(piano music) - [Bill] I think she is the best there is.

I don't think there is anybody better than Cecile alive today in terms of jazz singing.

There are very few who are really glorious singers like that.

(audience clapping) - [Wynton] She's looking to develop her artistry and to change the world that she perceives with her art to let us see things, to challenge us, and to fulfill the drive that's within her.

And I don't see anything to stop her from doing that.

(Cecile singing) - [Renee] She's got it, you know.

When she sings it's about truth and people feel that and that's what's gonna keep people coming back to listen to her because she touches them, you know.

When she sings you feel it in your gut.

♪ A far ♪ - [Wynton] She has a humanity and an intelligence and a vulnerability and a curiosity, this all in one package.

♪ Sometimes I try ♪ - [Aaron] It's undoubtable that Cecile is an incredibly important figure for jazz music, for music, for art.

It's a true blessing and a gift to the world that she's in existence.

♪ The feeling that I ♪ - [Bill] Of her generation, Cecile McLorin Salvant is singular.

(Cecile singing) ♪ All at once ♪ - [Announcer] Support for this program provided by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

- [Host] Thank you for your time.

Please welcome to the stage Ms. Cecile Salvant.

(audience clapping) - Thank you, thank you very much.

(audience clapping and whistling) Thank you.

(audience clapping) Good evening.

- [Audience] Good evening.

- Thank you for coming to hear us tonight.

It's good to be home.

It's really good to be home, thank you.

(audience clapping) This song is one that I've known since I was a little girl.

It is a song from the musical "Cinderella" by Richard Rodgers.

(audience clapping) (laughs) This is the song that Cinderella's stepsisters sing when they get to the ball.

They've spent their day getting ready trying to look good, as good as they can.

And they get there and it doesn't work.

This is called "The Stepsisters' Lament."

(audience clapping) ♪ Why should a fellow want a girl like her ♪ ♪ A frail and fluffy beauty ♪ ♪ Why can't a fellow ever once prefer ♪ ♪ A solid girl like me ♪ ♪ She's a frothy little bubble ♪ - [Paul] We never played with a vocalist of that caliber.

♪ With a frilly kind of air ♪ - She's very gifted with the story.

She understands what she's doing.

♪ I could pull out all her hair ♪ (audience laughing) ♪ Oh, oh why ♪ - I mean I had no inkling of what I later understood about her, you know, which is that she's incredibly talented and ahead of her years.

♪ A usual girl like me ♪ ♪ Her cheeks are a pretty shade of pink ♪ ♪ But not any pinker than a rose is ♪ ♪ Her skin may be ♪ - She's definitely one of the best bandleaders I've ever worked for.

In that sense, you know, there's always a new experience but it's kind of like, it's just like a small chosen family that's just going out and, you know, playing with each other.

♪ She's only as dainty as a daisy ♪ ♪ She's only as graceful as a bird ♪ ♪ So why is the fellow going crazy ♪ ♪ Oh why should the fellow want a girl like her ♪ ♪ A girl who's merely lovely ♪ ♪ Why can't a fellow ever once prefer ♪ - I believe there's been quite a bit of development within band over the last four years, different forms of exploration in the music sometimes maybe with a bit more restraint.

I know when it comes to being a little bit more cautious about how we play, that typically comes across in the recording studio but then there's the other extreme sometimes where we're very adventurous, we're trying things.

Some things work and others don't and that's the beauty night after night when you trust in your colleagues.

♪ What's the matter with the man ♪ (audience clapping) Thank you.

(audience clapping) Thank you very much.

(audience clapping and cheering) We're going to continue with a song that Bessie Smith used to sing.

This one is called "What's the Matter Now."

I think every child likes to sing until someone tells them that they have a bad voice, you know.

So I remember going around the house singing.

I remember liking to sing.

♪ Papa, Papa, treetop tall ♪ I had a really great childhood.

We have a very mixed family.

My mother is French.

My father is Haitian.

I was born and raised in Miami, music lovers, art lovers, people who are very passionate about literature and living well and dancing and laughing.

♪ Stay away, that's why you hear me say ♪ ♪ What's the matter now ♪ Growing up in my house we listened to a lot of music, mostly thanks to my mom who is huge music lover and has such an eclectic taste in music.

♪ Pretty Papa, did you break that thing ♪ ♪ What's the matter now ♪ - So when I think about my home and Cecile growing up and the type of music she used to listen to mostly I would say it was Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and we used to listen to that a lot.

♪ What's the matter now ♪ - Growing up we listened to music a lot.

My parents listened to a lot of types of music, French music, pop music.

- [Lena] Music from Africa, from Haiti, from all over the place.

So Cecile is a mixture of all of that.

She's a Miami girl.

Very early on we could hear that she was musically inclined.

She did a musical.

She did "Oklahoma."

She sang at her Kindergarten school.

She had the lead.

♪ Plenty of air and plenty ♪ - [Lena] I think she kind of stood out but I don't know if she stood out because she was that good or because the other kids were really not that great.

♪ Plenty of heart and plenty of hope ♪ ♪ Oklahoma, where the wind ♪ - [Lena] It's very hard to say.

To our own ears she stood out, absolutely.

Maybe three or four she started with the piano lessons once a week.

She was musically inclined.

♪ Oklahoma, every night ♪ - I think I must have been four.

I was really little.

I remember liking to sing.

I do remember singing with other children and having that be kind of the first experience of singing, you know, with a purpose other than just at home with my family and having to sight read and things like that.

(audience clapping) I didn't really think about a career.

I didn't really think about what I wanted to do when I grew up but every time I did start to think about it it was a long list.

And yeah, I enjoyed singing.

This next song is going to be in French for the French speakers in the audience.

I know there are at least four.

(audience clapping) Oh, cool.

This is a song that Josephine Baker sang.

The title in French is "Si J'Etais Blanche."

("Si J'Etais Blanche" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) (Cecile singing in foreign language) ♪ ♪ - [Lena] So I believe at the end of high school she did not had a very clear idea of what she wanted to do.

I thought she was gonna go into some type of a maybe literary career or you know, university studies.

I wasn't expecting her to go into music.

We were really thinking of her going into academics.

(Cecile singing in foreign language) - I graduated high school and I moved to France, to the southeast of France in a town called Aix-en-Provence to study political science at a prep school with an option of first year of a bachelor's in law while studying jazz and classical voice.

(bass playing) (musicians speaking in foreign language) (bass playing) (bassist speaking in foreign language) (bass playing) (Cecile singing) ♪ ♪ - [Lena] We choose Aix-en-Provence because it had a preparatory school that would prepare her for the exam for political science.

("Si J'Etais Blanche" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) - I did that because I wanted to spend a year in France.

I felt like it would be good to leave this country for a little bit and I just felt like I needed a little more time to figure things out.

It would definitely help my French.

(Cecile singing in foreign language) ♪ ♪ So I went there and it felt more like it was a sabbatical in my mind, just one year, see how I feel, come back to the United States, do college.

(Cecile singing in foreign language) - [Lena] We arrived there from Miami directly.

We rent her a little room near the prep school and she's already panicking.

She is looking at all these people.

She doesn't really want to stay there.

She's so sad because when she's looking at all these French people that are really a little bit uptight and you know, this is not Miami.

("Si J'Etais Blanche" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) (audience clapping) I mean I knew she was gifted but at the same time she was not wanting to go so I had to force her a little bit and it was not that easy.

- [Aisha] She was really lucky to have my mother helping her out, you know, because navigating this world of, you know, musicians, and that's very intense for somebody who's like only 18, 19, just left home.

She was a good momager (audience clapping) but she was never I don't think overbearing.

(audience whistling and cheering) - If she didn't want to do it she would not, we would not have pushed her at all, not at all.

I tell her, "Listen, let's go downstairs.

"Let's go to the jazz class and let's check out the setting "and the ambiance and the teacher."

We go downstairs and we meet Jean-Francois Bonnel.

(clarinet playing) - The first time I met Cecile McLorin Salvant was in September 2007 because she has finished her school in Miami and as her mother is French she wanted Cecile to go to France to make some more studies.

She used to play piano and sings classical music.

Her mother pushed her in the Conservatory of Music and she pushed her also to the jazz class.

- Jean-Francois Bonnel is very, very shy.

He looks very intimidating and Cecile, he says to Cecile, "Well sing me a song," and she does.

(Cecile humming) ♪ Now (clears throat) ♪ ♪ Now listen little honey while I say ♪ ♪ Now that you're telling me you're going away ♪ ♪ Don't say that we must part ♪ - I will always remember that.

♪ Break my aching heart ♪ ♪ You know I ♪ - I think she was a little afraid of me because when she sung I note enough diplomat.

Once she actually has sung the first chorus I told her, "Stop, I play now," and I wanted her to sing again at the right time.

(clarinet playing) - [Lena] Says, "Okay, good, very good.

"So if you want, you can come back.

"Pass the exam and I'll take you in my class."

- I learned later that he's very shy but I thought he hated me because I didn't know the forms and I didn't know how to improvise and I felt like I was a disaster.

And I thought well this isn't something I really wanted to do in the first place.

I can just go back to listening to Sarah Vaughan in my room and go about, you know, doing the rest of my stuff, my studies, whatever it is.

And I hadn't been planning on that.

I hadn't been planning on much but I hadn't been really planning on that at all.

And I just knew that it would require a lot of solitude, a lot of self-discipline.

So I'm leaving my classical voice teacher's lesson and I go down to the street and I start leaving and Jean-Francois comes up to me and he says (speaks in foreign language)?

I was like, "No, I don't think so."

He was like, "No, (speaks in foreign language)," and I was like, "I don't think so, I don't think so."

And he seemed so just pushy about it that I was like, "Okay, fine, like jeez.

"All right, I'll go."

I couldn't understand this guy.

I mean one second I thought he hated me and then the next second he's like almost mad that I thought I wouldn't go to the audition.

- [Jean-Francois] I discovered jazz music when I was 12 years old.

I maybe have 2,000 LPs.

I knew right away that Cecile would be the jazz singer of the 21st century.

- You know, in France I think all the musicians saw right away that Cecile was fantastic but not the critics because maybe the French critics doesn't understand the words and she say the words beautifully.

("Growlin' Dan" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) I was surprised when she came in France that nobody in the States could see what I saw.

So I wanted the people to know her.

♪ Gather 'round, folks, while I tell you about my man ♪ ♪ I'm talking about Growlin' Dan ♪ ♪ He's got roly-poly eyes ♪ ♪ And he's just about my size ♪ (audience laughing) ♪ He ain't no sheik nor a gigolo ♪ ♪ But just like they do, he takes it nice and slow ♪ ♪ In fact whatever he does I think is grand ♪ (audience laughing) ♪ I'm talking about Growlin' Dan ♪ - Cecile is a very centered and focused performer and that is something also that I think an audience feels when they're listening to her, they're comfortable.

♪ Minnie the Moocher, she met my Growlin' Dan ♪ (audience laughing) ♪ She shook her hoochie cooch and tried to steal my man ♪ (audience laughing) - Nobody is listening to her and you know, worrying, you know, oh, is she gonna hit that note or those types of things.

I mean she's just a great natural performer.

♪ Now my Dan is mean but he's on the square ♪ ♪ So he told old Minnie to take the air ♪ ♪ He said ho-de-ho-de-ho, ha, ha ♪ ♪ Minnie, I'll see you in the sweet by and by ♪ - She sings perfectly in tune.

She takes chances with the music.

She inhabits the song.

She has her own way of inhabiting it and she has a fantastic range that's very clear and she delivers the song to them.

She has a humanity and an intelligence, this all in one package.

So someone that great the audience will respond to because we are the audience.

You respond to it, I respond to it because that's, (laughs) it's great.

♪ Mmm ♪ (audience clapping) ♪ When a dog gets mad he howls ♪ ♪ When my man gets mad he growls ♪ ♪ He says what are you doing ♪ ♪ Where you been ♪ ♪ Where you going ♪ ♪ When did you come in ♪ ♪ Is my bath ready ♪ ♪ Did you turn the water on ♪ ♪ Ho, ho, ho ♪ - One of the things about Cecile, she made me cry the first time I heard her sing and she has continued to make me cry every time since.

Oh, it's very unusual for me to be moved to tears on the regular and Cecile does that.

♪ Why, why, Growlin' Dan ♪ ♪ Why, why, Growlin' Dan ♪ ♪ Why, why, why, Growlin' Dan ♪ ♪ Why, why, talking about ♪ ♪ My Growlin' ♪ ♪ Dan ♪ (audience clapping and cheering) Thank you very much.

This is Aaron Diehl.

(audience clapping and cheering) This is Paul Sikivie.

(audience clapping and cheering) This is Lawrence Leathers.

(audience clapping and cheering) A few months have passed since I moved to France and I was really homesick.

I didn't want to be there.

I wanted to go back to Miami and be with my family but I had this show coming up and I was really, really nervous.

My mom came, my sister came, and it was really, really great to have that support.

- [Lena] She played with Jean-Francois Bonnel and that was her very, very first concert but I thought she was the biggest thing there was.

- It's a restaurant so people are talking.

They're not really listening.

It's really hard to sing in that kind of, you know, those jazz restaurant things.

She was just really nervous, I could tell.

♪ I'm telling you've been much better off without me ♪ ♪ You're just the kind of boy would always play man ♪ ♪ I'm just the kind of a girl who could never be square ♪ ♪ It's so hard to let you go ♪ ♪ But it's only because I know ♪ ♪ That you're not the kind of boy for a girl like me ♪ I was so afraid.

I didn't want to talk to people in the audience.

I would just like look down and sing.

I would just be like this the whole time.

And I still have glimpses.

Like I still, that show I still remember because it was the first one.

- [Aisha] She sang beautifully but the stage presence wasn't there at all.

(jazz music) - Yeah, that was, that was really something.

(jazz music) (audience whistling and clapping) Thank you.

(audience clapping) Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

(audience clapping) Thank you.

(audience clapping) (piano music) There's a certain loneliness to being a jazz musician because you teach yourself a lot.

Actually there's a certain loneliness to being a musician in general because you have to be alone to practice and to develop.

If you want to write songs you have to really be with yourself and I didn't think I could do it.

It was really, really frightening to me.

I thought that I was better off maybe in an environment where I could just go to a class, do the thing, have deadlines, and not have what I felt was like a burden of being a musician, an artist.

(Cecile singing) - I think it's challenging to be an artist like that, you know.

She has a wonderful instrument but to bring forward something so personal, to bring herself forward in that way and just lay yourself out like that, that's remarkable.

I think that's wonderfully brave.

♪ All at once ♪ ("John Henry" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) ♪ John Henry was a little baby ♪ ♪ Sitting on his papa's knees ♪ ♪ Well he picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel ♪ ♪ He said this hammer's gonna be the death of me ♪ ♪ This hammer's gonna be the death of me ♪ ♪ This hammer's gonna be the death of me ♪ ♪ This hammer's gonna be the death of me ♪ ♪ This hammer's gonna be the death of me ♪ So my mom had compiled a list of competitions, vocal competitions that she thought I should audition for, one of which was Montreux.

Another was Crest and another was the Thelonius Monk Competition.

♪ I'll die with that hammer in ♪ ♪ I'll die with that hammer in ♪ - [Lena] The Thelonius Monk Competition is a competition that happens every year that happens in the United States that is organized by the Monk Institute.

The competition is about one instrument every year, a different one.

So I believe that vocal is probably every five years or every six years.

♪ 12 pounds from my hip on down ♪ ♪ Now don't you hear that cold steel ring ♪ ♪ Don't you hear ♪ - The Monk Competition really matters because it allows the musicians who want to become jazz musicians to have a touchstone.

They get to hear people that they may not have heard.

Then they get to be judged.

The competition can launch people's careers, and so something that has been very effective in classical music.

I think it gives promoters a chance to know the names of different people and some people go on to have careers.

("John Henry" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) - She wanted to do something to compete in some type of venue or festival and she went to compete in Crest.

Crest is a little town in France in the south of France and they organize every year a vocal jazz competition.

♪ Rain ♪ ♪ Hear that cold ♪ - I sent in an audition CD to Montreux and didn't receive a response.

♪ John Henry hammered in the mountain ♪ ♪ And the mountain ♪ Then there was Crest.

I sent an audition CD.

They said, "Great, you're part of the competition."

We went, we did the competition.

- And she lost to some hip hop group, some strange group.

- That was an interesting experience and then we didn't even place.

We didn't get, we didn't even get third place.

We didn't get public audience appreciation, nothing.

So I thought okay, well it's not happening.

This competition thing is not for me.

I'm not cut out for this.

- [Aisha] Everybody was sad and I could tell she was sad and we didn't want to dwell on that too much.

- My mom calls me and tells me, "Well the Monk competition is vocals this year.

"You gotta do it, gotta do it," and I thought okay, well I'll just send something in.

("John Henry" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) I mean if it didn't happen in these two competitions that are in Europe and this competition in France it's just not gonna happen.

At the Monk competition which is like international and all these people.

♪ Cool drink of water before I die ♪ ♪ Give me a cool drink of water before I die ♪ (Cecile singing) - [Lena] So I told her, "After all, this is your country.

"Maybe the people are gonna "be more sensitive to your music," and she said okay but really reluctantly.

She wasn't too keen on participating again.

She'd lost once and she wasn't too excited about it.

- So I knew it wasn't gonna happen but I thought okay, my mom wants me to do it, fine.

("John Henry" by Cecile McLorin Salvant) - [Lena] It's 10 o'clock and it's a Saturday.

The post office closes at 12.

- And she said, "Cecile, "did you send your audition tape in?"

I thought no, actually I didn't.

- And she's still at home not moving so I had to get a little bit excited.

Told her, "Listen, you know, you take this.

"You go now.

"You put it in the post office and you come with a ticket "because I need to know that you did it."

I wasn't sure.

So she does, she sends it in and we just, you know.

And everybody forgets about it.

A few months later she got a letter telling her that she was selected for the Monk so everybody was absolutely shocked and thrilled, happy.

And she was really shocked because you know, one thing is to send your demo and you know, you wish it's gonna happen but not really.

- And they said, "You're part of the semi-finals," and I go what?

Are you kidding me?

- The third semi-finalist is from Miami, Florida, and her name is Cecile Salvant.

- One, two, three, four.

(Cecile scat singing) What, me, really?

(Cecile scat singing) ♪ It's so easy ♪ - My husband and I, we were sitting outside of the place where they were singing whatever repertoire they were going to sing and we listened to all the contestants.

And everybody was coming from either Berkeley or some very fancy school and she was coming from the countryside, Aix-en-Provence.

Nobody knows Aix-en-Provence.

She doesn't sing really jazz.

She's completely unknown.

And she does her thing.

Everybody's very excited and still I didn't believe in it.

She was really good but I always thought that the other ones, you know, coming from where they were coming from were much better.

(Cecile scat singing) And during the intermission and I'm hearing all these comments on the back.

My husband and I, we're sitting in the back of the theater and we are listening to the people commenting.

So all the girls went very fancy with high heels, their hair done, everything, and Cecile went there, short hair, glasses, flat shoes.

Oh, and we could hear the young people in the back commenting.

- You heard about this singer, Cecile Salvant.

I'm like who's this?

Who's this girl?

- I had no idea who she was.

- [Lena] Look at her Afro, you know.

Where are the shoes?

(Cecile scat singing) - My mom, I remember her telling me like, "I don't know why I told you to do this.

"I don't even know.

"This is a bad idea.

"Let's go," like not let's go home but it was almost like a let's go home, forget this, this is too much.

- I was completely mortified so I got out of there for a bit, you know, at the intermission with my husband.

He went to the bar, got a good whiskey, drank in his whiskey, got my whiskey, got back in there hoping nothing at all.

- I'm not gonna win.

I might as well just sing something that I like and that I enjoy and that I feel, that I just feel really connected with.

♪ Dance, dancer daisy with moons all around ♪ ♪ And cows jumping ♪ So that's what I did and it was really shocking.

- Yeah, drum roll.

(drum roll playing) There we go, all right.

- I was so nervous and scared.

- And the third place winner, put your hands together for Miss Cyrille Aimee.

(audience clapping) Congratulations.

Here you go.

(audience clapping) - And now the first place winner.

- Please, please, please, that would be so cool.

It would be so cool.

(moans) - Please let's give a round of applause to Miss Cecilia Salvant.

(audience clapping) - I never think it's gonna be me.

I always think it's gonna be someone else getting, you know, these awards or whatever it is.

So it was a shock.

When I realized I won people still talk to me about my reaction.

Like they were like we've never seen someone so shocked.

I was just like what?

- Come over here with me.

(audience laughing) - Okay, I got this.

- There you go, yeah.

- A bit of a confession I had to make to her after we had been playing for a little while was that I was playing with the great singer Charenee Wade a bit at the time, you know, right before the Monk Competition and so I was a bit biased when I found out that, you know, Cecile McLorin Salvant wins the Monk Competition and I'm thinking who?

You know, okay, you know, that's politics, all politics.

- This competition must have been rigged (laughs) and sure enough when we started playing with her, we had that first rehearsal, we were like oh, okay.

(jazz music) ♪ Blue skies ♪ - We're having the first rehearsal and I'm just, you know, talking to the guys.

I'm like, "Man, this is, you know, politics "and blah, blah, blah.

"There's no way Charenee didn't get, "you know, first place."

And so I'm just going on about it.

Then she shows up and she's, you know, her bubbly, you know, naturally friendly self and just ready to work and saying, "Hi, guys," introduces herself.

And so, you know, I'm like okay, let's just get this rehearsal over so I can go and do whatever not knowing.

So she starts singing and it's like by the first note or two, you know, I'm just like... Then you know, clearly I had made a mistake about prejudging that situation.

But you know, I had to tell her that, you know, I'm sorry but this is the truth and you proved me wrong, so.

♪ Hey, little girl ♪ ♪ Comb your hair, fix your makeup ♪ ♪ Soon he will open ♪ - When she won the Monk I thought that that's only justice.

There was no alternative about that.

♪ You needn't try anymore ♪ ♪ For wives should always be lovers too ♪ ♪ Run to his arms ♪ ♪ The moment he comes home to you ♪ ♪ I'm warning you ♪ ♪ Day after day there are girls ♪ - It was in the air that there was a new singer on the scene, somebody who really had the goods and really sounded great.

And I remember from the first time I heard her, you know, all I had to hear was one note.

You could hear that there was a great musician.

♪ Still in curlers ♪ ♪ You may not see him again ♪ ♪ For wives should always be lovers too ♪ ♪ Run to his arms ♪ ♪ The moment he comes home to you ♪ ♪ He's almost here ♪ ♪ Hey little girl, better wear something pretty ♪ - Artistic sense I think over years of teaching and hearing musicians play I've concluded that you can have a person with perfect pitch, fantastic ears, great on-ear training, knows history, studies.

Now that's rare.

That's 1% maybe.

But what's even rarer, the rarest thing is when they have those attributes, the ability to hear and sing in tune and then they have an aesthetic sensibility, a way of art, a understanding.

It's even deeper than charisma.

She has that.

♪ Time ♪ (audience clapping) Thank you.

(audience clapping) Thank you very much.

(piano music) - Well I think one of the challenges that Cecile probably faces now is staying motivated within the realm of jazz because she has so many options.

We were having a conversation the other day when she said, "Well maybe I could use my jazz career "to subsidize my interests in other forms of art," which I think is an incredible idea, using her career as a vocalist to be a gateway into other media and forms of art.

When you're kind of looking from the outside in you think oh wow, this woman has this great jazz career and she can do it for the rest of her life and for Cecile this is not the only option she has.

For some people that is the path they chose deliberately.

I'm going to be a jazz musician.

With Cecile it's almost a side effect in some ways.

(piano music) ("Nobody in Town Can Make a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine") Cecile within the realm of jazz tends to go deeper than just the content of the music.

She goes into the folkloric, the historic contexts.

♪ She had ♪ The Whitley Bay Festival is a festival near Newcastle in England and it's a festival that is centered around I would say early music, early jazz from the '20s and '30s and each show is a tribute to a musician from that era.

And thanks to that festival I learned a lot of repertoire, a lot of material.

♪ Like mine, no other ♪ It was really great because it allowed me to delve into that repertoire which is something that I love so much.

♪ So fine, so fine ♪ ♪ It's worth lots of dough ♪ - I really appreciate that she doesn't just do her thing.

She is respectful of the base on which she stands and perhaps more respectful than many artists in the sense that yeah, she knows the big names and knows the general history but she's gone back and learned things that many people don't know anything about and shared them with a wider audience.

I appreciate that a lot.

♪ Made the best jelly roll ♪ I think my choice of repertoire is mainly just a gut feeling.

I don't think too conceptually while I'm choosing songs.

I just choose songs that I love that I feel have maybe an edge, something interesting to them, songs that make me laugh or that make me think about things that make me angry or that make me cry, but songs where I have a really strong emotional reaction to them.

This is why I chose, I mean something like Bert Williams's "Nobody" is clearly a song about questions of identity in terms of race.

("Nobody" by Bert Williams) ♪ When life seems full of clouds and rain ♪ ♪ And I am full of nothing and pain ♪ - I remember reading a Gary Giddins book called "Visions of Jazz" and he decided to center the book on these figures in jazz and the history of American music that maybe were not so famous, not the Duke Ellingtons and Louie Armstrongs but some people who were a little behind the scenes or just, you know, famous in their time but have been forgotten but were really important in the history of music.

And Bert Williams came up and I had no idea that there was such a thing as a black person wearing blackface making fun of black people for a white audience.

That idea made my head explode.

I thought are you kidding me?

♪ Nobody, no time ♪ ♪ So until I get something ♪ - So these black people are darkening their faces and then doing the like coon show?

This is incredible.

This is so fascinating and it explains actually a lot about American history and just the feeling of humiliation of being in that position but also being adored by these audiences.

♪ Who cried out stop now, that's dynamite ♪ - Cecile, to actually make relationships between the song, the material, and the social climate, that's sort of the next level.

♪ Do nothing for nobody, no time ♪ ♪ Somebody told me that I ♪ ♪ Made the best jelly roll in town ♪ ♪ I say in town ♪ The thing that excites me the most is questions of identity and how to deal with your identity when you are clearly maybe the outsider.

♪ From a bakery shop ♪ And when I say that I mean as of course as black female jazz musicians there is definitely a sense of being an outsider, of living in a world that is not your world but the world of a white man.

(audience clapping) And so those are things that you have to grapple with.

(audience clapping) I want to and I've tried to in the past make music that is authentic, that is me as close to being honest and true and genuine as I can.

♪ All I've got to show's a splinter ♪ ♪ For my little fling ♪ ♪ Spring this year has got me feeling ♪ ♪ Like a horse that never left the post ♪ ♪ I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours ♪ ♪ Spring can really hang you up the most ♪ ♪ All afternoon the birds twitter-twit ♪ ♪ I know the tune ♪ ♪ This is love, this is it ♪ ♪ Heard it before and don't I know the score ♪ ♪ And I've decided that spring is a bore ♪ ♪ Love seems sure around the new year ♪ ♪ And now it's April love is just a ghost ♪ ♪ Spring arrived right on time ♪ ♪ Only what became of you, dear ♪ ♪ Spring can really hang you up the most ♪ ♪ All alone, the party's over ♪ ♪ Old Man Winter was a gracious host ♪ ♪ But when you keep praying ♪ ♪ For snow to hide the clover ♪ ♪ Spring can really hang you up the most ♪ (audience clapping) I want to make honest music.

I want to do something that we love to do and that's going to be real.

♪ Here in my arms ♪ The first day of recording when we were in the studio Lawrence Leathers, the drummer, said, "Let's get this Grammy," like before he played his first, you know, note and it was, I thought it was funny that he would say that and I didn't really take it seriously.

But when we heard about the nominees we were all like all right, let's see if this can happen.

- [Announcer] For Best Jazz Vocal Album the nominees are Karrin Allyson, Denise Donatelli, Lorraine Feather, Jamison Ross, Cecile McLorin Salvant.

- And the Grammy goes to "For One to Love," Cecile McLorin Salvant.

(audience clapping) - Are you kidding me?

They call my name.

I think three things.

I think oh god, F. Then I think don't fall because you have a long dress.

You're gonna fall all over the stairs like Jennifer Lawrence and then it's gonna be just awful.

And don't forget your mom.

Do not forget your mom.

(audience clapping) (Cecile sighing) (laughs) Thank you.

This is crazy.

First and foremost I want to thank the beautiful musicians that were on this album that helped me make this music, Aaron Diehl, Paul Sikivie, Lawrence Leathers.

I want to thank my manager, Ed Arrendell, for introducing me to these musicians.

I want to thank my label for believing in the music that we made.

I want to thank my sister and my dad for always encouraging me and supporting me through the years.

- Let me tell you that when she started thanking the beautiful musicians, her manager, her label, her dad, her sister, I'm like oh man, is she going to forget about me?

- Don't forget Mom, don't forget Mom, don't forget Mom.

Go, go, go.

And I did forget Mom.

(laughs) And mostly I want to thank my mom who's always been there for me and who forced me on the piano when I was three years old and forced me to continue until I was 18 and told me to start singing jazz in the first place.

And thank you, Mom.

This is for you, thank you.

(audience clapping) ♪ There's a story told of a little Japanese ♪ ♪ Sitting demurely beneath the cherry blossom trees ♪ ♪ Miss Butterfly's her name ♪ ♪ A sweet, little innocent child was she ♪ ♪ Til a fine young American from the sea ♪ ♪ They met beneath the cherry blossoms every day ♪ ♪ And he taught her how to love the American way ♪ ♪ Poor Butterfly ♪ (audience clapping and cheering) - [Announcer] Support for this program provided by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.