Kandace Springs

Acclaimed Jazz & Soul Singer and Pianist KANDACE SPRINGS will perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market on Saturday May 23 at 7 & 9:30 P.M.

 

“…a voice which could melt snow.”

— PRINCE

 

Tickets for the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market Shows can be found at: https://jazzandbluesmarket.com/music-schedule/

 

New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market offers World-Renowned & Award-Winning Musicians, New Premium Sound & Lighting Technologies, Signature Cocktails & Drinks, Private Valet Parking, as well as Legendary Live Performances, and Outstanding Memorable Experiences!

 

Internationally Acclaimed Jazz & Soul Singer and Pianist KANDACE SPRINGS’ refined mix of R&B, jazz, and pop has been showcased with ‘Soul Eyes’ (2016), ‘Indigo’ (2018), and ‘The Women Who Raised Me’ (2020), albums the singer, songwriter, and pianist has released on Blue Note. The first two projects both landed at #2 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart. From the first second of Kandace Springs’ latest album -‘The Women Who Raise Me’ – you know you’ve arrived at something different. And once she starts singing, well, it’s pretty clear ‘The Women Who Raised Me’ exists apart from the normal rules that govern space, time, and talent.

 

While 2018’s ‘Indigo’ LP found the Nashville singer-pianist using modern production to bend sound into new genre forms in collaboration with Karriem Riggins, ‘The Women Who Raised Me’ adheres sonically to jazz while Springs travels back and forth across a near-century of music. While the feel is as rich and complex as our her voice, the concept is simple. Springs covers the women who inspired her while she was growing up, putting her own spin on songs associated with a dozen of the greatest female vocalists of all-time: Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Astrud Gilberto, Lauryn Hill, Billie Holiday, Nora Jones, Diana Krall, Carmen McRae, Bonnie Raitt, Sade, Nina Simone, and Dusty Springfield.

 

“This is an album I’ve been wanting to make forever,” says Springs. “It really expresses my love for all of these singers and gratitude for what they gave me. Each taught me something different and all of those lessons combined to make me who I am now. In a way, all I’m trying to do every day is live up to the examples they set. My dream is that people will listen to my album and then want to go learn more about all of these great women. If that happens, then I’ve done my job.”

 

While ‘The Women Who Raised Me’ project was personal — practically a calling — for Springs, it’s also an intimate showcase for her abilities. Produced by Larry Klein — who also produced Springs’ 2016 album ‘Soul Eyes’ — the album captures Springs in the studio with a spare but able band who all have ties to the artists honored here: guitarist Steve Cardenas (Norah Jones), bassist Scott Colley (Carmen McRae), and drummer Clarence Penn (Diana Krall). They played live, underscoring the power of Springs’ voice and hands, as well as her gift for moving between singers’ intonations and legacies while staying herself — as her heroines would want it. Heroes too. “Prince liked when I played all this stuff,” Springs recalls. “He’d go, ‘That’s you right there.”

 

But long before Prince saw Springs on YouTube and invited her to jam at Paisley Park in 2014 — the year she’d sign to Blue Note with an audition of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” — there was Norah Jones. When Springs was a gifted preteen pianist with no plans to sing, her father, Nashville session singer Scat Springs, slid her a copy of Nora Jones’ ‘Come Away With Me’. Kandace put the CD on while doing chores, and, “When ‘The Nearness of You’ came on I froze,” Springs says. “I was like, ‘That is what I want to do!'” So of course that song made it onto ‘The Women Who Raised Me’. But also, the actual Norah Jones did too. They trade smoke-ringed verses on Ella Fitzgerald’s “Angel Eyes” as Jones’ Steinway dances with Springs’ Wurly.

 

Nora Jones isn’t the only guest – it’s Christian McBride’s bass that kicks off the LP, in fact, on Springs’ swinging cover of “Devil May Care” by Diana Krall. That one was also part of her dad’s informal chops-building curriculum after he brought home a secondhand upright piano when she was 10. Springs was instantly drawn to Krall’s elegant playing and unfussy singing. Scat turned her onto Nina Simone too, eventually. “I didn’t like her voice at first,” Springs admits. “It seemed strange, but it was so unique and haunting that I kept coming back.” Before long, she was as inspired by Nina’s spirit as her art. In honor of their shared love for classical, Springs incorporates Moonlight Sonata into her rousing version of “I Put a Spell on You,” as David Sanborn blows fiery alto sax.

 

Even as Nora Jones, Christian McBride, David Sanborn — and players like trumpeter Avishai Cohen; flutist Elena Pinderhughes, and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter — “pop in” — ‘The Women Who Raised Me’ remains unmistakably Springs’ vision. Springs says she learned much from Billie Holiday’s example — but her main takeaway is as basic as it is bone-deep: “That nothing is more important than singing from the heart.”

 

“Springs proves again to be one of today’s best voices.”

— GLIDE MAGAZINE

 

“Citing Nina Simone as her inspiration, Springs evinces a similarly powerful beauty, a satin ‘n sinew verve, though her soul-infused sound more strongly suggests Cassandra Wilson by way of Whitney Houston.”

— JAZZ TIMES

 

Tickets for Acclaimed Jazz & Soul Singer and Pianist KANDACE SPRINGS at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market on Saturday May 23 at 7 & 9:30 P.M. are NOW On-Sale on Ticketmaster, Facebook Events at: https://www.facebook.com/share/1aDBVrnNXp/ (7PM) and https://www.facebook.com/share/1D2i5s8AoR/ (9:30PM) and (9:30PM) and the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market Website at: https://jazzandbluesmarket.com/music-schedule/list/?tribe-bar-search=Kandace+Springs

 

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All of the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market Shows & Events can be found at: https://jazzandbluesmarket.com/events/ – OUTSTANDING 2026 SHOWS ON-SALE NOW!!

 

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PRIVATE EVENTS, CORPORATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS. The New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market offers a spectacular venue to host important corporate functions, weddings, intimate or large-scale social gatherings, private parties, and memorable celebrations!! If interested, please email: info@jazzandbluesmarket.com.