Modern Jazz Singers: 15 Contemporary Voices Defining Jazz Today

These are 15 jazz singers who are recording and performing now and shaping how jazz is sung today: ten women and five men, each with at least one album as a leader since 2015. Cécile McLorin Salvant and Samara Joy, three-time winners of the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, head the list. The men range from Gregory Porter’s gospel-rooted baritone and Kurt Elling’s vocalese to José James’s mix of jazz and hip-hop, Michael Mayo’s layered harmonies and Jamie Cullum’s jazz-pop.

How We Chose These Singers

Each singer has released an album as a leader since 2015, performs regularly and works in jazz rather than as a nostalgia act. Several cross into R&B, soul, pop or Brazilian music, as the music itself does. The order within the women’s and men’s groups is editorial. For the singers who came before them, see the greatest jazz singers of all time; for instrumentalists, see popular jazz artists today.

The 15 Singers at a Glance

Contemporary Female Jazz Singers Leading the Field

The ten women below include two three-time winners of the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, three winners of the Thelonious Monk vocal competition and a three-time Juno winner. For the longer view, see the greatest female jazz singers they build on.

1. Cécile McLorin Salvant

Born in Miami in 1989 to a Haitian father and a French mother, Salvant studied classical and baroque voice at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence and won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010. She has won Best Jazz Vocal Album three times, for For One to Love, Dreams and Daggers and The Window, from six nominations, according to the Recording Academy. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020.

Mélusine (Nonesuch, 2023) is a concept album on the medieval legend of Melusine, sung mostly in French with songs in English, Occitan and Haitian Kreyòl. With Every Breath I Take (Nonesuch, 2026), her first orchestral album, sets songs by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Stephen Sondheim for the Metropole Orkest under Jules Buckley, arranged by Darcy James Argue.

Start with: Dreams and Daggers, then Mélusine.

2. Samara Joy

Joy was born in the Bronx in 1999 and studied jazz voice at SUNY Purchase. Linger Awhile (Verve, 2022), built on jazz standards such as “Misty” and “‘Round Midnight”, topped the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and won her Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammys; the Recording Academy counts her with Norah Jones and Esperanza Spalding among the few jazz musicians to win Best New Artist this century.

She now has six Grammys, including Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2025 for A Joyful Holiday and in 2026 for Portrait (Verve, 2024), recorded with a seven-piece band.

Start with: “Guess Who I Saw Today” and “Misty” from Linger Awhile, then Portrait.

3. Jazzmeia Horn

Horn, born in Dallas in 1991, won the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition in 2015 and is often compared to Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan. A Social Call (Prestige, 2017) and Love & Liberation (Concord, 2019) were nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and Dear Love (2021), with her big band Her Noble Force, for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, per Grammy.com.

Messages (Empress Legacy, 2024) is almost all her own writing: ten originals about motherhood, self-belief and love, plus the standard “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me”.

Start with: A Social Call, then “Sing Your Own Song” from Messages.

4. Gretchen Parlato

Born in Los Angeles in 1976, Parlato was the first vocalist admitted to the Thelonious Monk Institute’s college program and won the Monk vocal competition in 2004. Her breathy, understated style owes much to Brazilian music, which caught her when she heard Getz/Gilberto at 13. Three of her albums were nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album: Live in NYC (2013), Flor (2021) and Lean In (Edition, 2023), a duo record with guitarist Lionel Loueke.

Michael Mayo (No. 14) decided to become a jazz singer after Parlato visited his high school. Her latest album, The Wise Ones (Edition, 2026), features Robert Glasper and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Start with: The Lost and Found (ObliqSound, 2011), then Lean In.

5. Veronica Swift

Swift, born in 1994 in Charlottesville, Virginia, is the daughter of the late pianist Hod O’Brien and the singer Stephanie Nakasian. She recorded her first album at nine, finished second to Jazzmeia Horn in the 2015 Monk vocal competition and has toured with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

She is grounded in bebop but does not stay in one style. After Confessions (2019) and This Bitter Earth (2021), her self-titled 2023 album on Mack Avenue runs from vocalese on Dexter Gordon’s “For Regulars Only” to show tunes, opera and a Queen song, an approach she calls “transgenre.”

Start with: This Bitter Earth.

6. Cyrille Aimée

Aimée grew up in Samois-sur-Seine, France, with a French father and a Dominican mother, and learned gypsy jazz from Romani musicians there. She won the Montreux Jazz Festival vocal competition in 2007 and the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2012. Move On: A Sondheim Adventure (Mack Avenue, 2019) won praise from Sondheim and a Grammy nomination for its arrangement of “Marry Me a Little”.

À Fleur de Peau (Whirlwind, 2024), a mostly original set on which she also plays guitar, was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. She has lived in New Orleans since 2017.

Start with: Move On: A Sondheim Adventure.

7. Kandace Springs

Springs, a singer and pianist born in Nashville in 1989, made three albums for Blue Note: Soul Eyes (2016), produced by Larry Klein, Indigo (2018), produced by Karriem Riggins, and The Women Who Raised Me (2020), a tribute to singers from Billie Holiday and Nina Simone to Sade and Lauryn Hill.

Her latest, Lady in Satin (SRP, 2025), reworks Billie Holiday’s 1958 album with Portugal’s 60-piece Orquestra Clássica de Espinho. Her mix of standards and soul makes her an easy way in for R&B listeners.

Start with: Soul Eyes, then Lady in Satin.

8. Caity Gyorgy

Gyorgy, born in Calgary in 1998, studied at Humber College and McGill University. She has won the Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year three times: in 2022 for the EP Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy, in 2023 for Featuring and in 2025 for Hello! How Are You? (La Reserve, 2024).

She writes much of her own material in the manner of the Great American Songbook, and her songwriting won the jazz category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2021. You’re Alike, You Two (La Reserve, 2023), a duo album with pianist Mark Limacher, was also Juno-nominated.

Start with: Hello! How Are You?

9. Sasha Masakowski

Masakowski, born in New Orleans in 1986, is the daughter of guitarist Steve Masakowski, who chaired the University of New Orleans jazz studies department until 2022. She names Bobby McFerrin, Rachelle Ferrell and Flora Purim as influences and leads two bands: Art Market, a modern jazz group with her brother Martin on bass, and the electronic art-rock project Tra$h Magnolia.

She has recorded with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, co-produced the family album Two Worlds, which features drummer Brian Blade, and played the 2026 New Orleans Jazz Fest with her family and Tra$h Magnolia.

Start with: Art Market (Ropeadope, 2018).

10. Charenée Wade

Wade grew up in Brooklyn, studied at Manhattan School of Music and finished second in the 2010 Thelonious Monk vocal competition; her biography names Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter as her touchstones. She sang on bassist Rufus Reid’s twice Grammy-nominated Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project (Motéma, 2014) and teaches jazz voice at the Juilliard School.

Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson (Motéma, 2015) reworks songs such as “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”, with Christian McBride, Marcus Miller and Stefon Harris among the guests.

Start with: “Song of the Wind” from Offering.

Contemporary Male Jazz Singers Today

The five men below range from a two-time Grammy winner who plays arenas to a singer who received his first nominations in 2026. For the tradition behind them, see the 20 greatest male jazz singers.

11. Gregory Porter

Porter was born in Sacramento in 1971 and raised in Bakersfield, California, where his mother was a minister. After a shoulder injury ended his football career at San Diego State, he built a following in Brooklyn and at a weekly residency at St. Nick’s Pub in Harlem. Liquid Spirit (Blue Note, 2013) won the 2014 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album and reached the UK top 10, and Take Me to the Alley (2016) won the same award, as his official biography notes.

He played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2016, and his 2025 UK tour included Manchester’s Co-op Live arena.

Start with: Liquid Spirit, then “Be Good (Lion’s Song)” from Be Good (Motéma, 2012).

12. Kurt Elling

Elling was born in Chicago in 1967 and is still based there, according to his official biography. He is known for vocalese, writing lyrics to recorded jazz solos. He has 17 Grammy nominations and won Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2010 for Dedicated to You and in 2021 for Secrets Are the Best Stories; his biography lists DownBeat Critics Poll wins as top male vocalist every year from 2000 to 2013.

SuperBlue, his band with guitarist Charlie Hunter, released SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree (Edition, 2023); his Wildflowers duo records with pianists Sullivan Fortner, Joey Calderazzo and Christian Sands followed in 2024 and 2025, and in 2025 he made his Broadway debut as Hermes in Hadestown.

Start with: “Nature Boy” from The Messenger (Blue Note, 1997), then Dedicated to You.

13. José James

James, born in Minneapolis in 1978, is often called a jazz singer for the hip-hop generation, the phrase his own biography uses. His debut, The Dreamer (2008), came out on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label; he has since recorded for Impulse! and Blue Note and, from 2018, for Rainbow Blonde, the label he co-founded.

No Beginning No End (Blue Note, 2013) was made with Robert Glasper and Pino Palladino, Yesterday I Had the Blues (Blue Note, 2015) is a set of Billie Holiday songs, and On & On (Rainbow Blonde, 2023) is devoted to Erykah Badu.

Start with: “Come to My Door” from No Beginning No End, then Yesterday I Had the Blues.

14. Michael Mayo

Mayo was born in Los Angeles in 1992 to working musicians: his mother sang backing vocals for Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, among others, and his father played saxophone with Earth, Wind & Fire. He studied at the New England Conservatory, became the third vocalist admitted to the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) in 2015 and later toured with Herbie Hancock.

His debut, Bones (Mack Avenue, 2021), stacks his own voice into dense harmonies; its version of “Stolen Moments” uses more than 250 vocal tracks. Fly (Mack Avenue, 2024) brought his first Grammy nominations in 2026, for Best Jazz Vocal Album and, with his take on “Four”, Best Jazz Performance.

Start with: Fly, then “Stolen Moments”.

15. Jamie Cullum

Cullum, born in Essex, England, in 1979, sings at the piano and treats pop songs as jazz material. Twentysomething (UCJ, 2003), a mix of standards, covers such as Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” and his own songs, reached No. 3 in the UK, went four times platinum there and by the end of 2003 had made him the UK’s best-selling jazz artist in history.

He has presented a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2 since 2010. His latest studio albums are Taller (Island, 2019) and The Pianoman at Christmas (2020).

Start with: Twentysomething, then Taller.

Where to Start Based on What You Already Like

From R&B and soul, start with Kandace Springs, José James or Michael Mayo. For understatement and Brazilian rhythm, try Gretchen Parlato. For bebop, Veronica Swift; for original songs with a message, Jazzmeia Horn; for storytelling and unusual repertoire, Cécile McLorin Salvant. For standards sung with a big, warm tone, Samara Joy and Gregory Porter are the easiest way in, and Jamie Cullum is the bridge from pop.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the best male jazz singers today?

Gregory Porter and Kurt Elling are the most decorated, with two Grammys each for Best Jazz Vocal Album. José James mixes jazz with soul and hip-hop, Michael Mayo received his first two Grammy nominations in 2026 for the album Fly, and Jamie Cullum’s Twentysomething went four times platinum in the UK.

Who are the best female jazz singers today?

Cécile McLorin Salvant and Samara Joy lead on awards, with three Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammys each. Jazzmeia Horn and Veronica Swift finished first and second in the 2015 Thelonious Monk vocal competition, Gretchen Parlato won it in 2004, and Caity Gyorgy has won three Juno Awards in Canada.

Who are the young jazz singers to watch?

Caity Gyorgy (born 1998) and Samara Joy (born 1999) are the youngest singers here, and both already have major awards: three Junos for Gyorgy and six Grammys for Joy. Veronica Swift (1994), Michael Mayo (1992) and Jazzmeia Horn (1991) are the other singers on this list born in the 1990s.