One of Jenny’s first experiences of singing jazz was performing “Fever” with the jazz band at her school leavers’ concert: a shy and studious teenager unleashed her Afro, borrowed a silver dress and was transformed into an aspiring jazz diva...  

 

Whilst studying at Oxford, she sang with, and for a time directed, “The Oxford Belles” - an all-female a cappella choir. The camaraderie and joyousness of the group bolstered her confidence and honed her skills as a small ensemble performer. In her twenties she was asked to sing at a family wedding and her first jazz band was born. 

 

Jenny’s early influences as a jazz singer naturally include Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald but she has found inspiration from a huge number of other singers with current obsessions including Gregory Porter, Emilie-Claire Barlow, China Moses and the wonderful Liane Carroll.

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Jenny has been fortunate enough to be tutored by Liane Carroll on many occasions over the years and has learnt from her the importance of crafting a song to tell a story that touches hearts. More recently Jenny has studied under Emilia Mårtensson, previous winner of the Jazz Vocalist of the Year in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

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Cloister is Jenny's latest duo project where she is working with exciting young jazz pianist Toby Caswell. Toby is currently on the junior jazz programme at the Royal Academy. The pair initially started rehearsing remotely during the COVID lockdowns and have since gone on to record their first demo album and to start performing locally.