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Nicole Zuraitis
Nicole was nominated dually with her husband Dan Pugach in the arrangement category the 61st annual Grammy® Awards for their version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. Connecticut Magazine listed her in their “40 under 40 Class of 2020” and the WOW Forum hosted her as a guest of honor in the fall of 2019. She is the vocalist for the world famous Birdland Big Band in New York City and her album Hive Mind won Best Jazz Album in the 2018 International Music and Entertainment Awards. In 2016 she won the New York City Songwriting Competition Coffee Music Project, in 2015 was the second runner-up in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and in 2014 won the Herb Alpert ASCAP Young Composer Award. She's also the People’s Choice and Johnny Mercer Award winner in the National American Traditions Vocal Competition. Her brand new project, Generations of Her: Women Songwriters and Lyricists of the last 100 years has sold out both the Birdland Theater and the Cell Theater in New York within months of its conception. Nicole has headlined Birdland, the Blue Note (NYC) and maintains residencies at the 55 Bar (every second Thursday of the month), Rockwood Music Hall (with the Dan Pugach Nonet), and Redeye Grill. Audiences love Nicole’s limitless enthusiasm, but that’s only part of her story; only part of her talent.
While pursuing a career that has spanned jazz, pop and classical, Nicole has collaborated with Cyrille Aimee, Thana Alexa, Dave Stryker, Livingston Taylor, Tom Chapin, Omar Hakim, Melanie Safka, Helen Sung and Bernard Purdie. She’s performed at festivals nationwide, and has recorded two albums: 2013’s Pariah Anthem and 2009’s Spread The Word, both releases featuring the cream of New York’s jazz hierarchy. Her newest album ALL WANDERING HEARTS will release in May 2020 with Dot Time Records.
Awards
Grammy Nominee 2019. Best Instrumental and Vocal Arrangement, "Jolene" Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition runner up NYC Coffee Music Project Songwriting Winnner 2020 Connecticut Magazine Top 40 under 40 Herb Alpert ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award winner
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Javon Jackson: Jackson Plays Dylan
by Jack Bowers
On Jackson Plays Dylan, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, an admirer of Bob Dylan, aims his jazz arsenal toward the iconic singer and songwriter in hopes of reworking Dylan's folk/pop music into a framework that jazz enthusiasts might consider creative and pleasing. So how does that play? For the most part, rather tediously, which is surely not what Jackson's quartet had in mind. As it turns out, Dylan's themes sans lyrics do not lend themselves readily to the jazz ...
Continue ReadingNicole Zuraitis Quartet in Vilnius: Precision Without Excess
by Ieva Pakalniškytė
Nicole Zuraitis Quartet LVSO Concert Hall Vilnius, Lithuania April 18, 2026 Vilnius has a unique way of welcoming artists who are connected to its culture. When Nicole Zuraitis, a two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, pianist, composer, and producer with Lithuanian roots, took the stage at the sold-out LVSO Concert Hall, that connection remained understated and functioned more as context than as a narrative. A symphonic setting, designed for classical music, does not always lend itself to ...
Continue ReadingJavon Jackson: Jackson Plays Dylan
by Katchie Cartwright
Bob Dylan without the lyric? Javon Jackson's Jackson Plays Dylan makes a strong case. With two exquisite exceptions, the arrangements are purely instrumental, but Jackson manages to draw us in past the words (he knows we can hear most of them in our heads) to the emotional heart of each piece. More than that, he turns the program into a sort of film score. Each song (scene) dissolves into the next via a snippet of its intro. Starting ...
Continue ReadingJavon Jackson: Jackson Plays Dylan
by Pierre Giroux
With Jackson Plays Dylan, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson delves into one of the great sources of modern song, the work of Bob Dylan. He treats it with reverence, imagination, and a strong respect for jazz tradition. This is not a clever concept album but a heartfelt musician's dialogue with timeless material, influenced by tradition and deep musical listening. Jackson is joined on this release by pianist and keyboardist Jeremy Manasia, bassist Isaac Levien, drummer Ryan Sands, and Grammy-winning guest vocalists ...
Continue ReadingNicole Zuraitis: The Up and Down and Up Journey to Newport
by Mark Robbins
Nicole Zuraitis should receive a Grammy Award just for her laugh! It's deep, loud, energetic and a treat to hear. Not taking herself too seriously, her conversation is peppered with laughter while she talks about the high and lows of her travels from a struggling young jazz vocalist/composer to her surprising (to her) Grammy win. Her career started as a young jazz singer with a community college big band and at the Litchfield Jazz Camp. She performed opera for a ...
Continue ReadingJavon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni: Javon & Nikki go to the movies
by Pierre Giroux
Javon & Nikki go to the movies is a charming and soulful collaboration that brings together the poetic eloquence of Nikki Giovanni and the masterful tenor saxophone stylings of Javon Jackson. The album is a delightful journey through some of the standards of the Great American Songbook, featuring songs famously associated with classic Hollywood movies. The repertoire also draws from a broader range of sources, including three Jackson originals and one from the pen of Sonny Rollins. Jackson is accompanied ...
Continue ReadingBrenda Earle Stokes: Motherhood
by Dan Bilawsky
Motherhood is a salient subject if ever there was one. Yet few jazz musicians ever touch on it in their work, never mind dedicating an entire record to the topic. The real or keenly felt need to keep up with the Joneses in a musical atmosphere that typically applauds and promotes standard bearers, hyper-masculine happenings, politically charged firebrands, and cutting-edge quests doesn't leave much room for an honest and open-hearted look at the scope of selflessness and self-discovery involved with ...
Continue ReadingNicole Zuraitis & Dan Pugach: When Jazz Is Like Love
Source:
Gregory Golub
I first hear Nicole Zuraitis dabout three years ago and I was immediately drawn in by the power and charm of her voice. The richness of overtones in her timbre quite literally caresses the ear—even an experienced listener like me—a jazz musician and composer with a few decades in music. This was before her ascent into what you might call the “Olympus” of American music—even though the nominations were already there. You could still clearly feel that she was searching ...
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It's Time To Celebrate! The Indie Collaborative Presents All Faiths Show at Lincoln Center on December 8
Source:
Anne Leighton
On December 8th, the jazz community will be a significant part of an all-ages interfaith musical salute to Diwali, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years! Known as The Indie Collaborative, this multi award-winning group of Independent Artists, representing a “smorgasbord” of musical genres (roots, classical, hip-hop, jazz, gospel, R&B, children’s, spoken word, musical theater, and “everything in-between”) join together for an Interfaith Holiday Concert in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. This 90-minute, high energy, family-fun concert will combine ...
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Vocalist/Pianist/Songwriter Nicole Zuraitis's "Hive Mind" - New Release On Dot Time Records!
Source:
Scott Thompson Public Relations
Nicole Zuraitis: Hive Mind An Exciting Mix of Originals, Jazz & Pop! APAP Performance January 12, 2018 10pm at 55 Bar! 55 Bar Residency 2018 Begins February 8th January 12- APAP Performance at 55 Bar- 10pm Dan Pugach Nonet featuring Nicole Zuratis Nicole Zuraitis: Voice David Smith: Trumpet Mike Fahie: Trombone Jen Hinkle: Bass Trombone Andrew Gould: Alto Saxophone/Flute Jeremy ...
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“Zuraitis writes her own material, and her deftness with a lyric is decidedly pronounced; second, she’s a damned good piano player.... With an effervescent stage presence and a vocal style that’s equal parts Diana Krall and Bonnie Raitt, Nicole Zuraitis is already something special, but she also has the tools to be something very big. Watch this space.” -JAY HUNTER Nippertown Lake George Jazz Festival Review 2019
"Brooklyn’s Nicole Zuraitis Brings Visceral Vocals, Her Powerhouse Presence and Winning Songwriting to Jazz Outing, Hive Mind (Dot Time Records)."- KEN MICALLEF (DOWNBEAT)
Nancy Erickson Lamont
vocals
Ruth Saphir
vocalsPhotos
Music
S'Posin
From: Flying High: Still SoaringBy Nicole Zuraitis
Happy Mother's Day
From: MotherhoodBy Nicole Zuraitis
Videos
Nicole Zuraitis
Location: New York City
Instrument: Vocals
Publicist: Creatures PR
