When April May Webb was attending William Paterson University more than 10 years ago, pianist Mulgrew Miller, who was Director of Jazz Studies, came to one of her ensemble classes and played a Sarah Vaughan record. “He kinda was trying to fool me,” Webb said. “He didn’t tell me who it was, and he asked me, ‘Do you know what this is?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s Sarah Vaughan.’ He said, ‘You need to study her even more because she encompasses all the attributes you would want to have in a jazz vocalist.”
On Sunday, November 24, 2024, Webb won the 13th annual Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, held during the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s TD James Moody Jazz Festival. She credits Miller for having “a great influence on me. He’s the reason why, as a vocalist, I focused on Sarah Vaughan.” Miller served as WP Jazz Studies Director from 2005 until 2013 when he passed away at the age of 57 from a stroke.
At the Sarah Vaughan finals, Webb’s three song selections were: her original composition, “Cottonwood Tree”, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, and “Round Midnight” by Thelonius Monk.
“Cottonwood Tree” is “one of the latest songs I’ve written, and it’s not released yet. It will be released on February 21 when I perform at Dizzy’s Club. It’s about my transition from Kansas to New Jersey, and it was difficult because I got really homesick. My family home (in Newton, about 30 minutes from Wichita) had a huge backyard, and my brothers and I had all the fun stuff in our backyard. In the middle of it was this enormous cottonwood tree. It provided so much shade and so much beauty for our yard. So, I would come home often from New Jersey, and one of the times I was home, I was sitting under the cottonwood tree. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves were falling, and I said to myself, ‘I’m finding what I need. Oh, that’s a song a few years later.’
“I started the show with ‘Giant Steps’ because I wanted to use a piece you don’t hear vocalists do a lot and this is notoriously difficult to improvise over. Then, I thought, ‘What’s the hardest song that I could do?’ It was ‘Round Midnight’. I’ve sung that song so many times with T.S. Monk. It’s the song we always close the sets with.” Webb and her husband, trumpeter Randall Haywood co-lead The Sounds of A&R, a musical group that tours and often performs with drummer Thelonious Monk III.
“I was able to create an arrangement for T.S. Monk’s sextet that I really enjoyed. One of the reasons we enjoy performing with Monk is that he allows us to arrange music and to be collaborators on his set. It’s a powerful piece, and I’m used to doing it a lot.”
The Sounds of A&R was created in 2014 while Webb was still at William Paterson. Its latest album, Questions Left Unanswered was released on the Soaring Records label in 2021. Joining Webb and Haywood on the recording are Webb’s two brothers — bassist Jacob Webb and drummer Dr. Nathan Webb — both of whom preceded her at WP. The other members of the band on the album are guitarist Charlie Sigler, pianist James Austin, Jr., and harpist Riza Printup.
Reviewing the recording for Talkin’ Broadway, Rob Lester wrote that the music “floats through the air as his (Haywood’s) silky-smooth playing underscores her (Webb’s) elastic, sweet-toned voice . . . she swings, woops, and impressively scats.”
In 2023, Sounds of A&R (aka S.O.A.R.) was a grant recipient of the Performance Plus program presented by Chamber Music America, supported by the Doris Duke Foundation. From February 13-16, S.O.A.R. will be an Ensemble in Residency at the CMA’s annual conference in Houston.
The February 21st date at Dizzy’s Club, referred to earlier by Webb, is part of the Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition prize, in addition to the $5,000 cash award. Shortly after learning she won the award, Webb said (on Facebook), “This Kansas girl is taking the stage at Jazz at Lincoln Center! This is such a huge milestone for us, and I cannot wait to bring our artistry to this iconic venue. We’re going to shut it down!” Pianist Yayoi Ikawa will join Webb, Haywood and Webb’s two brothers at Dizzy’s.
Haywood currently is on the jazz faculty at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, and the couple reside in nearby West Hartford. S.O.A.R. played last year in the Hartford Public Library’s Baby Grand Jazz concert series. On July 20, the group will be part of the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz in Bushnell Park. Last month, S.O.A.R. performed six shows at the South Jazz Kitchen in Philadelphia.
The Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition (aka The SASSY Awards) was hosted by WBGO Radio’s Sheila Anderson. Judges were: drummer/educator Terri Lyne Carrington, pianist Bill Charlap (current William Paterson Director or Jazz Studies), vocalist Lisa Fischer, bassist and NJPAC Jazz Advisor Christian McBride, and singer/songwriter Madeleine Peyroux.
Second place honors and a $1,500 prize were given to Los Angeles-based vocalist Syndee Winters, and third place and $500 was won by Georgia Heers, who recently moved to New York City from Greenville, SC, to pursue graduate studies at The Juilliard School The other two finalists were Amira B of New York City and Angelique Nicolas of France. More than 220 vocalists from 21 countries entered the competition.-SANFORD JOSEPHSON
PHOTO BY SHAKIRU BOLA AKOYA