Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Nicole Zuraitis returns to Savannah Jazz Festival
The 2024 Savannah Jazz Festival is already in full swing, having kicked off with Latin Dance Night at Ships of the Sea Museum, Blues Night at Lucas Theatre for the Arts, and continuing with a weekend full of fantastic (and free!) music in Forsyth Park.
Paula Fogarty, executive director, describes the Savannah Jazz Fest as “a party for 60,000 people.”
“The big thing for us is we are now the largest free destination event in the Lowcountry,” explained Fogarty. “We’re looking forward to hosting everybody. We welcome every possible kind of human being and that’s the magic of our festival—we call it the ‘people’s festival’.”
Jazz vocalist with a hat-trick of vocal competition awards
The schedule for Friday and Saturday boasts a variety of artists from big bands such as the Airforce Airmen of Note, New Orleans jazz luminaries like clarinetist Doreen Ketchens, in demand saxophonist Ed Calle (Frank Sinatra, David Byrne, Rhianna, Pet Shop Boys, Lenny Kravitz), and smooth jazz guitar from Baseball Hall of Famer Bernie Williams.
One of the highlights this year is the return of jazz vocalist Nicole Zuraitis. Savannah music lovers may remember Zuraitis’s performance with her quartet at the 2022 Savannah Jazz Festival, as well as her big wins at the 2021 American Traditions Vocal competition where she scored a hat-trick earning the Johnny Mercer, Ben Tucker, and Gold medal.
Now Zuraitis can call herself a Grammy winner having earned a Best Jazz Vocal Album award for "How Love Begins," her sixth album as a band leader. Zuraitis had a previous Grammy nomination for her arrangement of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”
Zuraitis was up against stiff competition at the Grammy’s, but after years of grinding it out in wedding bands, jazz clubs and piano bars (She is self-taught on piano), she proved that independent artists could make an impact in the music business.
“I felt like it was a win for every independent artist out there,” said Zuraitis over the phone. “It was a David and Goliath moment. The Recording Academy and the Grammys are the only peer voted recognition award. It doesn’t have to do with your Tik Tok numbers. I was incredibly honored to be recognized by my peers, and I actually never knew that was possible for an independent artist. To have won, I felt like all those people out there working also won, in a way.”
"How Love Begins" features all original compositions, was recorded live, and was co-produced by eight-time Grammy winner Christian McBride.
“What I love about working with Christian is he is the ultimate cheerleader,” said Zuraitis. “We co-produced it, and I essentially got to make all the decisions of what I wanted to make because he really believed in my vision. To have someone of his level saying, ‘You’re going to play piano, Nicole. Of course,’ made me have faith in myself and my abilities. He is a wonderful musician and person.”
It took a while for Zuraitis’s big Grammy win to fully sink in. Many of her friends assumed that she was on “cloud nine,” but that wasn’t always the case.
“With this great award also came incredible adversity and lots of moments of almost throwing in the towel,” admitted Zuraitis. In October (before the Grammy nominations were announced) Zuraitis filmed a documentary about her career.
“I was feeling really down in the dumps and making that made me think I may be banging my head against a wall, but it’s a wall that anyone who has ever pursued a career in music is very familiar with, so I didn’t feel quite so alone,” said Zuraitis.
Jazz Police has said that Zuraitis has “a heart as big as her remarkable voice,” and that is evident in all of the charitable work Nicole does in connection with her music. Zuraitis has advocated for mental health and pitbull dog rescue. She and her husband, composer, producer, musician Dan Pubach, foster pitbulls and have donated thousands of dollars in proceeds to protecting pitbulls from euthanasia.
Nicole’s latest charitable endeavor is climate change with savethesound.org. "How Love Begins" was inspired by ariel photographs of vivid, kaleidoscopic oil spills in the ocean.
“I always try to stand behind something with every creative endeavor I do,” said Zuraitis. “Mostly because I think it’s the job of the artist to stand for something—not to be divisive, but to use our platform to draw attention to something that could use a helping hand. When I saw that ariel photography it helped me find the narrative for my album”
Zuraitis is also an educator, teaching music at New York University and Litchfield Jazz Camp.
“One of my favorite things to do when I’m traveling is work with workshops and do student masterclasses,” said Zuraitis. “Even collaborating with the USC Big Band—those are college students and they’re the future of this American music.”
Savannah Jazz Festival is also interested in the future of jazz with Sunday devoted to area school high school ensembles at District Live.
“I think it’s so terrific how [Paula Fogarty] takes, not only stars, but also up and coming, and student ensembles,” said Nicole. “To have such a large audience in such a beautiful city, cheers to Paula and the entire team for what they do for jazz.”
Be sure to catch Zuraitis when she performs with the University of South Carolina Left Bank Big Band in Forsyth Park at 6:40 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20.
If You Go >>
What: Savannah Jazz Festival 2024
When: Sept. 18-22
Where: Forsyth Park
Cost: Free
Info: savannahjazz.org
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: savannah jazz festival runs through sept 22 2024
