With multiple Grammys, hundred of international live dates and the title of Queen of #JazzTok under her belt, there isn’t much that Samara Joy hasn’t achieved – and she’s not even 30! But this summer sees another first for the sensational young singer – her BBC Proms debut. We caught up with Samara as she prepares her pick of the Great American Songbook for the world’s longest running music festival.

How does it feel to have a date at such an iconic venue and festival?

I’m incredibly excited for my performance at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve known about this opportunity for about a year, and we’ve been working through it and choosing the repertoire. I’m even more excited to be playing with my octet and the debut of their orchestrations. The music that we have prepared so far really does a great job of incorporating all of the voices that we have available to us. And I love orchestral music. I’ve always listened to the music of people like Ravel and Debussy, and so I’m excited to have my own experience being supported by the amazing BBC Concert Orchestra, I just can’t wait. 

Your gig is all about the Great American Songbook – it’s such an important body of work in jazz history, why do you love it?

I’m incredibly excited to be singing songs from The Great American Songbook and from the jazz songbook that I’ve amassed over the past couple of years. Songs like “Stardust” and “Misty” are standards that have stood the test of time, and songs written by Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington do the same, as far as influencing and pushing the songbook forward. 

I think the song book has become synonymous with jazz in many ways, because a lot of jazz musicians recorded and rearranged those tunes to the point where they became standards. And they’re people like Charlie Parker who can perform or play a song like “Back Home Again In Indiana”, and then write something like “Donna Lee” and completely shift and change the harmony and write a new melody on top of the foundational changes and come up with his own changes. Or somebody like Ella Fitzgerald, who can record different song books of many songs that come from Broadway musical theatre, and then during live performances, completely rearrange it and add a new individual sense of feeling. 

For anybody who hasn’t listened to the Great American Songbook, or might not be sure of what to expect, I think that you’ll relate to all of the stories being told through the music, because it is timeless. I think there are some songs within the book that probably wouldn’t or shouldn’t be sung today, but I don’t feel the human condition has changed much when it comes to modern love and relationships. We still maybe have the same problems and the same pitfalls when it comes to falling in and being in love and so that’s why I feel the songs are very relatable.

Do you feel you have to do something different with these songs to make them your own?

For me, doing something different with songs sort of comes naturally, and whenever I do a set of music, I rarely see people sing along, they’re so focused on absorbing the music and absorbing my interpretation in the way that I do it, because it is very different from original recordings, and it’s going to be different simply because I am a different vocalist, and I’m influenced by a lot of different music. I’m glad that I’m confident enough now in my personal expression that whenever I hear a song that I like, I can interpret it and arrange it and share it and express it in my own way to make it feel new again.

We have so many fantastic versions of these songs from generations of outstanding singers, what are some of your favourites?

I would say some of my favourite songs from The Great American Songbook would be My Ideal, Sarah Vaughn’s version of “Stairway to the Stars” and I love Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. There are many fantastic takes on these songs by instrumentalists and a couple of my favourites would be Kenny Dorham’s version of “Old Folks” and Freddie Hubbard’s version of “Weaver of Dreams”.

It’s going to be quite a glitzy affair, have you settled on your look yet?

I’ve chosen my outfits, and I cannot wait to share both with you. 

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Freya Hellier is a content editor for Everything Jazz. She has spent many years making programmes about all genres of music for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and beyond.

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_{Header image: Samara Joy. Photo: AB+DM.}