Lucy Woodward

Born in London, Lucy spent her childhood in New York and The Netherlands. She is the daughter of two classical musicians - her father a conductor and composer, her mother an opera singer, musicologist, teacher and belly-dancer. No matter which household she was living in, she was “always music-making and creating.” She lived in a world obsessed with playing the flute, piano lessons after her grandmother every Monday night and ballet. When she was 12, she sang in a karaoke booth at the mall and her life was forever changed. She proudly went to public high school in The Bronx and was always singing choirs, ensembles and musicals with her friends. “Growing up in NYC you have subway cars to sing in and street corners to sing on so there was always a place to be yourself.”

Ate age 16, she was accepted into Manhattan School of Music where she studied vocal jazz but she dropped out after a year because she “loved bebop but didn’t sing it”. So she hit the streets and started singing in NYC’s West Village for tips, cover bands, TV commercials and writing songs before signing with Atlantic Records (2003) —a time period that saw her score a Top 40 hit with “Dumb Girls” and another Top 5 hit she wrote for Stacie Orrico called “(There's Gotta Be) More to Life”, earning her 2 BMI Awards. With her debut record in tow, she toured the US, Japan and New Zealand and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

But Woodward had no desire to be a pop starlet: her follow-up, the jazzier, punchier indie record Lucy Woodward is...Hot and Bothered was released in 2008 which “shed new light” on music-making again. Hot and Bothered was inspired by her late teenage days at Manhattan School of Music, lots of Etta James and the 1967 classic The Jungle Book. Billboard described how “Lucy's a ball, equally appreciable for fans of melodic sing-along baubles and highbrow aficionados of finely honed musical composition. A sonic turnstile that flips through dreamy pop, jazz and bluesy bebop”.

The release was followed by Hooked!, an album of Brill Building meets Big Band songs, released on Verve (2010) -- which was largely produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie). The album effortlessly moves across multiple genres, including gypsy-swing, jazz and rhythm & blues. Along with her self-penned compositions, the album showcases Lucy’s stunning covers of Peggy Lee’s Cuban-inspired “Sans Souci” and an Ink Spots-inspired a cappella Hoagy Carmichael classic, “Stardust.” Nellie McKay, who Lucy had always been a hardcore fan of, wrote a song for her called “Another Woman” which Lucy recorded on Hooked! as well (featuring Nellie on background vocals).

Photo by Elizabeth Fladung (Davies Hall, San Fransisco)

In 2012, Lucy was asked to tour as a band member filling in for the lead singer of Pink Martini learning songs in Turkish, French, Croatian, Japanese and Spanish with 6 days notice due to the lead singer China Forbes’ emergency vocal surgery. Her few months with the band included dates at Montreal Jazz Fest, Ravinia and working with the San Francisco Symphony for several performances. That same year, Lucy has also toured overseas sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment, performing for American military units stationed in Spain, Italy and Turkey.

Lucy began to work with Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, who played bass in her NYC band at the time. She started opening for Snarky Puppy (with them as her backing band) and was featured on Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, Vol. 1 album singing the hauntingly bluesy “Too Hot To Last”. The album earned them their first Grammy and the song now has over 1.4 million views. League and longtime friend keyboardist/arranger Henry Hey (Forq, David Bowie) co-produced her fourth solo album Til They Bang on The Door which features the Snarky Puppy horns and organist Cory Henry (GroundUP 2016).

Lucy also performs with Big Bands with arrangements of her material in the US & Europe. In 2018, she guested with WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany with arrangements/conducting by Chris Walden. Woodward and Walden created “Love and Other Bad Habits”, a repertoire of Big Band arrangements on vices, addictions and other human behaviors. The same year, Lucy was a featured guest with trumpeter Dominick Farinacci at a Jazz at Lincoln Center residency in Shanghai for 2 weeks. In 2021 & 2022, she performed with the Hr-Radio Big Band in Frankfurt with arrangements/conducting by the legendary Jim McNeely. She has also performed with Odense Jazz Orchestra in Denmark, Orchestra Jazz Siciliana in Italy, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Switzerland and has recently put together her own Jazz Orchestra in The Netherlands.

In 2018, Lucy teamed up with guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and toured extensively in the US & Europe. In 2019, they released their debut collaboration Music!Music!Music!. The album is comprised of vintage pop and blues ranging from the 1890’s-1990’s which were reimagined into groove-heavy, deep funk classics. All About Jazz said, “Hunter and Woodward had enough chemistry between them to ignite a couple dozen Bunsen Burners”. NPR called the duo “a mind-blowing happy accident”. The follow up album I’m a Stranger Here was released in 2021. Gems from the album range from The Cars to Mel Torme to Elmore James to Otis Rush to Steely Dan and En Vogue. More on their project below.

In addition to her solo career, Woodward toured and recorded with Rod Stewart for many years. She has also sung background vocals for artists such as Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Nikka Costa, Chaka Khan and Joe Cocker. Her songs and vocals have been heard in many movies/TV shows including What a Girl Wants, The Blind Side, Music and Lyrics, New Year’s Eve, First Daughter, Last Vegas, Footloose, Manhattan Nocturne, Accepted and Disney’s Ice Princess, with her rendition of the Bjork/Betty Hutton Big Band classic "It's Oh So Quiet”. “Quiet” was also in the 2020 trailer of blockbuster movie Birds of Prey and has been featured in numerous commercials and TV shows.

Lucy’s next album, co-written/produced by Grammy-award winning producer David Garza, was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Texas, Rotterdam and Los Angeles and will be released later this year. Her new project Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers, a jazz-not-jazz orchestra based out of Rotterdam will also be releasing new music this year. She currently lives between LA, NY and Rotterdam and tours throughout Europe regularly.