Barbara Jay

Who is Barbara Jay?

Barbara Jay is a British jazz singer.

Barbara Jay grew up in a musical family, her father playing trumpet with many of the leading bands of the time. She took naturally to singing and by the 1960s she was working with top British Jazz musicians including Ronnie Scott and Don Lusher.

As a solo Jazz singer Jay has shared the billing at Ronnie Scott's club with Horace Silver, Pharoah Sanders, George Chisholm and Dave Holland. More recently she has worked with Jon Hendricks in Cabaret on the Saga Ruby Cruise ship and P&O Oriana.

In 1970 she was chosen to sing with Benny Goodman and his orchestra on an extensive European tour and appeared in many major cities, including Paris, Milan, Copenhagen and Zurich. She also performed at the Carnegie Tavern in New York where she was accompanied by Ellis Larkins. In 1993 she devised the very successful "Ella Fitzgerald Songbook Show" which has been performed at major venues and Festivals throughout Britain and also with her own quartet at the Pizza on the Park Knightstbridge, London. She appears frequently with her saxophonist husband Tommy Whittle and has performed extensively on TV and Radio in the UK. In December 2012 she appeared as a contributor to the BBC Four TV documentary “Len Goodman’s Dancing Feet: the British Ballroom Story” describing her experiences singing for dance bands in the 1950s.