Event

Cecile McLorin Salvant & Trio

Cécile McLorin Salvant was born and raised in Miami to a French mother and a Haitian father. She started classical piano studies at 5, and began singing in the Miami Choral Society at 8. In 2007 she moved to Aix-en-Provence, France, to study law as well as classical and baroque voice at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory. There she also began learning improvisation, and in 2009, after a series of concerts in Paris, she recorded her first album, "Cécile," with Jean-François Bonnel's Paris Quintet.

Since winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk competition in Washington, D.C. the next year, McLorin Salvant's star has risen quickly. She has dazzled audiences in clubs, concert halls, and festivals around the world, performing with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson, and Archie Shepp. With the trio of Aaron Diehl, Rodney Whitaker, and Herlin Riley, she recorded the Grammy-nominated album "WomanChild" for Mack Avenue in 2013.

Like many others, New York Times critic Ben Ratliff admires the young vocalist's unique style and her sophisticated sense of jazz history. "Her voice clamps into each song," he writes, "performing careful variations on pitch, stretching words but generally not scatting; her face conveys meaning, representing sorrow or serenity like a silent-movie actor."

McLorin Salvant stops in Arcata on her way to the 2014 Monterey Jazz Festival.