Combining vocal skill with high drama, Judi Jackson is one of the premier jazz talents around. Ahead of her show at the Southbank Centre this summer – as part of Chaka Khan’s Meltdown – Judi sat down with The House That Soul Built to talk about Chaka, her influences, and her reflections on the London Jazz Scene.

Congratulations Judi on being handpicked by Chaka Khan to be part of her Meltdown festival! How does it feel?

It’s an absolute honour. Chaka Khan is such an icon and a legend and a hero to me. Personally, I’ve been singing ‘Tell Me Something Good’ since I was 16 years old. Her music has definitely inspired me throughout the years, and I was very pleasantly surprised to have been invited to be a part of this festival.

What else in her repertoire are you a fan of?

When I was in college I had to learn a really difficult piece that she does called ‘The Melody Still Lingers On (A Night in Tunisia)’, and that was such a learning curve for me. “A long time ago, in the Forties, Dizzy and Bird gave us this song, they called it ‘A Night in Tunisia’, and the melody still lingers on.” I just love how versatile she is, and how strong her jazz chops are and how strong her range is. I love her new stuff as well: “Like sugar so sweet.”

Can you tell me a bit about the music you were listening to growing up in the home?

I was listening to a lot of church music, actually: Donald Lawrence, Israel Houghton, Aretha Franklin. And lots of jazz, of course, like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Billy Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Deery.

You supported another legend when you were very young: Mavis Staples. How did that happen, and what was that experience like?

I was a student at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, Virginia, where I’m from, and they have a place called the Music Lab. After school you go there, you practice, you write, and you get to meet other musicians who are coming there on tour. And so my mentor Cyrus Pace – God bless him! He’s an incredible friend and a mentor of mine – said, “Mavis Staples is coming, would you like to open for her?” I was working on my debut album Crashing Down with Judi and the Giants, and I was so shocked that I had even been asked to open for her. But I said “yes”, and we did the material from the album along with some other covers. We went backstage to meet her. She was just so nice and so loving. And she said, “do you love this?” I’ll never forget that. I said, “Yes, I do”, and she said, “Well, you’ll be fine then!”

And it changed my life. It was a beautiful show. She sang ‘I’ll Take You There’ and everyone was standing up and clapping, dancing, and singing along.

Last year you released a covers album. How did you decide which songs to record for My American Songbook?

I just chose the ones that feel good and the ones that resonate with my soul, songs that I’ve been singing since I was 16 like ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ or ‘Peel Me a Grape’, which is brilliantly done by Anita O’Day. We might do an ‘American Songbook Two’, or I might do another originals album. I’m still deciding; it’s all about what feels good!

I’m sure your fans would love either! Let’s talk about your original music. Your most popular song on YouTube is ‘Still’. What inspired that lyric?

Along with being a singer and a dancer and an actor, I would consider myself to be an activist too. I believe in standing up for what’s right, using your voice for change, for movement, for power, for strength. I wanted to write a song that allowed people to realize that they are still as beautiful, as strong, as amazing, as powerful, as smart as they were before.

We must always remember our ancestors and our history, and that we are stronger than we even realize we are. We are still breathing. We are still Black. We are still beautiful because the journey is so long, but it’s a beautiful thing when you think about it. How far we’ve come and how far we have to go.

I was posting Maya Angelou’s poem the other day, ‘Still I Rise’, because I’ve been doing a lot of dancing on Instagram recently, and some people were saying that it was inappropriate because I was scantily dressed. And Angelou has a beautiful line that says, ‘does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?’

To be confident and beautiful should not be seen as a crime or as something that’s lewd or taboo. It should be seen as a celebration of strength and power, that I can move my body, that I’m healthy and happy enough to get out of bed and smile and do a dance. So that’s why I wrote ‘Still’ – to remind everyone who they are, what they are, and what they can be.

Let’s talk about the dancing and your general ‘aura’ on stage. You  have a very distinct style of stagecraft. You’re very theatrical and dramatic, as we saw on your ‘In the Night’ video. Where does all that come from? 

My degree is in musical theater, so I love acting. I love Sondheim. I love theatre. So I try to incorporate as much as possible into my live performances and in my music videos. And yes, they were saying that ‘In the Night’ was a bit risqué. It was “a bit much” was the phrase that Sony used at the time, but I would do it all over again. It highlighted a lot of really talented dancers on the scene at the time. It made them look strong and beautiful, with a bit of vulnerability. I’m still doing auditions for theater stuff.

You are well known on the London jazz scene, having sold out illustrious venues like Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Do you think there is still opportunity in London’s independent music scene. There is a lot of doom and gloom about venues closing.

I think that there are always opportunities. People create shows all over the place. I have friends who do gigs in their house and invite people and put on great shows. Nothing can really stop the London jazz scene. Even if these venues close down, there are other ones that are opening. My friend YolanDa Brown is opening a venue called Soul Mama, which is like a soul food restaurant and a jazz venue in Stratford.

I would encourage any young artist who wants to be a jazz singer,  jazz performer, jazz musician, to come to London, go to Ronnie Scott’s, go to the 606. Because that’s how you learn, just being out there on the scene, messing with the cats and allowing that music to wash over you. It’s a beautiful thing.

You can see Judi Jackson at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 20 June for this year’s Meltdown festival. Tickets are available HERE!

Parts of this interview have been condensed for length and clarity