Samara Joy’s New York

To get ready for her upcoming tour, Samara Joy is cleaning house—literally. 

“Just clean it up, make it look nice, and stare at it as I go out the door,” she says, of her “grownup apartment” in Harlem, which she carefully preps before heading out on the road. At just 25, the jazz singer’s heading into her third Grammy-nominated season with multiple wins and two nominations for the upcoming awards for last year’s A Joyful Holiday, for “Best Jazz Vocal Album” and “Best Jazz Performance.” In October, she released her third studio album Portrait, a beautiful follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning Linger Awhile. 

Portrait also happens to be one of our picks for best albums of the year.

Her tour, which kicked off on December 3, is a true family affair, with multiple relatives joining Samara onstage, including her bassist father Antonio McLendon, uncle Laurone McLendon, and cousins Tiera Lovell Rowe and Thomas Niblack. Elder Goldwire McLendon, Samara’s 93-year-old gospel-singer grandfather, will make a special appearance on December 23 in Philadelphia, for the last performance of this leg before the tour resumes in February. 

Performing with her family provides Samara the opportunity to see and spend time together—even if they might get “sick of each other” by the end of it. “It’s nice to just be like, ‘Hey, let’s just go on the road so we can see each other all day, every day for the next three-and-a-half weeks,’ and then we’ll be sick of each other and then go our separate ways till next December or something,” she says with a laugh. 

On December 13 she’s playing United Palace in New York City, just at peak holiday season. “I love the fact that no matter what, New York will always make time for celebration and decoration and that kind of thing. I love that.” Of being able to perform in her hometown, she says: “It’s beautiful.”

No matter where she is, Samara takes her New York State of mind—and walking—with her. “I don’t like when people in front of me are walking slow,” she says, relatably. “It might be something that’s just common. I even notice it when I go to other places and I’m the tourist, how frustrated people who are local are when they have to go through a sea of people who are not from there. I just always make sure that whenever I’m in a crowded place, like whether I’m in a subway in New York or in London or in France, I just get a move on, wherever I’m going, or to just keep going. Do not stop until you’re at your destination.”

Jimmy’s Grand Café, The Bronx

I want to start with a restaurant that me and my mom go to for literally every celebration, or even just because. We go in there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Birthdays, holidays, everything. That’s just one of my favorite comfort places. It used to be a tiny, little diner and they renovated and moved to a different spot. It’s [now] this grand cafe location, but it still has that warmth and charm because it is a family-owned business. That’s my favorite restaurant in New York.

I always get the coconut French toast with coquito because I love coquito [and] I love French toast. The fact that they put my favorite things together…I get it every single time. 

The Paradise Theater, The Bronx

That’s where my church was held, that’s where their location was. It was in the Paradise Theater [formerly the Loew’s Paradise Theatre]. Conveniently enough, when I first started singing in church and leading and being on a mic as opposed to being in the choir was when I was 16, and I was in high school, my high school was right down the hill from the [then] Loew’s Paradise Theatre on the Grand Concourse. I remember, every Thursday, there was rehearsal and so I would walk up the hill and I think it was maybe like six or seven blocks uphill, school to church, every Thursday for rehearsal. That’s where I feel like I developed my confidence with being on stage and singing.

Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village

One of my favorite clubs in New York City to go and hear music is the Village Vanguard. It has an incredible history and legacy. There are many records that I listened to that were recorded there by some of my favorite musicians. I’ve gotten a chance to perform there, and I can’t wait to go back. I’ve seen so many wonderful shows there. 

One of my favorite parts about it is there’s a bookshelf full of autobiographies and biographies of musicians who have played there…I love that the legacy of that room and I can’t wait to go there again.

United Palace, Washington Heights

United Palace is one room that I’m excited to play [on December 13] because it’ll be my very first time. I’ve driven by and seen this place in passing. It’s similar to the Paradise Theater and it’s a full, grand room. It’s just one of those stages where it’s like a dream come true getting to see my name on the marquee and getting to perform there, so I’m really glad to be sharing in that moment of the first time performing there with my family. 

Whitney Museum of American Art, Meatpacking District

I don’t get the chance to go to museums often but the first time I went there—oh, gosh—I saw an exhibition of the painter Kandinsky. That was maybe a year or so ago, and it was the beginning of my love for visual art and how I could incorporate it into my music. That’s how it ties in with the cover of Portrait, which was oil-painted by hand. 

Read our 2022 A Day in the Life of… Samara Joy feature and our deep-dive interview with Samara for the release of ‘Portrait’. 

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