In celebration of April’s Jazz Appreciation Month, we are honored to send you the new single “Far Away Star” from award-winning Harlem based visionary, Candice Hoyes. The compelling new release honors Duke Ellington, bridging iconic jazz with a contemporary styling to create a one-of-a-kind listening experience. Hoyes teamed up with GRAMMY-winner Ted Nash for this spellbinding jazz arrangement that showcases her crystalline soprano floating over soulful New Orleans horns. The result sits comfortably alongside contemporary vocal jazz stars like Samara Joy and Veronica Swift while channeling the timeless elegance of Nina Simone. Start to finish, this singer soars beyond her blues to float on a cosmic high.
Candice Hoyes has received praise from NPR, Vogue, Jazz Times, LADYGUNN, BET, BBC and more. Gilles Peterson of BBC 6 has previewed her upcoming album and dubbed it “brilliant.” She is also a member of the prolific all-female Jazz trio Nite Bjuti, who has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, NYC Winter Jazzfest, NUBLU JazzFest, and WBGO’s Afternoon Jazz. Nite Bjuti was selected by Wayne Shorter for his tribute project, Palladium.
“Far Away Star”
For generations, 20th century Black American artists have ventured from home to find new self-expression among Nordic creative communities in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Here they found”hipper” intellectual spaces for bringing all people together through music. In this spirit, vocalist Candice Hoyes releases a unique arrangement of the Swedish traditional song that was notably recorded by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra with vocalist Alice Babs, released in 1978.
Hoyes’s version is arranged for soprano and jazz octet by GRAMMY-winner Ted Nash and features lyrics Hoyes wrote reflecting on the pivotal importance of Black ancestral history in 2025. Hoyes remarks, ‘My single “Far Away Star’ is a tribute to Ellington, and it is a tribute to free expression and justice that is as eternal as the North Star.”
Hoyes was awarded a 2025 Du Bois Fellowship, and has researched music forged by Josephine Baker, Abbey Lincoln, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and more. Hoyes’s recent performances include Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall (NYC), the Kennedy Center (DC), La Petite Halle (Paris), Boisdale of Canary Wharf (London), Detroit Symphony, and Millenium Park (Chicago).