![\"Singer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770860290_825_SJM-L-JAZZDUO-0212-02.jpg\")
Singer Ekep Nkwelle is in Northern California for concerts in Davis, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay Feb. 12-16. (Courtesy of Ekep Nkwelle)<\/p>\nThe paths of two of the most exciting young vocalists in jazz keep converging in interesting places.<\/p>\n
Most conspicuously, in 2023, Tyreek McDole, 25, and Ekep Nkwelle, 26, encountered each other when McDole became only the second male singer to win the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in New Jersey. Nkwelle placed third.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember watching Tyreek perform and he just killed that blues,\u201d Nkwelle said on a recent video call with McDole. \u201cI was thinking, I have blues on my set, maybe I should change it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their itineraries cross again in the Bay Area in the coming days, when Nkwelle plays a three-night run at UC Davis\u2019s Mondavi Center, Feb. 12-14, with a trio led by the brilliant 27-year-old pianist Julius Rodriguez. She performs with the same group Feb. 15 at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society and Feb. 16 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center.<\/p>\n
McDole plays four shows at SFJAZZ Center Feb. 12-13 with an acoustic quintet featuring the rising 25-year-old piano star Caelan Cardello. He returns to town for a three-night run at Black Cat Feb. 27-29 with HVLT, a plugged-in band with a very different concept.<\/p>\n
At SFJAZZ he\u2019s focusing on songs from his acclaimed 2025 debut album \u201cOpen Up Your Senses\u201d and an upcoming release. HVLT, pronounced \u201chigh voltage,\u201d is an electric group \u201cthat explores more jazz-rock fusion, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett and Alice Coltrane sounds,\u201d said McDole, who also plays keyboards and uses a sampler in the group, \u201cso you hear the voices of Miles and Geri Allen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Black Cat engagement marks HVLT\u2019s first performances outside of New York City. The group is built on Michael Shekwoaga Ode, \u201ca great drummer pushing the music forward,\u201d McDole said. \u201cEveryone has a really strong foot in the tradition, but is also playing more contemporary music from the late 1970s and forward, a continuation of all this Black music that\u2019s been happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDole first encountered Nkwelle shortly after graduating from Oberlin Conservatory and moving to New York City. She was in her second year at Juilliard and frequenting a jam session at the Harlem nightspot Massawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just walking by, figuring out who\u2019s who when I heard Ekep,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember thinking, I\u2019m not singing after her! We ended up talking and she was so kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside a cast of veteran jazz stars like Kurt Elling and C\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant, the two young vocalists were recruited for \u201cThe Kenny Barron Songbook.\u201d The recent album by the 82-year-old piano giant focuses on compositions Barron originally conceived as instrumental pieces, either set with lyrics or delivered with wordless vocal lines.<\/p>\n
Barron has featured them each with his trio on recent performances, such as McDole\u2019s Lesher Center date last month with the NEA Jazz Master. The two newcomers were both scouted by Barron, who\u2019s known for championing young talent.<\/p>\n
Singer Ekep Nkwelle is in Northern California for concerts in Davis, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay Feb. 12-16. (Courtesy of Ekep Nkwelle)<\/p>\n
Nkwelle was performing at the 2024 Jazz Congress in New York City at a memorial for one of her mentors, guitarist Russell Malone, when she spotted Barron in the audience during the sound check.<\/p>\n
He sought her out after the show and said, \u201c\u2018I\u2019m recording on Sunday and I want you to be there,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cI have two days to get this together! What an honor to be in his presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDole was on the Jazz Cruise in 2024 when he started noticing, with some trepidation, that Barron was coming by his sets. \u201cAfter the last one he came by and said \u2018Can I get a picture with you and my wife?\u2019 I said, \u2018No, I\u2019m getting a picture with you!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
While McDole casts a wider stylistic net than Nkwelle, both\u00a0vocalists are deeply shaped by their hyphenated identities as the children of immigrants. McDole\u2019s mother is Haitian-Dominican, which is partly why he\u2019s resisted being pigeonholed as a jazz artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to what I focus on, Haitian folklore and different pockets of Black music developed in the Americas, I love all of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI love to highlight Black compositions that reflect on our place in the world. Like Nina Simone said, it\u2019s my duty is to reflect the times.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Nkwelle, whose parents moved from Cameroon to Washington, D.C., embracing jazz as a creative calling makes an important statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in a different basket than Tyreek,\u201d she said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t necessarily think someone named Ekep Nkwelle would be singing the blues. You\u2019d think it\u2019s West African, Cameroonian. I\u2019ve been gifted in this area and really grounded myself in American classical music.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDOLE & NKWELLE<\/p>\n
Ekep Nkwelle: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12-14 at Mondavi Center at UC Davis; $56.50-$76.50; www.mondaviarts.org<\/a>;\u00a04:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay; $50-$60 ($12 livestream); bachddsoc.org<\/a>;\u00a07 p.m. Feb. 16 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz; $21 $42; www.kuumbwajazz.org<\/a><\/p>\n Tyreek McDole Quintet: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12-13 at SFJAZZ Center; San Francisco; $39; www.sfjazz.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n