This article previously appeared in Jersey Jazz Magazine.
When April May Webb was attending William Paterson University more than 10 years ago, pianist Mulgrew Miller, who was Director of Jazz Studies, came to one of her ensemble classes and played a Sarah Vaughan record. “He kinda was trying to fool me,” Webb said. “He didn’t tell me who it was, and he asked me, ‘Do you know what this is?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s Sarah Vaughan.’ He said, ‘You need to study her even more because she encompasses all the attributes you would want to have in a jazz vocalist.”
On Sunday, November 24, 2024, Webb won the 13th annual Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, held during the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s TD James Moody Jazz Festival. She credits Miller for having “a great influence on me. He’s the reason why, as a vocalist, I focused on Sarah Vaughan.” Miller served as WP Jazz Studies Director from 2005 until 2013 when he passed away at the age of 57 from a stroke.
At the Sarah Vaughan finals, Webb’s three song selections were: her original composition, “Cottonwood Tree,” John Coltrane‘s “Giant Steps,” and “Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk.
“Cottonwood Tree” is “one of the latest songs I’ve written,” she said, “and it’s not released yet. It will be released on February 21 when I perform at Dizzy’s Club. It’s about my transition from Kansas to New Jersey, and it was difficult because I got really homesick. My family home (in Newton, about 30 minutes from Wichita) had a huge backyard, and my brothers and I had all the fun stuff in our backyard. In the middle of it was this enormous cottonwood tree. It provided so much shade and so much beauty for our yard. So, I would come home often from New Jersey, and one of the times I was home, I was sitting under the cottonwood tree. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves were falling, and I said to myself, ‘I’m finding what I need. Oh, that’s a song a few years later.’
This article previously appeared in Jersey Jazz Magazine.
When April May Webb was attending William Paterson University more than 10 years ago, pianist Mulgrew Miller, who was Director of Jazz Studies, came to one of her ensemble classes and played a Sarah Vaughan record. “He kinda was trying to fool me,” Webb said. “He didn’t tell me who it was, and he asked me, ‘Do you know what this is?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s Sarah Vaughan.’ He said, ‘You need to study her even more because she encompasses all the attributes you would want to have in a jazz vocalist.”
On Sunday, November 24, 2024, Webb won the 13th annual Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, held during the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s TD James Moody Jazz Festival. She credits Miller for having “a great influence on me. He’s the reason why, as a vocalist, I focused on Sarah Vaughan.” Miller served as WP Jazz Studies Director from 2005 until 2013 when he passed away at the age of 57 from a stroke.
At the Sarah Vaughan finals, Webb’s three song selections were: her original composition, “Cottonwood Tree,” John Coltrane‘s “Giant Steps,” and “Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk.
“Cottonwood Tree” is “one of the latest songs I’ve written,” she said, “and it’s not released yet. It will be released on February 21 when I perform at Dizzy’s Club. It’s about my transition from Kansas to New Jersey, and it was difficult because I got really homesick. My family home (in Newton, about 30 minutes from Wichita) had a huge backyard, and my brothers and I had all the fun stuff in our backyard. In the middle of it was this enormous cottonwood tree. It provided so much shade and so much beauty for our yard. So, I would come home often from New Jersey, and one of the times I was home, I was sitting under the cottonwood tree. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves were falling, and I said to myself, ‘I’m finding what I need. Oh, that’s a song a few years later.’
Second place honors and a $1,500 prize were given to Los Angeles-based vocalist Amira Bedrush-Macdonald of New York City and Angélique Nicolas of France. More than 220 vocalists from 21 countries entered the competition.
