Kim Burrell

Kim Burrell, a Houston, Texas-based singer and pianist, describes her approach as "jazz gospel," and the fact that she composes much of the material she records and performs distinguishes her in the gospel arena. She entered performance at an extraordinarily young age, delivering her first vocal solo with a church choir at just one year old. The daughter of a pastor and an evangelist singer, Burrell launched her professional career alongside Rev. James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop Choir, Trinity Temple Full Gospel Mass Choir of Dallas, and the Inspirational Sounds Mass Choir of Houston. Her debut recording, Try Me Again, arrived in 1995 on Pearl Records. Strong interest in that project secured a deal with Tommy Boy Gospel, which issued the Asaph Alexander Ward-produced Everlasting Life in 1998. Live in Concert followed on the same imprint in 2001. After the label closed the next year, a brief Elektra Records contract produced only scattered guest appearances, even as Burrell sustained regular live performances. She joined R. Kelly for the 2004 track "3-Way Phone Call" and contributed vocals to George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love in 2008. Her stage collaborations have included gospel figures such as Shirley Caesar, Donnie McClurkin, Karen Clark-Sheard, Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Marvin Winans, while secular work has connected her with Missy Elliot, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Harry Connick, Jr. In 2009 she returned with her first studio album in eleven years, No Ways Tired, released by Shanachie Records. Two years later Shanachie issued The Love Album, which achieved solid Billboard chart placement and brought Burrell a Grammy nomination. After From a Different Place in 2015, she collaborated with R&B artist Pharrell Williams on "I See a Victory," featured in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.