by Sean Aaron Cruz

Julia Keefe is a jazz vocalist, bandleader, conductor, educator, actor and activist based in New York City. She grew up on the Nez Perce reservation at Kamiah, Idaho, before moving to Spokane, where she began studying music and competing at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho.

She has headlined marquee events at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and New York City. Her life’s work is the revival and honoring of the legendary Coeur d’Alene jazz musician Mildred Bailey.

Julia, along with the Delbert Anderson Quartet, had the honor of leading off the inaugural season at the new Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Performing Arts (PRAx) at Oregon State University in April 2024. She is also curating a series of three Indigenous Jazz Club performances at PRAx, highlighting “Native performers who are expanding on the long tradition of Indigenous jazz music….” (Source: PRAx website)

For the past several years, in addition to performing as the Julia Keefe Quartet, she has led the creation of Julia Keefe’s Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB).

“It is a rarity to see a single Indigenous jazz musician nowadays, let alone sixteen, on stage. It is even rarer to see female Indigenous jazz players, yet we have Julia Keefe, Chantil Dukart, and Mali Obomsawin within the ensemble. The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB) celebrates the diversity and vitality of Indigenous peoples in jazz: past, present, and future. It is the bridge for people everywhere to see themselves on the bandstand regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, or socio-economic status.” - Source: Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB) Statement

Swing, Jazz, Big Band Jazz

Musician, songwriter, bandleader, Big Band conductor, educator, filmmaker, actor

Vocals