings. Born in Miami Florida in November 1954, she decided to become a professional singer after joining her local church choir. She was twelve years old at the time. After receiving her BA in music, Lundy moved to New York where she quickly found engagements alongside contemporary Jazz greats. In a career spanning half a century, Lundy has cut her own career path, composing and publishing more than forty original songs along the way, predominantly Vocal Jazz. ‘Soul to Soul’ is in many ways the culmination of her experience and a definite recommendation for soulful nighttime cruises. Enjoy!

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,” where she plays synth, guitar and tambourine, as well as sings, the combination really smokes, with Lundy bringing the harmonic sophistication of jazz to the immediacy of soul singing.

Unlike the widely praised Code Noir, which found her sticking with a straightahead quartet anchored by the redoubtable Patrice Rushen, Modern Ancestors relies on an assortment of studio players. While that allows her more stylistic range, it leaves the album with a less consistent sound. Immediately following the rhythmically charged Cubano groove of “Ola De Calor” comes “Flowers And Candles,” a socially conscious ballad that blends awkward lyrics with a dreamily meandering melody. One has heat and focus, the other good intentions, but lukewarm sentiment.

The best moments come when Lundy ignores structure and delivers her lyrics with a line that seems less composed than improvised. “Jazz On TV” is a case in point, with a whimsical lyric imagining a world in which jazz is as popular as chat shows. There’s a lovely groove, and her harmonized backing vocals recall the soulful side of Joni Mitchell. But it’s the way her rhythmically fluid, tonally adventurous melody evokes a saxophone solo that makes her dream of popular jazz seem so appealing.