Carmen Lundy
Carmen Lundy. Photo by Janet Van Ham
Bio
Carmen Lundy is an award-winning vocalist, composer, and arranger whose multifaceted artistry has significantly influenced modern jazz over a career spanning more than five decades.
Born in Miami, Florida, Lundy was inspired by her mother, who was the lead singer of the gospel group the Apostolic Singers. Lundy earned her Bachelor of Music in Studio Music and Jazz from the University of Miami, the first to initiate a formal vocal jazz studies program. While in Miami, Lundy led numerous bands before moving to New York City in 1978. Upon her first visit to the Village Vanguard, she was invited to sit in with Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. She subsequently continued performing with her own bands throughout the tri-state area. In 1985, Lundy released her debut album, Good Morning Kiss, which spent 23 weeks on the Billboard jazz chart.
Lundy has released 16 albums as a leader, including Modern Ancestors (2019) and Fade to Black (2022), both of which were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Her compositions, numbering over 150 published songs, have been recorded by artists such as Kenny Barron, Terri Lyne Carrington, brother Curtis Lundy, and Ernie Watts.
Lundy served as a lecturer in Global Jazz Studies at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. She has conducted masterclasses worldwide, including at Harvard University, where she was named Jazz Master in Residence in 2023, and has served on the faculty of the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program since 1999.
In 2025, Lundy was named as part of the inaugural class of fellows in the Jazz Legacies Fellowship by the Mellon Foundation and the Jazz Foundation of America. She also received the University of Miami’s Inaugural Centennial Medal of Honor in 2023.
Beyond music, Lundy is also a visual artist whose works have been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit, and Washington, DC. Her documentary, Nothing But The Blood (2022), chronicling her family's gospel group, won Best Music Documentary at the DTLA Film Festival. Lundy is also an actor, portraying Billie Holiday in They Were All Gardenias and starring in the International tour of Broadway’s Sophisticated Ladies.
Selected Discography
Good Morning Kiss, BlackHawk Records, 1985
Self Portrait, JVC, 1994
Jazz And The New Songbook, Live At The Madrid, Afrasia, 2005
Modern Ancestors, Afrasia, 2019
Fade to Black, Afrasia, 2022
"I would like to thank the NEA for this meaningful recognition. My life’s work is a sum of many parts. Throughout my 50 plus years as a jazz musician I have been shown the world through this music and feel proud to be an American ambassador to this original art form. I’m truly grateful to be standing on the shoulders of the teachers, the ancestors, the veteran musicians and singers who have come before me and helped shape the beautiful, rich sounds and stories revealing the infinite possibilities and power in the art of creating great jazz music."