Karen Francis

Emerging among the straight-ahead jazz vocalists of the 1990s, Karen Francis received an unexpected opportunity upon encountering veteran hard bop and post-bop pianist Stanley Cowell during summer 1994. They crossed paths at a gathering in the Washington, DC suburb of Silver Springs, MD, where one of Cowell’s students made the introduction. Upon listening to Francis perform, the 53-year-old pianist recognized substantial promise in her voice and expressed surprise upon discovering she had pursued jazz singing for only two years. Although she had begun formal jazz vocal studies in 1992, Francis had already played multiple instruments throughout high school. Cowell demonstrated sufficient confidence to spotlight her on six of his original compositions plus the enduring Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn standard “Daydream” for his 1995 SteeleChase Records album Mandara Blossoms. The independent Danish jazz imprint, headquartered in Copenhagen and titled after a renowned Charlie Parker standard, subsequently issued Francis’ debut leader date Where Is Love? in 1996 and her follow-up Little Sunflower in 1998. Pianist Larry Willis, with whom she studied intensively in the late 1990s, supplied several arrangements for the latter project. Francis has cited Sarah Vaughan, Dianne Reeves, Carmen Lundy, Dinah Washington, and Billie Holiday among her primary influences, yet she does not regard herself as a jazz purist; she has also named Oleta Adams and Barbra Streisand among her favorite vocalists and voiced admiration for R&B artists Chaka Khan and Jill Scott. Although she currently resides in Newark, NJ, immediately outside New York City, Francis spent her formative years in the Deep South, attending high school in Augusta, GA—the birthplace of Soul Godfather James Brown—before enrolling at Tuskegee University in Alabama. She eventually relocated to the northeastern United States and remained based in that area for most of the decade. Her third album, Better Days, appeared independently in 2003 on Virgo Rising Records and features acoustic bassist Christian McBride.