Lizz Wright

The acclaimed American vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright gives a performance on 30 October at UMusic Hotel Teatro Albéniz as part of the Villanos del Jazz cycle and JAZZMADRID26. Festival Internacional Jazz Madrid. Her appearance at the festival is one of the highlights for lovers of vocal jazz, soul and North American roots music.

A native of Georgia, Lizz Wright began her musical training singing in church choirs from childhood, an environment that decisively shaped her vocal technique and her affection for roots music. Over more than twenty years of career, the artist has built a repertoire of her own at the intersection of vocal jazz, gospel, traditional blues and Southern soul, forging stylistic links with historical references such as Odetta, Tracy Chapman, Cassandra Wilson and Ella Fitzgerald.

Her studio discography includes notable works such as Dreaming Wide Awake (2005), The Orchard (2008) and Grace (2017), productions in which original compositions coexist with personal readings of classics from the American songbook and popular folk traditions. Across all of them, her singing stands out for a low, measured voice free of unnecessary embellishment, in which each word is delivered calmly.

On this visit to Madrid, the singer presents material from her recording project Nearness (2026). The album takes a spare duo format alongside pianist Kenny Banks Sr., a musician she has regularly worked with for decades, with a repertoire centred on standards from the classic American songbook and the power of Black spirituals.