Tessa Souter

“One of the few exceptional standouts in the crowded field of female jazz singers.” Los Angeles Times

“A beguiling artist who infuses everything she interprets with voluptuous intelligence and keen emotional insight.” (KQED Arts). “Tessa Souter makes her audiences feel as though they’ve just experienced something very special.” (Los Angeles Times) “Best of all, she delivers it with a wit and a wink worthy of the toniest joints in town.” (Time Out New York)

Born in England, the daughter of Trinidadian and English parents, award-winning New York-based vocalist, composer and lyricist, Tessa Souter, imbues a mix of jazz and stunning originals with the soul and passion of flamenco, Indian and Middle Eastern music. She has made four critically-acclaimed albums: Her self-produced Flamenco-tinged debut, Listen Love (2004); the mostly-standards Nights of Key Largo (2008), for the Japanese audiophile label Venus, which garnered her a prestigious Swing Journal Gold Disc Award; Obsession (2009), for the multi-Grammy-nominated Motéma label; and Beyond the Blue (Venus 2011- Motéma 2012), which was picked by the London Times as one of the Top Ten Jazz CDs of 2013, and which features jazz arrangements of classical gems adorned with her own “exhilaratingly mature lyrics.” (Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner)

Tessa performs regularly in New York (Jazz Standard, Kitano, Iridium, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Blue Note, Joe’s Pub, 55 Bar) and all over the world, including four sold out tours of the philharmonic halls of Russia, and regular appearances at Pizza Express Jazz Club. In the US she has headlined at Seattle’s Jazz Alley, SF Jazz Center, Kuumbwa, multiple times at Half Moon Bay’s legendary Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, and the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival (six appearances, one of which was filmed for PBS and continues to air nationally). She is also a regular at Ruth Price’s Jazz Bakery in LA. Her invariably standing-room-only residency at Greenwich Village’s iconic 55 Bar (chosen by CBS New York as one of New York’s Top Five Jazz Clubs) is in its 14th year.

“Singers like her don’t come along every day.” Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner