For Your Consideration

Best Jazz Performance

Cherokee

Deelee Dube

‘A Beguiling Soulfulness’ – Jazz Times

London-born and multi-award-winning vocal artist and songwriter Deelee Dubé made history as the first British Sassy Awards recipient, winning the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2016, and possesses what JazzTimes called ‘a warm tone, genuine blues feeling and easy rhythmic authority’. 

“Exploring the cello tones that informed her bottom register (and were reminiscent of The Divine One herself)” – Downbeat

Embodying a stellar South African musical lineage, the eclectic tastes of a London upbringing, and a deep love and respect for the jazz tradition, Deelee’s late father was the famed South African jazz pianist Jabu Nkosi; her grandfather another legendary figure from the country’s music scene, saxophonist and bandleader Zacks (Isaac). ‘

Ms. Dubé, the first British recipient of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Award, has a voice of the purest gold’ – Trevor Bannister (JazzMann).

A former house vocalist at the legendary London venue Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club for the Acoustic Jazz Lounge with host and saxophonist Renato D'Aiello, 2017 saw Deelee embark on a brief tour of North America with a successful debut performance at the Montreal Int’l Jazz Festival in Quebec, Canada. This was followed with a stellar performance at the Teatro Auditorio Revellin in Ceuta for International Jazz Day organised in collaboration with the association La Coctelera and UNESCO, which was met with rave reviews by the Spanish press. In 2018 Deelee completed a Master of Arts degree in Voice studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and graduated at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. She also performed as part of the Royal Albert Hall’s 150th Anniversary series in Celebrating Women and the Hall.

Garnering supporters to the likes of, Sheila Jordan, Bebel Gilberto, 3T, Lori Lieberman, actress Zoe Saldana, as well as the late Chick Corea, amongst others, Deelee is one of the most gifted vocalists to have emerged from the London scene in many years.

Recorded on the Concord Jazz US label and digitally released in 2020 to unequivocal critical acclaim, ‘Trying Times’ was applauded with four star review as ‘a most impressive debut’ by All About Jazz, and subsequently won the South African Mzantsi Jazz Award for Best International Jazz Collaboration in 2021.

In 2020 Dube recorded Ray Noble’s Cherokee in collaboration with Spanish Jazz Pianist Juan Galiardo’s Trio which was commissioned by the Brecon Jazz Festival. Her interpretation of the 1938 classic continues to receive international accolades notably in South Africa where she was recently nominated for Best Female Jazz Artist and Best Jazz Song (Cherokee) in July 2023. The single was released to much critical acclaim in December 2022, when The Sunday Standard praised Dube’s version as “a smashing rendition”.

Cherokee (Music Video)

Music Reviews

“[Dube’s] version of Ray Noble’s Cherokee resurrects the song’s lyrics, long neglected in favour of competitively breakneck horn solos that never ever quite match Clifford Brown’s original. Dube lets the song breathe, respects the story it tells, and demonstrates classic but still imaginative vocal technique.”

– Gwen Ansell (Freelance writer and researcher)

"Dubé obviously has great gifts; an inherently expressive voice, a nice sense of timing and harmony, and a deep knowledge of the tradition." – Daily Telegraph

'A voice of deep grainy power ... Dubé has a quick-witted musicality'

– Daily Telegraph

“She’s a crowd-pleaser with serious vocal capabilities...”

– Jazzwise Magazine

“An unusual treatment of the Ray Noble song “Cherokee”, delivered here as a jazz ballad and with Dube singing the now rarely heard lyrics. Her sensual and soulful vocals were complemented by Galiardo’s lyrical piano solo, it was so good to hear him on a ‘proper’ grand piano, and the sensitive backing of bass and drums, with Gomez’s deft brush work a notable feature.

I’m so used to hearing “Cherokee” played at breakneck speed in the bebop idiom by Clifford Brown and others that it was a bit of an eye and ear opener to hear it performed like this.”

– Ian Mann (The Jazz Mann)

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