Cyrille Aimée

Cyrille Aimée takes the Birdland stage for a late set. The billed name is Aimée alone, and no accompanying musicians are specified, so this is a chance to hear the vocalist and songwriter without assumptions about the evening’s personnel. Her work draws together jazz, pop and Caribbean dance rhythms, with a recent focus on material from à Fleur de Peau, created with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jake Sherman.

Born in Samois-sur-Seine, France, Aimée grew up in a multilingual, music-filled household shaped by her Dominican mother’s Afro-Caribbean sounds. Living near the Django Reinhardt Festival, she slipped out as a teenager to meet its players, a formative route into jazz. After moving to New York, she performed and recorded with Roy Hargrove, appeared in a Stephen Sondheim tribute backed by Wynton Marsalis, and earned a Grammy nomination for her version of “Marry Me a Little” from Move On. She later made New Orleans her home and has also worked with Diego Figueiredo and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. JazzTimes found her “impossible to not be charmed” by, praising her “infectious joie de vivre,” while another reviewer cited her “incredible feeling” and “superb musicality.”