Fay Victor

Fay Victor (born July 26, 1965)^[1][2] is an American musician, composer, lyricist and educator. Originally a singer in the traditional jazz field, she has been working in jazz, blues, opera, free improvising, avant-garde, modern classical music, and occasional acting since re-settling in New York in 2003.

Fay Victor
Victor performing in 2016 in Cologne, Germany
Background information
Born	(1965-07-26) July 26, 1965 (age 59)[1][2] Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, lyricist
Labels	ESP Disk, Greene Ave Music, Timeless Records, ArtistShare
Website	fayvictor.com

Early life and career

Victor was born in Brooklyn, New York City.^[3] After spending her early childhood years in New York, Zambia, and Trinidad & Tobago, her mother settled in Long island, NY, where Victor spent her teenage years.^[4] After her mother's sudden death,^[1] Victor re-discovered music and singing, and after a 3-month stint at a club in Fukui City, Japan with pianist Bertha Hope, she decided to start a career as a jazz singer.^[5] In 1996, Victor settled in Amsterdam, the Netherlands^[6] and performed and toured through the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Russia, and India.^[7] While living in the Netherlands, Victor branched out into blues, songwriting, and forms of improvising outside the standard jazz canon. Victor has lived in NYC since 2003. She has worked with the likes of Randy Weston, Roswell Rudd, Anthony Braxton, Misha Mengelberg, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Wadada Leo Smith, Nicole Mitchell, Marc Ribot, Martine Syms, Daniel Carter, William Parker, Darius Jones, Wolter Wierbos, Ab Baars, Joe Morris, Sam Newsome, Reggie Nicholson.

Victor's work has been reviewed in The New York Times,^[8][9] Jazz Times,^[10][11] and Down Beat.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Music

Victor has coined the term "freesong" to describe her vocal approach.^[1][4] In her jazz repertoire, Victor has specialized in the work of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Herbie Nichols.^[4][16]

Activism

Victor is co-director of the TalkRace forum^[17] and is a member of the "We Have Voice" collective.^[18][19][20]

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Title	Artist	Year	Label
Life Is Funny That Way	Fay Victor's Herbie Nichols SUNG	2024	TAO Forms[21]
Blackity Black Black is Beautiful	Fay Victor	2023	Northern Spy Records[22]
We've Had Enough!	Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK	2020	ESP Disk[23]
Barn Songs	Fay Victor	2019	Northern Spy[24]
In My Own Room	Fay Victor	1998	Timeless Records[25]
Darker Than Blue	Fay Victor	2001	Timeless Records[26]
Should We Do This Again?	Fay Victor	1995	Groovie Sound
Lazy Old Sun	Fay Victor	2004	Greene Ave Music[27]
Wet Robots	Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK	2018	ESP Disk[23]
Kaiso Stories	Other Dimensions In Music with Fay Victor	2010	Silkheart[28]
Absinthe & Vermouth	Fay Victor Ensemble	2013	Greene Ave Music
The FreeSong Suite	Fay Victor Ensemble	2009	Greene Ave Music
Cartwheels Through The Cosmos	Fay Victor Ensemble	2007	ArtistShare[29]
Bare	The Exposed Blues Duo (with Anders Nilsson)	2010	Greene Ave Music[30]
New York/Sankt Johann	ReDDeer (with Elisabeth Harnik & Dominic Lash)	2017	Evil Rabbit[31]

As featured artist/sideperson

Title	Artist	Year	Label
West Coast Blues	Gregor Hilden	1998	Acoustic Music Records[32]
Aces of Swing: A Tribute to the Music of John Kirby & Charlie Shavers	Robert Veen Sextet	1996	Basta Basta[33]
Trombone for Lovers	Roswell Rudd	2013	Sunnyside[34]
Embrace	Roswell Rudd	2017	Rare Noise Records[35]
The Invisible Blow	Ab Baars Trio + NY guests	2014	Stichting Wig[36]
Trillium E	Anthony Braxton	2011	New Braxton House[37]
Glorious Ravage	Liza Mezzacappa	2017	New World Records[38]
The Jazz Lounge Trio Meets...	Jazz Lounge Trio	2000	Laika Records[39]
Songs of Resistance - 1942-2018	Marc Ribot	2018

References

1. Giving Birth To Sound. Koln, Germany: Buddy's Knife. 2015. pp. 248–253. ISBN 978-3-00-049279-2.
2. Jazz, All About. "Fay Victor @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz Musicians. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
3. Ratliff, Ben (June 10, 2010). "CareFusion, Vision, Undead and Other Jazz Fests". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
4. "Fay Victor gives free rein to jazz vocals". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
5. "Fay Victor | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
6. "Fay Victor Opening New Doors". Retrieved March 25, 2018.^{[permanent dead link]}
7. "Biography – Fay Victor". fayvictor.com. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
8. Chinen, Nate (August 27, 2010). "Abbey Lincoln's Style Influences New Set of Recordings". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
9. Ratliff, Ben (October 7, 2009). "New Works by Shrinebuilder, Fay Victor, Coati Mundi, Francesco Cafiso and Junk Culture". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
10. "Fay Victor Ensemble: Absinthe & Vermouth". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
11. "Other Dimensions in Music featuring Fay Victor: Kaiso Stories". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
12. "Winter Jazzfest Gilded with Guitarists and Vocalists". Down Beat. January 17, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
13. "Roswell Rudd Feted at 82nd Birthday Bash". Down Beat. November 28, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
14. "Downbeat 1403 Digital Edition" (PDF). Retrieved March 25, 2018.
15. "DownBeat Reviews". Down Beat. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
16. "Sound It Out: "20 Questions" #2 — Fay Victor". Sound It Out!. September 15, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
17. "FAY VICTOR / TYSHAWN SOREY". CACOPHONY. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
18. "we have voice". wehavevoice.org. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
19. "Women Fighting Sexism in Jazz Have a Voice. And Now, a Code of Conduct". The New York Times. April 30, 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
20. "A Map to the Line, And How Not To Cross It: A Code Of Conduct For The Performing Arts". NPR. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
21. "Life Is Funny That Way - TAO Forms". taoforms.bandcamp.com//. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
22. "Blackity Black Black Is Beautiful - Northern Spy Records". northernspyrecs.com/. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
23. "ESP-Disk'". espdisk.com. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
24. "Barn Songs - Northern Spy Records". northernspyrecs.com/. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
25. "Jazz is Timeless Records – Fay Victor – In My Own Room". timelessjazz.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
26. "Jazz is Timeless Records – Fay Victor – Darker Than Blue". timelessjazz.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
27. "Lazy Old Sun, by Fay Victor". Fay Victor. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
28. "Silkheart Records presents the New American Jazz". silkheart.se. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
29. "Cartwheels Through The Cosmos, by The Fay Victor Ensemble". The Fay Victor Ensemble. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
30. "Bare, by Exposed Blues Duo". Exposed Blues Duo. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
31. "err26: new york – st. johann – reddeer | Evil Rabbit Records". evilrabbitrecords.eu. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
32. "Gregor Hilden Feat. Fay Victor – Westcoast Blues". discogs. November 9, 1998. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
33. Aces of swing – Robert Veen – Muziekweb (in Dutch), retrieved March 25, 2018
34. "Trombone For Lovers, by Roswell Rudd". Sunnyside Records. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
35. "RareNoiseRecords – rudd-victor-harris-filiano". RareNoiseRecords. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
36. Kappers, Arjan. "Ab Baars – discography". stichtingwig.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
37. "Trillium E, by Anthony Braxton". New Braxton House. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
38. "New World Records: Album Details". newworldrecords.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
39. "cdpressemeets". muenster.org. Retrieved March 25, 2018.

External links

• Official website