Karla Harris Quartet

Dynamic jazz vocalist Karla Harris has captivated audiences at events such as the Sarasota Jazz Festival, Greenville Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival, Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Nantucket Arts Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, and a TED Talk. She has performed for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Arts Across America live performance series.  In addition to performing, she is a songwriter and educator. In 2024 she was named a recipient of Atlanta Magazine’s “Women Making a Mark” award for her jazz outreach and education programs. Harris is a member of the Kennesaw State University Jazz Studies faculty, teaching applied vocal jazz to aspiring young singers passionate about this uniquely American art form. Harris’s music, a nuanced blend of straight-ahead and contemporary jazz, is heard worldwide.

Critics acclaimed her 2015 album, “Karla Harris Sings the Dave and Iola Brubeck Songbook,” calling it “a work of sheer elegance.” Greenlighted by the Brubeck estate, the project stands as the first studio recording dedicated to vocal versions of several Brubeck compositions with lyrics by his wife, Iola. Harris’ 2019 release, “Certain Elements,” reached #44 on the prestigious Jazz Week chart. The album features Harris as a songwriter, with two of the album’s original songs achieving semi-finalist status in the International Songwriting Competition. Three tracks were added to SiriusXM’s Real Jazz station playlist, and legendary smooth jazz artist Dave Koz featured the album’s single, “Cherish,” on his SiriusXM radio show, The Dave Koz Lounge. November 2022 brought the release of Moon to Gold, a collaboration with the Joe Alterman Trio. Harris is currently working on two additional projects, with planned releases in early 2025.

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