Biography
Los Angeles vocalist Judy Wexler has built a refined career blending jazz with contemporary pop. Her emergence during the early 2000s reflected a polished approach shaped by Shirley Horn, Annie Ross, and Irene Kral. Working frequently with pianist Alan Pasqua, she has drawn praise for three key recordings: the 2005 release Easy on the Heart, the 2008 follow-up Dreams and Shadows, and the 2019 album Crowded Heart.
Wexler was born and raised in Los Angeles, where her initial focus was acting. She earned degrees in both theater and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. In the late 1970s she relocated to San Francisco and immersed herself in the city’s alternative theater community, establishing the performance ensemble Caught in the Act, A Theater Collective of Four Short Women. During those years she and her husband resided near the North Beach jazz club Keystone Korner, where they encountered Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, and Eddie Jefferson. Her longstanding interest in singing gradually shifted toward jazz, a direction that deepened after she and her husband returned to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Between acting assignments she took jazz piano lessons from Terry Trotter and refined her vocal technique at the Stanford Jazz Workshop alongside Madeline Eastman and Kurt Elling.
Wexler issued her first solo album, Easy on the Heart, in 2005. Pianist Alan Pasqua appeared throughout the project, which paired standards with reinterpretations of material by Henry Mancini, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and additional writers. The equally poised Dreams & Shadows arrived in 2008 and again featured Pasqua. On the 2011 recording Under a Painted Sky, Wexler and Pasqua broadened their sound with percussionist Alex Acuña and trumpeter Walt Fowler. For 2013’s What I See she partnered with pianist Jeff Colella to explore songs associated with Ricki Lee Jones, Benny Carter, King Pleasure, and others. Her fifth studio album, Crowded Heart, appeared in 2019; once more she joined forces with Pasqua to interpret works by Larry Goldings, Luciana Souza, Gregory Porter, and further contemporary composers.
Wexler was born and raised in Los Angeles, where her initial focus was acting. She earned degrees in both theater and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. In the late 1970s she relocated to San Francisco and immersed herself in the city’s alternative theater community, establishing the performance ensemble Caught in the Act, A Theater Collective of Four Short Women. During those years she and her husband resided near the North Beach jazz club Keystone Korner, where they encountered Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, and Eddie Jefferson. Her longstanding interest in singing gradually shifted toward jazz, a direction that deepened after she and her husband returned to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Between acting assignments she took jazz piano lessons from Terry Trotter and refined her vocal technique at the Stanford Jazz Workshop alongside Madeline Eastman and Kurt Elling.
Wexler issued her first solo album, Easy on the Heart, in 2005. Pianist Alan Pasqua appeared throughout the project, which paired standards with reinterpretations of material by Henry Mancini, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and additional writers. The equally poised Dreams & Shadows arrived in 2008 and again featured Pasqua. On the 2011 recording Under a Painted Sky, Wexler and Pasqua broadened their sound with percussionist Alex Acuña and trumpeter Walt Fowler. For 2013’s What I See she partnered with pianist Jeff Colella to explore songs associated with Ricki Lee Jones, Benny Carter, King Pleasure, and others. Her fifth studio album, Crowded Heart, appeared in 2019; once more she joined forces with Pasqua to interpret works by Larry Goldings, Luciana Souza, Gregory Porter, and further contemporary composers.
Albums
Singles
