Julie Dexter

By Meg Donahue
Photo by Bobb Lovett

Jazz vocalist Julie Dexter’s first love wasn’t jazz — it was the clarinet. The classical clarinet, in fact. “I played the clarinet all through school,” say Dexter. “In college I got a scholarship to study in the U.S. and stumbled into a jazz class between my other music classes. I tried to play jazz with my clarinet, but it wasn’t happening, so I started using my voice.”

It’s hard to believe that a musician as skilled as Dexter hadn’t been using her pebble-smooth voice since birth, but Dexter insists that she learned a great deal about music through her clarinet. Unlike many musicians who claim their parents’ garage as their first rehearsal space, Dexter claims the classroom, and she seems to think about music not in the sense of rigid genres, but as a flowing tide, where one type of music invariably influences another. This is perhaps why Dexter has proven so adept at spanning genres and defying labels.

Growing up with Jamaican parents in Birmingham, England opened Dexter to various musical influences.“My mother was always listening to reggae,” Dexter says. “It would always be on, always in the background.” She grew up listening to British radio, which is well known never to discriminate between genres. It was this, Dexter says, that inspired the singer’s wide-ranging love of music.

“Over here [in the U.S.] I hear the same song over and over on the radio,” she says. “In the U.K. there is a larger variety of music on the radio.”Dexter came to Atlanta seven years ago after the man who would become her manager saw her performance at CBGB’s and convinced her that her music would fit in beautifully with the talent already sprouting in Atlanta.

Her manager was right. Atlanta took an instant liking to this British import. Says Dexter, “When I first got here, a few of my demos were being played on the radio. It was amazing that when I played my first show at Yin Yang [now the Apache Café] people knew the words and were singing along.”

Dexter says that the city has made its impact on her music. “I interact with musicians from Atlanta, so my music has their imprint,” she says. “You know, the whole neo-soul movement in Atlanta, the whole Atlanta vibe.”

That vibe has continued with her newest album, Moon Bossa, her collaborative work with Atlanta musician Khari Simmons. Simmons wanted to make a bossa nova album and chose Dexter to sing on the project. The problem was that bossa nova was one of the few types of music that Dexter wasn’t completely familiar with. So, as the good music student she was and will always be, Dexter did research.

“I listened to a lot of Joe Beam and Basia,” she says. “Bossa nova is such a sophisticated kind of music, but it is also so happy. I’m kind of used to singing about rather sad jazz things and this is a nice change. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to drink a margarita and dance.”

Unfortunately for fans of the album, Khari Simmons has relocated to Australia, where he is awaiting the birth of his child, so he won’t be out playing with Dexter. Yet Dexter has found a new bassist and is excited about playing the tunes live. “Khari guided me in bossa nova,” she says. “If it was a music I didn’t like or wasn’t into, it would be different, but I really like this music and it is such an honor to represent Khari and his work.”

Dexter, who is currently in the U.K., is working with collaborators as varied as Jason Yarde to Darryl Reeves to Spenser Dean. Says this musical chameleon, “You know, there is always something going on with me.”

www.juliedexter.com