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Vienna Carroll

Vienna Carroll’s rich soulful sound takes you back to her first music love, the Black church.

About Me

Vienna Carroll’s rich soulful sound takes you back to her first music love, the Black church. Her passion and masterful storytelling light a fire in your soul. She tells forgotten stories of Black heroes and serves up those old songs through a modern lens to make: Afro-Future Roots Music. Vienna learned music from the Black Ladies of her youth, including her father’s fearsome grandmother who played guitar to Grand Ole Opry radio on Saturday nights but only proper Pentecostal chords on Sundays. When visiting her maternal grandmother’s 125 acre Alabama farm, Vienna joined in the Sunday church services an hour’s drive away down a dusty road, where singing was often accompanied only by the hand clapping and shouting of its fervent members. Vienna formalized her studies of early Black music at Yale University with a BA in African American Studies. Her influences are Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and the Black church. Vienna’s soon to be released CD, Harlem: Afro-Future Roots, is a special collection of Spirituals shot through with today’s rhythms and grooves. Her stellar band: Keith Johnston (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Jon Hendricks) on guitar; Stanley Banks (George Benson) on bass; Washboard XT/Newman Taylor Baker (Matthew Shipp, McCoy Tyner, Henry Grimes) on washboard; with a guest appearance by Robert Stern (Gil Gutierrez) on violin. Vienna’s Harlem Field Recordings CD is Black Roots music that features Vienna, Stanley Banks, Washboard XT/Newman Taylor Baker, Keith Johnston, and guests Nioka Workman (Anthony Braxton, David Murray) on cello; Melanie Dyer (Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman) on viola; and Henrique Prince (Ebony Hillbillies, Sun Ra Arkestra) on violin. The cover artwork is by Ken Daley. Vienna's first album, Singin Wid A Sword in Ma Han, reprised tunes from her award-winning play of the same name in collaboration with Washboard XT. Her next album Vienna Carroll Live was a live recording celebrating Blues and Roots music at NYC’s famous Living Room and featured Washboard XT, Michael O’Brien (Harry Connick Jr, Ruben Blades) on bass, Melanie Dyer and Keith Johnston. Mary Had a Baby is Vienna’s Christmas EP infused with holiday spirit, including jazz standards and the traditional Spiritual of the title’s name. It is dedicated to Harriet Tubman and the United States Colored Troops who together rescued nearly 800 enslaved people during the Combahee River Raid in 1863. Though it was in June, it was Christmas for them! Mary Had a Baby features Vienna, Dan Furman (Primordial Jazz Funktet) on piano; Michael O’Brien, and Keith Johnston on background vocals and percussion. The cover artwork is by Adjoa Burrowes. Vienna also released a digital jazz Valentine’s CD, Love to You, with Bruce Edwards (Sun Ra) on guitar. She is a regular on NYC’s jazz scene, accompanied by Edwards or Michael Howell (Dizzy Gillespie). Other Projects: SHALLOW BROWN: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor, First Langston Hughes Playwright Showcase, Harlem NY | Valor In The Hills, award-winning series about a free Black NY community during the Civil War. Hudson River Museum, Yonkers NY | First NYC Underground Railroad Festival Juneteenth Celebration, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrim, Brooklyn NY | Singin Wid A Sword In Ma Han, NYC Fringe Festival Audience Favorite Award. Vienna lives in Harlem with her wife Katharine, her garden and window boxes.

My Jazz Story

I met great musicians like Leon Thomas, Olu Dara, Doug Carn and Donald Smith at the St Nick's Pub which was around the corner from where I live in Harlem, NYC. You could get your drink on with $20 which would last you the whole night. There was a jam session every night of the week, no snobbery. I had a day job so I would go early, sing a song or two then go home, all before 10p and without crossing the street! There were locals, old timers, ladies who had their own glasses behind the bar and would come straight from church and stay all day, as well as hip folks from downtown and tour buses full of people from all around the world. And of course world class musicians. Stevie Wonder came through one night, and Savion Glover. I saw Gregory Porter there before he hit.