artist info

"Cécile McLorin Salvant's musical vocabulary is a marvel." - Associated Press

Cécile McLorin Salvant, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is a singer and composer bringing historical perspective, a renewed sense of drama, and an enlightened musical understanding to both jazz standards and her own original compositions. Classically trained, steeped in jazz, blues, and folk, and drawing from musical theater and vaudeville, Salvant embraces a wide-ranging repertoire that broadens the possibilities for live performance.

Salvant's performances range from spare duets for voice and piano to instrumental trios to orchestral ensembles. Her unreleased work Ogresse is an ambitious long-form musical fable based on oral fairy tales from the nineteenth century that explores the nature of freedom and desire in a racialized, patriarchal world. Salvant studied at the Université Pierre Mendès-France. She has performed at national and international venues and festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Village Vanguard, and the Kennedy Center. Salvant is also a visual artist. Her previous Nonesuch albums, Ghost Song (2022) and Mélusine (2023), were both nominated for Grammy Awards, as well as receiving critical accolades.

Cécile McLorin Salvant's new release Oh Snap (Nonesuch Records, 9/19/2025) features twelve very personal songs by Salvant-plus a cover of a verse from the Commodores' 1977 hit "Brick House"-mostly recorded outside of a traditional studio environment and showcasing her genre-spanning tastes and influences. The album features longtime collaborators Sullivan Fortner, Yasushi Nakamura, and Kyle Poole, as well as cameos from singers June McDoom and Kate Davis.

"With her pure-tones, elastic voice triple Grammy winner Cécile McLorin Salvant has a penchant for taking her listeners into the unknown ... a courageously kaleidoscopic song cycle that explores art-rock, Americana, futurist R&B, 80's pop and mutant electronic disco. The album is breathtaking in its musical scope." – Record Collector

The MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy-winning singer and composer wrote these short, intimate songs as part of a creative quest: To place spontaneity and joy at the center of her writing process. She originally recorded them alone, at home, never intending for them to be released, using digital tools and effects that she had never played with before, like GarageBand, Logic, AutoTune, Midi plugins, drum loops, vocal effects, reverb, and filters. The songs reflect Salvant's wide-ranging musical influences from her 1990s childhood in Miami-from boy bands to grunge to classical to folk-and include party tracks with beats, samba grooves, and quiet folk songs.

"An ... artist of rare gifts and fearless variety. The meditative, pandemic-induced 'Expanse,' the playful Auto-Tuned electro-pop of 'A Little Bit More' and the skipping, scampering synth-hooked title track all show how ingeniously this remarkable artist can reinvent herself." -Guardian, Jazz Album of the Month

"Salvant is rapidly moving beyond the boundaries of jazz, and I'm gonna follow wherever she leads." - Stereogum