Biography

Singing that comes from the soul

Ember and Oak Sessions is the soul-jazz project of vocalist Adaeze Okafor, raised between a gospel choir in Chicago and her grandmother’s wall of vinyl. She sang before she could read music — in church pews, on school stages, anywhere there was a piano and a willing audience.

In 2008 she stepped onto a small club stage with three original songs and a borrowed band. The room went quiet, then loud. That night set the course: original jazz in a traditional style, sung like it matters — because it does.

Her debut album Honey & Smoke appeared a few seasons later and, to everyone’s delight, went platinum. Thousands of fans across the world found in it something rare: a warm, contemporary-sounding record with jazz standards beside her own songs, delivered in a voice critics call unforgettable.

Today she headlines festivals, records with quartets and big bands, and still tests every new song the old way — one microphone, one room, no hiding.

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