Judy Carmichael

Grammy nominated pianist/vocalist, Judy Carmichael is one of the world’s leading interpreters of stride and swing piano. Count Basie nicknamed her “Stride," acknowledging the command with which she plays this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style. Judy’s vocal debut on her CD Come and Get It features her singing everything from Peggy Lee inspired standards, to humorous takes on Fats Waller tunes. Her first all-vocal CD I Love Being Here With You followed, which is also her first with someone else playing piano, in this case the great Mike Renzi (who was music director for Mel, Tormé. Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and Sesame Street ) with Harry Allen on sax and Jay Leonhart on bass. Can You Love Once More? Judy and Harry play Carmichael and Allen is Judy’s first CD of originals.

America’s Jazz Times says: “Judy Carmichael exhibits a truly remarkable ability to channel Peggy Lee's breathy invitingness and her befogged insouciance.  Additionally, she echoes the intense perspicacity of the solo albums of Annie Ross.  In other words, Judy winningly blends two of the all-time finest, most intuitive jazz singers.” 

Judy has taken this infectious style of music and her equally infectious personality everywhere from posh nightclubs in Paris and Melbourne to Carnegie Hall and a Rio concert for ten thousand Brazilians; from Arundel Castle (where she opened for Leslie Garrett and the London Philharmonic) to Castle Fraser for the National Trust of Scotland at the behest of longtime fan, Sir Cameron Mackintosh. 

Judy’s been featured on A Prairie Home Companion, NPR’s Morning Edition, Entertainment Tonight, CBS' Sunday Morning, CNN’s Business Unusual, Mornings With Margaret Throsby for the Australia Broadcast Corporation, Jo Soares in Brazil and the BBC’s Loose Ends, In Tune, Up All Night, Woman’s Hour and numerous other shows

For 25 years Judy has produced and hosted Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired which broadcasts on NPR stations across America and podcasts everywhere but Mars, although it might be there too.  She has written two books on stride piano and numerous articles about jazz.  Her memoir, Swinger! A Jazz Girl’s Adventures From Hollywood To Harlem was published in January 2018 and her book, Great Inspirations: 22 Years of Jazz Inspired on NPR was published in August 2022.  

Judy Carmichael is included in The Encyclopedia of Jazz, Madame Jazz: Contemporary Women Instrumentalists, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in Finance and Industry in America, "Who's Who in American Woman, American Women in Jazz, Who's Who in the World, as well as the Encyclopedia of Jazz and is one of the few jazz pianists honored as a Steinway Artist. She has been included in a number of jazz anthologies and at one point, to her utter surprise, turned up in the Simon and Schuster murder mystery Murder Times Two as “the stride pianist Judy Carmichael,”  the main suspect’s favorite piano player.

With Judy, it’s all about swing, so when she’s not swinging on a stage, she’s on a tennis court, or indulging in any other game with a ball and a racquet, or a ball and bat, or a ball and a golf club, or . . .

Judy’s recordings, music books, Swinger! and Great Inspirations are available at www.judycarmichael.com or by mail order through C&D Productions, P.O. Box 360 Sag Harbor, New York, 11963. www.jazzinspired.com