Robin McKelle

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1976, Robin McKelle has developed a career that links jazz, soul, blues, and American songwriting in a vocal approach marked by a wide timbre and a flexible interpretation. After beginnings associated with jazz and big band repertoire, she released Introducing Robin McKelle in 2006 and then Modern Antique in 2008, before broadening her scope with Mess Around in 2010, more anchored in rhythm and blues and soul. Robin McKelle continues this evolution with Soul Flower in 2012 and Heart of Memphis in 2014, recorded in Tennessee, where her writing and phrasing align more with a Southern soul and blues tradition. The Looking Glass in 2016 offers a more personal register, while Melodic Canvas in 2018 returns to a jazz formula, centered on the trio and standards. In 2020, Alterations revisits songs written by women authors from different backgrounds in jazz arrangements. Robin McKelle then releases Impressions of Ella in 2023, a homage to the repertoire associated with Ella Fitzgerald. Over the years, Robin McKelle has moved between jazz stages, festivals and venues dedicated to soul and blues music, with a repertoire that alternates between original compositions, standards and reinterpretations.