Carol Duboc

With skills spanning vocals, songcraft, instrumentation, and arrangement, Carol Duboc commands a smoky timbre perfectly attuned to jazz. Her résumé includes collaborations with George Duke, Patti LaBelle, Maurice White, Joe Sample, Hubert Laws, Jeff Lorber, Stephanie Mills, and Chante Moore, to name only a few. A native of Kansas City, MO, she absorbed the legacies of hometown legends Charlie Parker and Count Basie along with the innovations of Miles Davis and Joe Henderson. Encouragement from her musical household prompted early study; she took up piano at five, added saxophone, and performed as both singer and actress with the Kansas City Performing Arts Company. Moving to Los Angeles, she enrolled at U.S.C. as a vocal-performance major, an experience that quickly translated into session work for other recording artists. Although a stint with pop/R&B producer Teddy Riley followed, her deepest affinity remained jazz, prompting her to write, produce, and record the 2001 release With All That I Am. Beyond her own projects she has supplied material for fellow performers, among them the title track of Chante Moore’s Precious (for which she also crafted the vocal arrangements), “Never Do You Wrong” for Stephanie Mills, and several songs featured on Patti LaBelle’s Gems and Jade’s Jade to the Max.