Cécile McLorin Salvant "is now one of the essential figures in today's jazz," says ARTE, who filmed the singer in concert with her band at Leverkusen Jazz Festival in Germany last month. "Critics are full of praise for Cécile McLorin Salvant. Those who have already had the chance to see the triple Grammy Award winner in concert know that this praise is justified." You can watch the concert here.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, who begins her Carnegie Hall Perspectives series this Saturday, stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. She chose recordings by Philip Glass, Jeff Parker, Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet, Early Music Consort of London, Björk, Caetano Veloso, Steve Reich, Dawn Upshaw, Adam Guettel, Gipsy Kings, and monks from Khampagar Monastery.

The 72nd DownBeat Critics Poll results are in, and among the winners are Darcy James Argue, Arranger; Mary Halvorson, Guitar; Cécile McLorin Salvant, Female Vocalist; and Ambrose Akinmusire, Trumpet—all of whose albums are among the Jazz Albums of the Year—and Rhiannon Giddens, Beyond Artist and Beyond Album of the Year.

"It's like an engine for the world. And when we don't have that—we can't not have that ... It's like we're compelled to do it," Cécile McLorin Salvant says of the arts on the series How Art Changed Me from NYC PBS station WNET's ALL ARTS. "For me, singing and music has been a way to really be direct and say what I mean and what I feel." You can see what else she has to say here.

"For every music lover, I think there are two basic forms of pleasure: the huge satisfaction of something you love done just perfectly, and then the thrill of hearing something altogether shockingly new. When an artist does both things at once, your head comes open a little bit, which is what happened when I first heard Cécile McLorin Salvant," David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, says of his guest on The New Yorker Radio Hour. "She's a jazz singer for sure, someone on the level of Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald, but her repertoire and her approach to performing are totally her own." Salvant spoke with Remnick and performed three songs with pianist Sullivan Fortner: the Funny Girl favorite "Don't Rain on My Parade," the late 16th-century John Dowland song “Can She Excuse My Wrongs," and her own “Moon Song,” from her 2022 Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song. You can hear it all (including a shoutout to Rhiannon Giddens) here.

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Darcy James Argue, Mary Halvorson, and Ambrose Akinmusire, who have all won the Jazz Journalists Association's 2024 JJA Jazz Awards: Salvant for Female Vocalist of the Year, Argue for Arranger of the Year, Halvorson for Guitarist of the Year, and Akinmusire for Trumpeter of the Year.

Congratulations to Darcy James Argue, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Mary Halvorson, and Ambrose Akinmusire, who have all been nominated in the Jazz Journalists Association's 2024 JJA Jazz Awards: Argue for Composer of the Year, Arranger of the Year, Large Ensemble of the Year for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and Record of the Year for the group's Dynamic Maximum Tension; Salvant for Jazz Musician of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Record of the Year for Mélusine; Halvorson for Guitarist of the Year; and Akinmusire for Trumpeter of the Year. Winners will be announced on May 8.

Cécile McLorin Salvant's acclaimed 2023 album, Mélusine, was released one year ago this week. To mark the occasion, we're sharing live performances of four songs from the album made at Oberlin College and Conservatory, starting with "Dites moi que je suis belle," featuring Weedie Braimah on djembe, followed by "Le temps est assassin" with Sullivan Fortner on piano and "Fenestra" and "Dame Iseut" with both Fortner and Braimah. You can watch it here.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, who has just been nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis for International Live Act of the Year, has been named a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist for the 2024–25 concert season. She will lead four performances: a small-group show, a duo set with Sullivan Fortner, a full-orchestra concert with The Knights featuring new arrangements by Darcy James Argue, and her multimedia theatrical piece Ogresse conducted by Argue. 

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, who has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album for Mélusine (which is also up for two Grammy Awards). Winners will be chosen by public vote, which begins today and closes at 9pm ET on March 10. To have your say, visit naacpimageawards.net and vote for your favorites now. The 55th NAACP Image Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 16, broadcast on BET and CBS.

Ambrose Akinmusire's album Owl Song, Cécile McLorin Salvant's Ghost Song and Mélusine, and Yussef Dayes' Black Classical Music are all topics of conversation on the latest New York Times Popcast episode, "An Elastic and Impressive Moment in Jazz," hosted by Times music critic Jon Caramanica, with guests and Times music writers Marcus J. Moore and Giovanni Russonello. You can hear their conversation about "impressive recent releases" and this moment in jazz here.

"Beloved for her enthralling narrative flair, impeccable vocal mastery, and passion for traversing an extensive spectrum of musical genres, Cécile McLorin Salvant is one of the few true reigning divas of jazz," Brian Levine says of his guest on The Gould Standard in the second in a two-part interview. "But her creativity, curiosity, and wayfaring imagination take her well beyond the boundaries of any one style or genre of expression." You can watch part two of their conversation here.