9 hours ago
4
There’s a particular kind of electricity that hits a room when a singer with a five-octave range decides to lean into a ballad. New York audiences are about to feel it again. N’Kenge, the Tony, Grammy and Emmy-nominated powerhouse who calls this city home, has returned from Europe to lead a fall run of jazz performances that stretches from SoHo to Harlem to Midtown, wrapping up December 3, 2026. And if there’s one night to circle on the calendar, it’s this Saturday, November 7, when she takes over The Jazz Club at the Aman New York.
Just weeks ago, N’Kenge was a world away from Lenox Avenue. Her European swing began in Milan, where she performed at Sala Verdi Hall in the middle of Italy’s Fashion Week, surrounded by the industry’s most discerning eyes. From there she headed to Bulgaria and stepped into opera, starring as Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the State Opera in Stara Zagora. Lauretta is the role behind “O mio babbino caro,” one of the most beloved arias ever written, and it demands a singer who can float a melody with delicacy and control. That N’Kenge could carry that role abroad and then fly home to swing standards in a Harlem dining room says everything about the kind of artist she is.
She doesn’t hide which side of her heart was pulling her back. “It’s great to be back home and perform at some of my favorite jazz clubs in NYC,” N’Kenge says. “As much as I love performing opera overseas, it’s always a pleasure to get back to singing jazz in New York City!”
Saturday’s show inside the Crown Building at 9 W 56th Street is where fashion and music collide. Running from 9 to 11 p.m., the evening will see N’Kenge styled by Janna Fey and wearing two New York designers. The first is Randi Rahm, one of the last remaining American couture houses. From her Madison Avenue atelier, Rahm has dressed Beyoncé, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Billy Porter, Heather Graham, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Aguilera and many more, and her intricately constructed pieces have become fixtures on red carpets and stages.
The second is Shani, the label of Parsons-educated designer Shani Grosz, a native New Yorker who designs in the city’s Garment District. Her elegant daytime and occasion dresses feature embroideries and appliqués her team creates from scratch. The collection is carried by Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom and is a favorite of news anchors and Hollywood names. The look is finished with fine jewelry from SORA by Ksenia Podnebesnaya. Headquartered at the Lotte New York Palace on Madison Avenue, SORA is a family-owned house whose nature-inspired, artisan-crafted designs showcase South Sea and Tahitian pearls, diamonds and vivid colored gemstones. It’s a pairing that fits the room perfectly: Midtown elegance on the outside, a voice that has filled Carnegie Hall on the inside.
The musicians sharing the stage that night are a story of their own. At the piano is ELEW, the genre-blurring player born Eric Lewis, fresh from touring with Sting. Behind the kit sits Camille Gainer, a drummer whose résumé runs through Chris Botti, Roberta Flack, Les Nubians, Cyndi Lauper and Alicia Keys. Melissa Slocum anchors the low end on upright bass, bringing a pedigree that includes Wynton Marsalis, Cab Calloway and Art Blakey, a lineage that reaches deep into jazz history. Completing the quartet is trumpeter Alphonso Horne, who has played for Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett and Wynton Marsalis. Put that group behind N’Kenge and you have a lineup that could hold its own on any festival bill in the world.
The rest of the series features the N’Kenge All-Star Band, built around Paul Shinn on piano, Lonnie Plaxico on upright bass, Chris Paredes on drums and James Gibbs III on trumpet, with Jihee Heo, ELEW, Alphonso Horne, Camille Gainer and Melissa Slocum joining at select venues. Harlem gets the most face time: N’Kenge holds a residency at Red Rooster Harlem, 310 Lenox Avenue, on November 5, November 19, November 26 and December 3, each running from 7 to 10 p.m. Downtown fans can catch her on November 21 at the Club Room at the Soho Grand Hotel, 310 W Broadway, where she’ll play two sets at 7:30 and 9:00 p.m., echoing the two-set opening night she delivered at the same room on October 30.
The timing of this homecoming couldn’t be better. Earlier this year, N’Kenge was named Best Vocalist at the 14th Annual Intercontinental Music Awards, an international competition, for her live rendition of “Bewitched.” That recording lives on her 2025 album Centerstage – Live from the Ella Fitzgerald Festival, and it was also her formal introduction to the jazz world. Her reading of the Rodgers & Hart classic “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” is lush and unhurried, the kind of performance that makes a decades-old lyric sound like it was written last week. Recognition on a global stage for a jazz debut is rare, and it confirmed what her longtime fans already knew.
Those fans have followed her down a lot of roads. A graduate of both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, N’Kenge has sung as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden. She has headlined pop and opera programs with orchestras across the country, among them the Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. Presidents and international dignitaries have been in her audiences, and she took the stage as a presenter at the 58th Annual New York Emmy Awards.
Theater is another chapter. Her Broadway debut came in Sondheim on Sondheim, and her most recent Broadway outing was the Tony-winning revival of Caroline, or Change. Leading turns in Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida and in Marion Caffey’s 3 Mo’ Divas brought her Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical nominations from both the Helen Hayes Awards and the ariZoni Theatre Awards. Along the way she has performed alongside jazz icons Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis, and her funky worldbeat single “Goosebump Moment” turned her into a genuine TikTok favorite.
She isn’t slowing down. N’Kenge is developing a Broadway-bound musical honoring the life and music of Dorothy Dandridge, the trailblazing actress and singer, and she’s developing and producing an original TV musical dramedy titled Black Butterfly. Her newest single, “Feel Alive,” is streaming now on every major platform.
Few performers can claim a Milan fashion-week stage, a Bulgarian opera house and a Harlem residency in the same season. N’Kenge just did, and New York gets the payoff. Tour updates and more information are available at NKengeMusic.com.
For more info:
NKengeMusic.com
Facebook | LinkedIn | Website | Instagram | YouTube
The post From Stara Zagora to Harlem: N’Kenge Brings Her Fall Jazz Series to New York’s Most Storied Rooms appeared first on The Hype Magazine.
