Denise King

Denise King draws upon the legacies of Nancy Wilson, Marlena Shaw and Sarah Vaughan as she delivers her big-voiced, expressive performances that fuse jazz with strands of R&B, blues and gospel. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she first encountered R&B during childhood and later encountered jazz at age twelve through an uncle whose record collection proved extensive. Following high school graduation, she pursued work in the medical field, supporting herself as a technician and family-planning counselor. Only in her early thirties did she begin performing at clubs throughout the city, a step that eventually led her to sing full time. Although standards remain part of her repertoire, King excels at reshaping rock and soul material into acoustic jazz, as demonstrated by her treatments of Santana’s “Evil Ways” and Ruby & the Romantics’ “Our Day Will Come.” Her recording career began in the 1990s with the release of Live In Japan: I Remember You in 1993, followed by Now Ain’t That Love in 1996 and Simply Mellow in 1997.