Lori Williams at Attucks Theatre

A passion for sharing jazz drives this DC-based singer, who tucks tours and club dates around her teaching at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson High School, where she is the Director of Vocal Music. Raised by Baptist parents, Lori Williams’ first love was gospel; it was when she was at Hampton University that her tastes expanded to jazz. In 1988, Lori took a train to New York City to compete on TV’s “Showtime at The Apollo.” She sang “Summertime” from “Porgy & Bess.” “They had a viewing party on campus and everybody saw it,” Lori reminisces. “I felt like a superstar...

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A passion for sharing jazz drives this DC-based singer, who tucks tours and club dates around her teaching at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson High School, where she is the Director of Vocal Music. Raised by Baptist parents, Lori Williams’ first love was gospel; it was when she was at Hampton University that her tastes expanded to jazz. In 1988, Lori took a train to New York City to compete on TV’s “Showtime at The Apollo.” She sang “Summertime” from “Porgy & Bess.” “They had a viewing party on campus and everybody saw it,” Lori reminisces. “I felt like a superstar. The campus and my Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. are family to me…highly motivational.” Her distinctive “smoke-and-honey voice” (The Washington Post) has drawn invitations to perform with such stars as gospel’s Yolanda Adams, R&B’s Howard Hewett, Will Downing and Phil Perry, contemporary jazz master Stanley Jordan, traditional jazz icons Terri Lyne Carrington and Winard Harper, and tap dance sensation Savion Glover. Attucks Jazz Club fans can look forward to hearing great things from this singer, including love songs from her new 2018 album Out of the Box—all caressed by a voice that’s “warm and rich…and earthy as red clay” (Jazzweekly.com).

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