Carmen Lundy

Carmen Lundy stands as a globally celebrated musical polymath whose talents span vocals, multiple instruments, composition of more than one hundred songs collected in her own songbook, acting, visual art, and teaching; she is also the sister of bassist Curtis Lundy. Early recognition arrived through a sequence of acclaimed recordings such as the 1985 release Good Morning Kiss, the 1994 album Self Portrait, and the 2001 project This Is Carmen Lundy. She portrayed Billie Holiday in the theatrical productions Sophisticated Ladies and They Were All Gardenias. Eventually she established her Afrasia imprint, issuing projects including the 2007 album Come Home, the 2012 set Changes, and the 2017 recording Code Noir that juxtaposed standards with her own reflective, finely shaded originals. Successive Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album recognized 2019’s Modern Ancestors and 2022’s Fade to Black.

Born in Miami, Lundy discovered her voice in childhood under the guidance of her mother, lead singer of the gospel ensemble the Apostolic Singers. High-school music studies and private vocal instruction initially centered on classical repertoire, yet blues, jazz, and gospel continued as fervent private passions. While pursuing opera at the University of Miami she maintained an active presence on the local jazz circuit. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Studio Music and Jazz she moved to New York in 1978, quickly securing engagements across the Tri-State region. An early prominent appearance came with Ray Barretto; in 1980 she assembled her own trio featuring pianists John Hicks and Onaje Gumbs. Additional partnerships followed, among them sustained work with Kip Hanrahan that began with her contribution to the 1988 album Days and Nights of Blue Luck Inverted and extended across nearly all of his subsequent recordings.

Her first album, Good Morning Kiss, appeared on Blackhawk in 1985 and included her brother, pianist Harry Whittaker serving as co-producer, drummer Victor Lewis, saxophonists Bobby Watson and Rene McLean, trombonist Steve Turre, trumpeter Jon Faddis, and further guests. The 1988 Sony release Night and Day featured the late Kenny Kirkland on piano. Relocating to Los Angeles, Lundy recorded the 1992 Arabesque album Moment to Moment with Gumbs, Chico Freeman, and Kevin Eubanks among her collaborators. Throughout the nineties she also took stage roles in Sophisticated Ladies and They Were All Gardenias, again embodying Billie Holiday in the latter. JVC issued Self-Portrait in 1995 and Old Devil Moon in 1997. Side appearances proliferated on projects by Fred Wesley, Hanrahan, Paul Haines, Ernie Watts, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and her brother Curtis. In 2000 she received credit under the name “Carmon Lundy” on Courtney Pine’s Back in the Day and on Charles Austin-Joe Gallivan’s Peace on Earth.

Her Justin Time debut arrived the next year with This Is Carmen Lundy, supported by her brother on bass, Watson on alto, Anthony Wonsey on Fender Rhodes, and drummers Ralph Peterson and Lewis. Two further Justin Time releases followed: a 2002 reissue of Good Morning Kiss and the new 2003 recording Something to Believe In. In 2004 Lundy assumed full artistic and business control by founding Afrasia Productions with partner Elisabeth Oei. The label’s inaugural release, the double-disc Jazz and the New Songbook: Live at the Madrid, showcased a sextet plus string quartet, with pianists Billy Childs and Robert Glasper and electric bassists Nathan East and Phil Upchurch. Following extensive touring and gallery exhibitions of her artwork, she returned with the 2008 album Come Home featuring Turre on conch shells, Lage Lund on guitar, and Geri Allen. The 2010 release Solamente contained exclusively Lundy-penned material on which she performed every instrument; conceived originally as audition demos, the tracks’ emotional impact prompted their unaltered release. One composition, “Show Me a Sign,” appeared on Terri Lynne Carrington’s Grammy-winning Mosaic Project in 2011. Lundy reacquired her masters and reissued Night and Day that same year. The sextet album Changes emerged in 2012 with Oscar Castro-Neves on acoustic guitar, Wonsey on pianos, and George Bohannon on trombone. Soul to Soul in 2014 assembled an expansive cast alongside her rhythm section of Darryl Hall and Jamison Ross, incorporating Patrice Rushen, Geri Allen, Randy Brecker, Bennie Maupin, and Warren Wolf across a stylistic range encompassing samba, blues, soul, and post-bop.

Deeply attentive to both historical patterns and contemporary realities, Lundy addressed resurgent racism in global politics during 2015 and 2016. The resulting 2017 song cycle Code Noir took its title from the “Black Code” issued by King Louis XIV of France in 1685, which prohibited integration of Black and white populations and later influenced statutes in Louisiana and across the American South and North. Lundy sang, played keyboards and acoustic guitar, and managed string programming, supported by Rushen on piano, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Kendrick Scott, guitarist Jeff Parker, and backing vocals from Oei. Widespread praise greeted the recording. Further acclaim arrived with 2019’s Modern Ancestors, a blend of post-bop and R&B that included Curtis Lundy and Kenny Davis on bass, pianist Julius Rodriguez, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, drummers Terreon Gully and Kassa Overall, and percussionist Mayra Casales, earning her first Grammy nomination. A second nomination followed for 2022’s Fade to Black, another thematically focused work on social justice and future possibility that retained a comparable ensemble while adding trumpeter Wallace Roney, Jr., saxophonist Camille Thurman, keyboardist Matthew Whitaker, and additional contributors.