Born in Suriname, South America and residing in The Netherlands, Denise Jannah has made her mark in the international Jazz scene. Renowned for her stage presence, her rich voice, impeccable phrasing, diction and timing, she is also admired for her warm personality that makes her audience feel like special guests in her comfortable living room.

Jannah is a Jazz vocalist who does not shy away from other musical styles as Latin, Gospel, Fusion, R&B, Surinamese- and World music. Being multilingual, and easily moving and grooving in different styles is her forte. She’s always looking for a new challenge to widen her artistic horizon, and therein claiming her artistic freedom.
She has 9 solo albums to her name of which 4 were released by Blue Note Records. Denise Jannah was the first Dutch musician to have been signed by this prestigious U.S. label. With her guitaris Wolf Martini she released ‘Live in Johannesburg’. Together with renowned Japanese pianist Atzko Kohashi she recorded a vinyl album ‘Lost & Found’. Furthermore she has been featured as guest vocalist on various albums from a.o. the Willem Breuker Kollektief, the Amsterdam Jazz Sextet, the Gypsy Boys, trumpeter Gidon Nunes Vas, and most recently she recorded with pianist Yannic Forster.

Denise Jannah has received numerous awards among which are two Edison Awards (Dutch equivalent to the US Grammy Award), the Bata Anastasijević Award from the Niśville Jazz Festival, First Prize at the Golden Orpheus Festival in Bulgaria and the Meer Jazz Award (The Netherlands).

Denise Jannah has shared the stage with a variety of ensembles and orchestra’s, from the Rosenberg trio and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (USA) to the Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the Willem Breuker Kollektief, from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Dutch Marine Orchestra to the Bob Belden Big Band (USA) and the Cyrus Chestnut Trio (USA), and from the Dutch Jazz Orchestra and the Bulgaria Radio Big Band to the Suriname Police Orchestra. She has shared the stage with Jon Hendricks
She toured and performed in countries like Japan, Chili, The Caribbean, Indonesia, South Africa, Taiwan, the USA, Montenegro, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong… just to name a few of the 31 where she has performed so far.

Denise Jannah is a talented composer, known also for composing music for poetry. On her album ‘Gedicht Gezongen’ (=Poetry Sung, ‘04) she sings 22 poems in 6 languages, all compositions are her own. She has furthermore made her mark as a lyricist, actress, voice educator and musical director/theatre coach, for some productions she wrote part of the songs.

As an actress she starred in several musicals and theatre shows, and she was one of the leading ladies of A Night At The Cotton Club and in Fats Waller’s musical show Ain’t Misbehavin’. She has toured The Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname with her one woman theatre play ELLA! in which she portrayed the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. Currently she still performs her Mahalia Jackson Gospel Tribute, next to her Denise Jannah Soul & Blues- as well as Jazz – and other concerts.
Denise is also part of the all-female international cast of DEAR WINNIE, a big Belgian/Dutch theatre production about the legacy of Winnie Madikizela Mandela, that was selected both in The Netherlands as well as in Belgium to be among the 10 best theatre plays of 2020. So far the play has been performed in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, and will be picked up again in January 2025 after a stop caused by the covid pandemic. In the fall of ’22 she portrayed the Trojan Queen Hekabe in the theatre play ATROPA, the Revenge of Peace, that toured in The Netherlands. In the summer of 2022 (in The Netherlands) as well as in April 2024 (in South Africa) Denise played the leading part in Swart Wyn, a South African story.
She did the voice-over -in Dutch as well as in English- for Tessa Leuwsha’s film documentary Moeder Suriname, Mama Sranan that premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November 2023 and received a special mention after having been nominated for Best Documentary.

Denise Jannah has performed for heads of states, amongst whom are president Nelson Mandela and Mrs. Graça Machel-Mandela, Her Royal Majesty Beatrix, Queen of Holland and His Royal Majesty Prince Claus, president Bill and Mrs. Hillary Clinton, president Ronald and Mrs. Liesbeth Venetiaan (Suriname), president Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia) and mrs. president Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson (Liberia), and the ‘Eurotop’.
Both president Venetiaan (2005) and Her Royal Majesty Queen Beatrix (2009) have decorated her.

Some more press quotes:

-“This woman can make you dream, cry, and fall in love. What more could you desire…” (The Music Advocate, Washington)

-“Quite simply, Denise Jannah is one of the best jazz singers to come along in the 25 years I’ve been writing about music.”
(Award winning jazz author and critic Gary Giddins in the New York ‘Village Voice’)

-“Jannah’s voice is fine – rich, certain and teeming with a candor undiminished by the artifice of record-making.”
(Down Beat, USA)

-“If you’re having trouble keeping track of the score of female singers swamping the current jazz scene, let me save you some trouble: Denise Jannah is worth your time.” (Detroit Free Press, USA)

-“Her voice is so direct, the delivery so fresh and clear that she will surely withstand the test of time.” (Jazz Times, USA)

-“Jannah has a captivating timbre, throaty and revealing, that disarms you from the start. She can pin a note in the air like Betty Carter or sculpt a phrase with a finesse that recalls Sarah Vaughan, though her style is quite unlike theirs.”
(Award winning author and critic Gary Giddins in the New York ‘Village Voice’)

Denise Jannah – voice
Clemens Orth – piano
Henning Gailing – bass
Dominik Raab – drums

Eintritt: 25/15€