“(She) has her own vocal sound, which is beautiful by the Grace of God.”
— YUSEF LATEEF
About Michele Thomas
Jazz singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and educator Michele Thomas is a suave innovator. With silken grace she eases in her formative background in gospel, and her love of R&B, soul, and neo-soul, into a musical language that shows a dedication and a passion for jazz, spanning all of its defining eras. Michele’s restless creativity reflects jazz’s improvisatory spirit—for jazz, like life, is a journey and not a destination.
“Art should be something that is life-affirming for the artist and help them reach their highest potential through expressing themselves freely,” Michele shares. “It should be risky, vulnerable, and done with love and authenticity.”
Today, the Chicago, Illinois-based artist announces her third album, The Assumption. This special album is her first release to feature originals alongside imaginatively-arranged jazz chestnuts done in Michele’s unmistakable way—it also boasts one “very Michele” surprise cover. The Assumption was successfully financed by an outpouring of community love from Michele’s first ever crowdfunding campaign.
Michele has garnered favorable comparisons to powerful African-American singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, and Anita Baker, but she also draws inspiration from composer-artists like Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks, James Taylor, and Sting. She has earned the praise of Warner Bros. recording artist Kevin Mahogany, and Grammy Award-winning jazz artist Yusef Lateef who commented, “(She) has her own vocal sound, which is beautiful by the Grace of God.”
Michele’s transformative story is how music has been the catalyst enabling her to embrace her true self. “I grew up a people pleaser, but art and music really made me dig deeper. I had to make big decisions to be who I am, find my voice, and be vulnerable.” Part of those big decisions was breaking away from her family traditions through exploring jazz. Michele was born the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher in the Church of God In Christ, and, in her home, jazz—and other non-gospel music—was considered the “Devil’s music.”
She was already an impressive musician when she heard jazz at the age of 15. She grew up singing in church, and evolved into an accomplished choir conductor and arranger while still in her early teenage years. During high school, the shy but determined music obsessive worked up the gumption to join her high school jazz band, and there she was introduced to jazz via the recordings of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald. Particularly, her scat singing mesmerized Michele and she would incorporate that into her own aesthetic.
Her continued cultivation of her musical and vocal skills earned her a position in the Chicago All-City choir, and a scholarship to the Sherwood Conservatory of Music. This led to Michele attending the North Park University, graduating with a B.A. in music, and establishing their gospel choir. In 2006, North Park University bestowed on Michele the “Distinguished Young Alumni Award,” recognizing her formative work with the university’s gospel choir which would later become an established ensemble within its school of music. On the 15th anniversary of the choir’s founding, Michele was invited back to perform with prominent gospel musician, Richard Smallwood.
Over 20 years, Michele has become a local and regional fixture in the Midwest, appearing live as a respected jazz artist at a variety of venues, and recording with Chicago’s finest session musicians. An onstage milestone was an invitation to be a featured artist at the Chicago Jazz Festival. Here she performed a complete solo set with her own band in front of a diverse audience from around the world.
Since her ascent on the Midwest scene, Michele has been profiled in Chicago Jazz Magazine, and interviewed as part of an upcoming documentary called From West to East: The Return of An Interconnected Planet from director Luca Mercuri, who has worked in various contexts on movies such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Fast Five, The Mechanic, and Faster, among others. In May 2021, she was sought out to be on a panel with alongside other noted jazz musicians and educators for Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s series: “Soundpost: Beyond The Page.”
Michele has organically built a cottage industry around her musical gifts due to her constant growth, and the love and support of her community. She’s an educator and entrepreneur who runs her own vocal coaching business, Soulstream Music. She also freelances as a clinician and vocal choir and ensemble director. Her many years in the trenches as an educator have been recognized by her colleagues who recommended her to teach at Chicago colleges DePaul University and Vandercook College of Music.
“Community has played a huge role in my life. When people invest in you, and you do what you love it can be very impactful,” she says. “I think my story has been about finding myself while growing up with a strong community where some many things have come from my friends and colleagues.”
You can add music supervisor and actress to Michele’s resume. She was recently asked by writer and actor Bashir Salahuddin (Sherman’s Showcase, Snatched, Marriage Story) and writer, producer, and actor Diallo Riddle (Brothers in Atlanta, All Access, Marlon) to join the cast of the comedy series Southside as a music supervisor, a consulting vocal coach, and an actress on the second session of their HBO Max show.
Michele’s latest album, her third album, The Assumption, is her most profound musical evolution. It is loosely a conceptual piece that over three song-suite groupings examines notions of trust, as it relates to familial connections, race relations, gender, interpersonal relations, and our relationship to ourselves. It represents much artistic growth as half the songs here are original jazz compositions. “I stopped worrying about pleasing jazz critics in my head, or feeling like I had to live up to the American Songbook,” Michele says. “I felt the need to say something, and I wrote from the heart.”
Not only does it showcase Michele’s fine songcraft, it also full embraces who she is and where she comes from. It’s a bold synthesis of styles incorporating her gospel roots, her love of folk and neo-soul, and even a passion for rock. Though it siphons from a broad array of stylistic sources, it just feels like the spirit of jazz—an improvisatory music always shapeshifting; never stagnant.
These days, Michele wields a robust artistic platform as a recording and performing musician, a songwriter, a professor, an entrepreneur, a music supervisor, and a fearless innovator. In a sense, she one of the artists at the forefront of keeping the music we all love vital. “I see myself as a jazz vocalist, but bring to jazz history my own history—the music that is in my DNA—and that’s how you come into your own as an artist,” she says. “The more music you love, and the more music that influences you, the bigger tapestry you get to weave as an artist.”
~ Lorne Behrman