April Varner's "Winter in New York"

Award-winning vocalist April Varner returns to The Django with a winter-themed special full of reimagined holiday standards.

Praised by DownBeat as an artist with “impressive range,” April Varner has gained steady momentum as a supreme vocalist, a bebop technician and a contemporary storyteller. The Toledo-born New Yorker has toured the world as a leader and a highly sought collaborator, and her music has received wide recognition in the New York City Jazz Record, Hot House Jazz Guide, NPR affiliate WRTI Radio, DownBeat, Paris-Move and UK Jazz News, among others.

Dazzling audiences with her growing mastery of the American Songbook and her creative approach to the vocalese tradition, April also shares videos online, many of which have gone viral, working through her own transcriptions of iconic solos from architects of hard bop, and amassing more than 130K+ followers on Instagram. But what fuels April’s artistry is her desire to connect with other improvisers. She has collaborated with a roster of emerging artists and living legends, including Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, John Pizzarelli, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Theo Bleckmann, Yasushi Nakamura, Benny Benack III, Emmet Cohen, Nicole Zuraitis, Chico Pinheiro, Leandro Pellegrino, Dayna Stephens, Reuben Rogers, Jason Robert Brown and the recently departed Russell Malone.