Niki King
Niki King is a jazz and soul-funk vocalist and songwriter. She won the Perrier Jazz Vocalist of the Year award at the Café De Paris in London in 2001.
Since then, she has released four albums, as well as toured throughout Britain, Asia and Europe and performed at the Blue Note Jazz Clubs in Tokyo and New York, as well as London’s Ronnie Scott’s.
King has opened for Al Green and The Average White Band and has collaborated with other musicians, including writer/producer Bluey Maunick of Incognito.
She released her first album, New Day in 2002, on Maunick’s Rice Records label and later featured as co-writer and performer on his album, Paradiso. Soon after, King’s second album, Azure, was well received by reviewers for its reworking of jazz classics.
In 2004, King released her self-penned EP, Letting Go, which was given an exclusive feature on BBC Radio 2’s Soul Solutions, as well as positive reviews in the press.
King was voted Most Stylish Female at the Scottish Style Awards in 2006 – the same year her album, Twelve O’Clock Tales, with guitarist Marcus Ford, was released.
In 2009, King toured the Billie Holiday Songbook show, which she created to honour the jazz legend’s work on the 50th anniversary of her death. The show – which was specially recorded by BBC Radio Scotland - received five-star reviews in the press.
On May 9, 2011, King released her new soul-funk single, After Rain, with her 10-piece New York band, The Elements. Her album, It's All Good, was released on Soul Route Records in June 2011.
Originally from Edinburgh, King currently lives in New York City after relocating there in late 2009.
References
- The Scotsman
- www.smooth-jazz.de
- www.bbc.co.uk
- itunes.apple.com
- www.scottishstyleawards.com
- www.bluenote.net