Cyrille Aimée

Cyrille Aimée headlines Birdland on November 4. The listing names Aimée alone and does not specify an accompanying lineup, guest, tribute, or album-release program. Expect a vocal-led set from an artist whose work brings jazz together with Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms and pop directness, shaped by roots that reach from Samois-sur-Seine to New Orleans.

French-born Aimée grew up in Samois-sur-Seine in a multilingual family, with the Afro-Caribbean music of her Dominican mother part of everyday life. As a teenager, she slipped out to mingle with musicians at the town’s Django Reinhardt Festival, an experience that sparked her commitment to jazz. After moving to New York, she performed and recorded with Roy Hargrove, appeared in a Stephen Sondheim tribute backed by Wynton Marsalis, and made Move On, an album of Sondheim songs praised by the composer. Her recording of “Marry Me a Little” received a 2019 Grammy nomination. She later worked with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jake Sherman on à Fleur de Peau. The Wall Street Journal called her “one of the most promising jazz singers of her generation,” while The New York Times described her as a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers.”