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Amber Weekes
Member Since: 2021 | Location: Los Angeles | Page Views: 1,550 
About Me
Jazz Vocalist who loves the standards and celebrates Oscar Brown Jr.'s birth centenary
The Way She Makes Us Feel: AMERICAN JAZZ VOCALIST AND RECORDING ARTIST AMBER WEEKES American jazz recording artist Amber Weekes has given the world a special and unique gift: her voice. Her producer Mark Cargill described it as “a voice from Heaven,” and hears “harps, violins and trumpets on a cloud of velvet whenever she begins to sing.” Weekes’ latest release, “To Oscar with Love,” is a deeply-felt celebration of the birth centenary of songwriter, poet, playwright, and Civil Rights activist Oscar Brown, Jr. It is the most unique and powerful album of her career, with a strong backstory. Raised in Los Angeles, Weekes was “born singing” in her parents’ musical household. At four, she stepped onto her first stage, the living room coffee table in her childhood home. The daughter of singers from Harlem, Weekes’ home oozed with the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Diahann Carroll, The Beatles, Leontyne Price, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ray Charles. Generations earlier, her grandparents, Wilfred and Nettie Weekes, served musical giants Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and many others inside Weekes’ Luncheonette in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem. These famous patrons left their musical mark on the family. It was just a matter of time that Weekes would step into and fully claim her musical inheritance. Out of her New York roots came a desire to tell stories through song. Inside her was a strong desire to perpetuate her father’s memories of Sugar Hill as that magical place in Harlem where his parents reigned as king and queen of that beloved community diner. Her love for her father inspired “Round Midnight Re-imagined,” a fully remixed, remastered and reorchestrated version of her first album produced in 2002. Cargill created just the right musical arrangement for Weekes’ vocal prowess. The Midwest Record’s Chris Spector says it’s “killer stuff.” Weekes brings respect for the history of each song she selects to perform. She has studied music extensively and brings her naturally good diction and intonation. “Amber brings all of those attributes and more,” says Cargill. “As a jazz vocalist, it’s very important to have talent, tell the story, and have great presentation and understanding of the craft.” At 14, Weekes received several voice lessons from opera singer Gwendolyn Wyatt, but her parents could not afford to continue with them, so her father encouraged her to join the church’s adult choir to use her voice. After graduating from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles, she began to study voice with L.A. greats Phil Moore, Jr., Catherine Hansen, Sue Fink, and most notably, three-time Grammy nominee Sue Raney for over 20 years. Raney helped Weekes discover her true singing talent by showing her how to use her beautiful voice to tell stories deeply through the music and lyrics. “Amber has a soulful quality in her voice. She knows how to tell a story with it,” says Raney. “She knows how to place her voice and color the sounds of each song to tell a story. She is one of the best I know. Whether it’s her full voice or a whisper, she knows how to utilize all those colors very well. She’s got that down perfectly. She knows her instrument and what to do with each part of the song.” Weekes’ vocal training exercises with Raney helped her develop her knowledge of her voice and she created quite a range. “She could have been an opera singer if she wanted. She has the ability. She worked very hard and developed herself into a wonderful, full singer. Her voice just got richer, fuller, better.” Raney has worked with Weekes on all her recording projects. She believes that Weekes and Cargill have formed a wonderful partnership that will take her career “to the top.” “When they found each other, it was the greatest thing that happened. He knew exactly what to do in the studio,” says Raney. “Her voice cannot be buried in the background.” Beneath Weekes’s ambition is a deep love for her Caribbean and Latin roots, and her family history. Her father, Martin Weekes, who passed away in 2016, continues to inspire her, and her work is a tribute to him. She also draws inspiration from her mother who introduced her to the work of singer Oscar Brown, Jr. Raney says Weekes’s talents have led her to introduce her audiences to him and others like him. “Oscar Brown was an entity unto himself, so it was innovative of her to take his songs,” says Raney. “I remember seeing him years ago, but appreciate his material through Amber. For example, ‘Mr. Kicks’ is a song that you wouldn’t hear a woman do. Also, ‘Brown Baby’ and ‘The Snake.’ These songs reflect her versatility because Oscar Brown was very different. Amber sings those types of songs because she loves ballads.” Weekes first “met” Brown as a pre-teen, while riding with her two sisters in the back seat of their mother’s car in Los Angeles. When his song, “The Snake,” came on the radio, their mom asked them to stop chatting and listen to “this really old song” of Brown’s. She wanted them to listen to the lesson in his words. Weekes became hooked. As she grew up and into her own musical repertoire, Brown’s songs found their way into her albums, beginning with her promotional recording of his song, “Hazel’s Hips,” in 2002. In 2021, her producer, Mark Cargill, re-mixed, re-mastered, and re-orchestrated the song for Weekes’ second market release, Round Midnight-Reimagined. The song reminded Weekes of her aunt’s real-life romance with actor Sidney Poitier, a patron at the family business, Weekes’ Luncheonette in Harlem, where her aunt worked as a waitress. Weekes was honored to meet Brown during his LA years, and later performed with him at a fundraiser for donnie l. betts’ documentary, Music is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown, Jr. In the days leading up to the fundraiser, Brown became Weekes’ most famous houseguest. After Brown’s death in 2005, Weekes knew that someday she would record an album of his music. Weekes worked with her acclaimed producer, arranger and conductor Mark Cargill to record Brown’s songs. She selected those that would convey her deep respect for him and the messages he left for the world to discover. She is accompanied by LA “A listers,” pianist Tony Campodonico, guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr., trumpeter James Ford, saxophonist Phillip Whack, and violinist, string and horn arranger, and conductor Mark Cargill, among others. Weekes has now produced six albums in her career, beginning with the promotional recording of “Round Midnight” produced by Trevor Ware and Louis Van Taylor in 2002; the market release of “Pure Imagination,” produced by Ware, Mark Cargill, Kenny Sara, and executive produced by Anthony Berry-Smith, Katherine G. Kahn, Ralph M. Hockes and Weekes in 2019; the market release of “The Gathering,” a Christmas album produced by Mark Cargill and executive producer Weekes in 2020, which was in the top 25 of the Roots Music 2020 Christmas albums chart and top 10 for Christmas jazz albums; the release of “My Romance – A Special Valentine,” (EP), in 2021;“Round Midnight Re-imagined,” produced by Mark Cargill, and executive producer Weekes in 2021, the 2024 release of “A Lady with a Song – Amber Weekes Celebrates Nancy Wilson,” produced by Mark Cargill, and executive produced by Anthony Berry-Smith and Weekes. All of Weekes’ albums have received increasing coast to coast airplay at hundreds of radio stations, including Alaska and Hawaii, and international play in the UK, France, Italy, Estonia, Canada, Argentina, and Australia. Her music has been widely reviewed, likening her voice to “syrup on hot pancakes” and “velvet vocals entwined with brushstrokes of passion for lovers and dreamers.” Weekes’ live performances have taken her all around the United States and the world, including Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and the Hampstead Jazz Club in London. She is a frequent headliner at Sunset Boulevard’s famed Catalina Jazz Club. Her jazz albums have ranked high as some of America’s best. With each performance and project, Weekes continues to carry the torch for the great legacy of jazz and is committed to its preservation. She believes that her music is an instrument of healing and can heal the soul through her art form of jazz.
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You're keeping jazz alive and keeping us informed! You give me things to think about.This page was last updated on 2026-08-16.
