LUCY WOODWARD USA-Netherlands

Born in London, Lucy spent her childhood in New York and Holland. She is the daughter of two classical musicians – her father a conductor and composer, her mother an opera singer, musicologist, teacher and bellydancer. No matter which household she was living in, she was “always music-making and creating.”

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 days at Manhattan School of Music, lots of Etta James and the 1967 classic animated film The Jungle Book bringing her back to her bluesy roots. 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”.

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. Lucy’s dates with Pink Martini varied from Montreal Jazz Fest to singing 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 1.2 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 was released on GroundUP/Verve/Universal in 2016. The album features the Snarky Puppy horns, Cory Henry on organ and Grammy nominees trombonist Alan Ferber and cellist Dave Eggar.

In 2017, Lucy debuted her material with Big Band arrangements from two of her albums performing at Aarhus Jazz Festival and Jam Days with TipToe Big Band in Denmark. She has continued to perform her Big band material in Holland, Miami and Los Angeles. In 2018, Lucy was invited to perform in collaboration with Germany’s WDR Big Band with arrangements/conducted by Chris Walden. Together, Lucy and Walden created “Love and Other Bad Habits”, a repertoire of Big Band arrangements on vices, addictions and other odd human behaviors. Lucy was the featured guest in a 2-week residency with bandleader/trumpeter Dominick Farinacci at Jazz At Lincoln Center in Shanghai, China in December, 2018.

In 2018 and 2019, Lucy teamed up with guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and toured extensively in the US and 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 are reconstructed into new groove-heavy and deep funk classics. All That Jazz said “Hunter and Woodward had enough chemistry between them to ignite a couple dozen Bunsen Burners”. A follow up album will be released in the spring. See more info below about the Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward project.

In addition to her solo career, Woodward toured with Rod Stewart for many years singing background vocals. She has also sung on albums by Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, Snarky Puppy, Barbra Streisand, Nikka Costa, Carole King, Joe Cocker, Gavin DeGraw and Randy Jackson. 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 Bjork/Betty Hutton big band cover “It’s Oh So Quiet” which also recently placed in the new Birds of Prey movie trailer.