Vanessa Rubin

Vanessa Rubin is a jazz vocalist rooted in the bebop and standards tradition, known for a warm, swinging delivery shaped by the models of Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan. Born in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio, she earned a journalism degree from Ohio State University before moving to New York in 1982 and studying with pianist Barry Harris and saxophonist Frank Foster at Harris' Jazz Cultural Theatre. She signed with RCA/Novus in 1991, and her 1992 debut Soul Eyes established her among the respected vocalists of her generation. Her later work includes the 2019 album The Dream Is You: Vanessa Rubin Sings Tadd Dameron, which earned a nomination for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. She has long been a fixture of the New York jazz scene, appearing at clubs such as Birdland.