Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Johnaye Kendrick will join PSU Jazz students onstage in a special performance Monday, June 3. The concert features the PSU Vocal Collective and PSU Jazz Band, under the guidance of School of Music & Theater professors Sherry Alves and George Colligan.
Every year, PSU's Jazz professors bring in world-renowned guest artists to perform and collaborate with Jazz students. This year, vocal and instrumental jazz area coordinators Sherry Alves and George Colligan invited two guest artists for a longer collaborative process with the students, starting with jazz drummer Allison Miller in March 2024.
“The PSU Jazz Program has been blessed for many years to have the opportunity to bring guest artists to our campus,” said George Colligan. “These world-class jazz musicians have given performances and master classes which have been invaluable to our students. We have even had our students perform with the guest artists, which gives them truly a real-world experience.” This term, Sherry Alves is directing and leading the collaboration process with artist Johnaye Kendrick.
Johnaye Kendrick is an accomplished jazz vocalist, composer, orchestrator, and multi-instrumentalist who received her Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University, her master’s degree in Jazz Studies from Loyola University, and an Artist’s Diploma from the prestigious Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. She has released two solo albums under her own record label, johnygirl. Her jazz vocal group, säje, received the Grammy Award this year for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for their song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” featuring Jacob Collier.
"Johnaye is one of those singers [with the] 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,” wrote Paul Rauch in All About Jazz.
Her second solo album, Flying, which was released in 2018, was nominated for the Earshot Jazz NW Recording of the Year award and she was also the 2020 Earshot Jazz NW Vocalist of the Year. In addition to being a highly successful jazz artist, Johnaye Kendrick is a professor of music at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
Sherry Alves has arranged several pieces by Kendrick for the performance, artfully weaving together the nine voices of the Vocal Collective and the Jazz Band with Johnaye Kendrick’s own voice, so that they all shine in their own way. Even better, the students will not only get the opportunity to perform with the talented jazz vocalist but also learn directly from her during a master class before the performance.
“One of the things that excites me most about Johnaye Kendrick is how much she cares about education,” said Sherry Alves. “She’s up for anything the students want to try, and that’s really exciting.”
Johnaye Kendrick and the PSU Jazz ensembles perform Monday, June 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Avenue, Portland. Tickets ($5 to $20; free for PSU students, faculty and staff) and information can be found on the College of the Arts Events Page.