Samara Joy’s classic jazz vocals help connect the genre to a new generation.

Oh to be young, gifted and Black, as playwright Lorraine Hansberry memorably put it decades ago. Vocal phenomenon Samara Joy, 23, amply lives up to that legacy.

After appearing at last year’s Monterey Jazz Festival, Joy went on to win two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile. She makes her triumphant return Sunday, Sept. 24 on the Jimmy Lyons Stage, accompanied by Luther Allison on piano, Michael Migliore on bass and Evan Sherman on drums.

The preternaturally composed wunderkind carries on in the tradition of the greats who preceded her. She won the Sarah Vaughan International Competition in 2019 and, two years later, while still a voice major at State University of New York at Purchase, was named an Ella Fitzgerald Memorial Scholar.

Her effortless scatting, multi-octave range and eclectic, selective song selection will resonate with older fans and newer audiences alike. In this way, she resembles artists like Cecile McLorin Salvant, Esperanza Spalding and Catherine Russell (who plays the festival’s Garden Stage on Sunday) as performers offering a bridge to the future for a genre whose commercial viability is often cast in doubt.

Born in the Bronx, Joy was raised by gospel royalty. Her grandparents founded the gospel group The Savettes; her father toured with Andraé Crouch.

All her training, rehearsing and love for the art paid off in her self-titled 2021 debut album, featuring unique renditions of standards like “Stardust,” “Everything Happens To Me,” “Moonglow” and “Lover Man” – the torch song that Billie Holiday made famous, though Joy is partial to Sarah Vaughan’s cover. (No purist, she recently covered Adele’s “Someone Like You” as a Spotify single. And like many in her generation, she has a lively TikTok presence.)

In Linger Awhile, Joy provided lyrics for Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia,” added topspin to Lester Young’s “I’m Confessin’,” and tackled the Thelonious Monk classic “Round Midnight.”

All this might seem surprising for someone so young. Then again, Joy has been surprising audiences – and making a joyful noise – throughout her already-brilliant career.

SAMARA JOY performs 3:10-4pm Sunday, Sept. 24 on the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Jimmy Lyons Stage.