Cecile McLorin Salvant

The 2018 Tiny Desk, a duo with pianist Sullivan Fortner. The space between voice and keys speaks louder than the song selection.

— NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, 2018

Cecile McLorin SalvantCecile McLorin Salvantセシル・マクロリン・サルヴァント's theatrical work Ogresse is a one-night fable about an ogress who falls for the hunter sent to kill her. As The New Yorker reported, it premiered with Darcy James Argue's orchestration and exposed a storytelling ambition that the label "jazz singer" can't quite contain.

— Cécile McLorin Salvant's Songs of Memory and Resistance, The New Yorker, 2022

A bassist from Gainesville, Florida who moved to NYC in 2007 to study at Juilliard. The trio he formed with pianist Aaron Diehl and drummer Lawrence Leathers became Cécile McLorin Salvant's working band, appearing on her first three albums.

— Paul Sikivie - Artist Bio, Cal Performances, 2024

Dreams and Daggers

Cecile McLorin Salvant · 2017

Since around 2015 Sikivie has shifted toward composing and arranging; on Salvant's 2017 album Dreams and Daggers (Mack Avenue) he wrote string-quartet-and-piano-trio arrangements for six tracks. The album won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

— Paul Sikivie - Artist Bio, Cal Performances, 2024

"Singing is one form of storytelling for me. The voice is a tool — the goal is elsewhere." — SalvantCecile McLorin Salvantセシル・マクロリン・サルヴァント in The New Yorker around the premiere of Ogresse.

— Statement stmt-salvant-storytelling

'Singing old songs isn't archaeology. It's finding out what the song wants to say through me, now'

On her approach to interpreting standards and songs from the past.

"Singing is one form of storytelling for me. The voice is a tool — the goal is elsewhere."

From The New Yorker interview around the premiere of Ogresse.

In the library. Sota turned in his future plans form blank. On not thinking about anything.