Fay Victor

Fay Victor (born July 26, 1965)^[1][2] is an American musician, composer, lyricist and educator. Originally a singer in the traditional jazz field, she has been working in jazz, blues, opera, free improvising, avant-garde, modern classical music, and occasional acting since re-settling in New York in 2003.

Fay Victor
Victor performing in 2016 in Cologne, Germany
Background information
Born	(1965-07-26) July 26, 1965 (age 60)[1][2] Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, lyricist
Labels	ESP Disk, Greene Ave Music, Timeless Records, ArtistShare
Website	fayvictor.com

Early life and career

Victor was born in Brooklyn, New York City.^[3] After spending her early childhood years in New York, Zambia, and Trinidad & Tobago, her mother settled in Long island, NY, where Victor spent her teenage years.^[4] After her mother's sudden death,^[1] Victor re-discovered music and singing, and after a 3-month stint at a club in Fukui City, Japan with pianist Bertha Hope, she decided to start a career as a jazz singer.^[5] In 1996, Victor settled in Amsterdam, the Netherlands^[6] and performed and toured through the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Russia, and India.^[7] While living in the Netherlands, Victor branched out into blues, songwriting, and forms of improvising outside the standard jazz canon. Victor has lived in NYC since 2003. She has worked with the likes of Randy Weston, Roswell Rudd, Anthony Braxton, Misha Mengelberg, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Wadada Leo Smith, Nicole Mitchell, Marc Ribot, Martine Syms, Daniel Carter, William Parker, Darius Jones, Wolter Wierbos, Ab Baars, Joe Morris, Sam Newsome, Reggie Nicholson.

Victor's work has been reviewed in The New York Times,^[8][9] Jazz Times,^[10][11] and Down Beat.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Music

Victor has coined the term "freesong" to describe her vocal approach.^[1][4] In her jazz repertoire, Victor has specialized in the work of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Herbie Nichols.^[4][16]

Activism

Victor is co-director of the TalkRace forum^[17] and is a member of the "We Have Voice" collective.^[18][19][20]

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Title	Artist	Year	Label
Life Is Funny That Way	Fay Victor's Herbie Nichols SUNG	2024	TAO Forms[21]
Blackity Black Black is Beautiful	Fay Victor	2023	Northern Spy Records[22]
We've Had Enough!	Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK	2020	ESP Disk[23]
Barn Songs	Fay Victor	2019	Northern Spy[24]
In My Own Room	Fay Victor	1998	Timeless Records[25]
Darker Than Blue	Fay Victor	2001	Timeless Records[26]
Should We Do This Again?	Fay Victor	1995	Groovie Sound
Lazy Old Sun	Fay Victor	2004	Greene Ave Music[27]
Wet Robots	Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK	2018	ESP Disk[23]
Kaiso Stories	Other Dimensions In Music with Fay Victor	2010	Silkheart[28]
Absinthe & Vermouth	Fay Victor Ensemble	2013	Greene Ave Music
The FreeSong Suite	Fay Victor Ensemble	2009	Greene Ave Music
Cartwheels Through The Cosmos	Fay Victor Ensemble	2007	ArtistShare[29]
Bare	The Exposed Blues Duo (with Anders Nilsson)	2010	Greene Ave Music[30]
New York/Sankt Johann	ReDDeer (with Elisabeth Harnik & Dominic Lash)	2017	Evil Rabbit[31]

As featured artist/sideperson

Title	Artist	Year	Label
West Coast Blues	Gregor Hilden	1998	Acoustic Music Records[32]
Aces of Swing: A Tribute to the Music of John Kirby & Charlie Shavers	Robert Veen Sextet	1996	Basta Basta[33]
Trombone for Lovers	Roswell Rudd	2013	Sunnyside[34]
Embrace	Roswell Rudd	2017	Rare Noise Records[35]
The Invisible Blow	Ab Baars Trio + NY guests	2014	Stichting Wig[36]
Trillium E	Anthony Braxton	2011	New Braxton House[37]
Glorious Ravage	Liza Mezzacappa	2017	New World Records[38]
The Jazz Lounge Trio Meets...	Jazz Lounge Trio	2000	Laika Records[39]
Songs of Resistance - 1942-2018	Marc Ribot	2018