Andromeda Turre brings together jazz and pop as a vocalist, composer, pianist, producer, arranger, stage actress, dancer, radio host, community organizer, and activist. Her alto voice combines throatiness with silkiness, delivering both power and resonance. After Ray Charles personally selected her as the final Raelette, she composed and led the vocal charts for the Ray Charles Tribute Tour that followed his passing. The 2008 self-released album Introducing Andromeda Turre earned a Grammy nomination. With Steve Shewbrooks she formed the synth-pop duo Eminent Pulse, which issued six albums from Girl Like Me in 2011 through Her in 2020. Her second solo record, Shine, arrived in 2019 after a single-day session inside a one-room studio. While directing and performing in multiple musical-theater productions during 2023, she also joined Michael Bublé’s Songs of the Season gala. In 2024 she unveiled From the Earth, a four-movement jazz suite that addresses planetary themes and climate-change impacts on marginalized communities.
Born in 1981 to cellist and composer Akua Dixon and trombonist and conch-shell master Steve Turre, Turre grew up surrounded by music and frequent visits from leading jazz figures. Her parents recall that she began writing music as a toddler and started piano lessons with Sonelius Smith at age four. From age three she trained at the Dance Theater of Harlem and later at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, appearing in many student recitals and stage works. She entered the Boston Conservatory of Music as a dance major, then transferred to Berklee College of Music to focus on vocal performance. In 2003 she contributed vocals to Mark Petrie’s score for Michael Justiz’s film Cafe and Tobacco.
Turre paused her studies at Berklee to tour with Ray Charles’ band, becoming the last Raelette he hired before his death ended the engagement. She then created and directed the vocal arrangements for the subsequent Ray Charles Tribute Tour that traveled throughout the United States and Europe. In 2005 she performed on her father’s Rahsaan Roland Kirk tribute Spirits Up Above alongside James Carter, Vincent Herring, Mulgrew Miller, and Winard Harper. Three years later, while starring in an off-Broadway production, she appeared with the Earth Jazz Agents on their album Rhythms of the Sea.
After living and working in Japan, Turre returned in 2008 and independently issued her debut, Introducing Andromeda Turre. Recorded in Tokyo, the set featured four original compositions plus jazz standards such as “Bésame Mucho,” “Lush Life,” and “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado).” The project received a Grammy nomination. She continued performing as a singer and pianist in theater, film, and clubs nationwide. In 2010 she and synthesist-producer Steve Shewbrooks launched the synth-pop duo Eminent Pulse, releasing their first album, In the Dark, the next year. She also served as a backing vocalist with the Saturday Night Live Band, where her father held the musical-director post.
Eminent Pulse followed with Dream Girl in 2013 and toured clubs across the United States, Europe, and Japan. The following year she sang on her mother’s self-titled album. In 2016 the duo released Leave the Light On, which reappeared in 2017 within the 23-track compilation The Compilation; they also issued the full-length Girl Like Me that same year. Turre additionally performed on her mother’s Akua’s Dance. She began hosting the weekend Sirius XM Real Jazz program Growing Up Jazz, devoting twelve hours weekly to tracing Black history through a jazz lens. She also toured with Taraji P. Henson and Jennifer Lopez. In 2019 she released the solo album Shine, captured in one day inside a single-room Brooklyn studio. Eminent Pulse issued Her in 2020. After the pandemic, Turre concentrated on leading her own ensembles, appearing as a guest with other groups, and working as a vocal and performance coach. In 2023 she joined the cast of Michael Bublé’s Songs of the Season.
May 2024 brought the single “Contigo” as an advance release for her forthcoming album, followed in June by “Earth Waltz.” July saw the arrival of From the Earth, a programmatic jazz suite exploring environmental justice and humanity’s connection to the planet. Structured as four concertos, each movement highlights a community disproportionately affected by climate change; the pieces incorporate field interviews with local leaders and serve as urgent calls to action. Turre began composing the work in December 2022 during a stay in Iceland, where she witnessed the Aurora Borealis, powerful ocean waves, lava formations, storms, and the near-spiritual immersion inside a glacier, experiences that linked natural phenomena to climate change’s environmental, cultural, and societal consequences. With producer Scott Jacoby and an ensemble that included guest appearances by her parents, she integrated these elements into the music. Grants from Jazz Road, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and ArtsWestchester supported the project. From the Earth appeared in July 2024.
