Judi Singh was the ‘velvet voice’ of Canadian jazz – until history left her behind

In the early 1960s, a new venue was emerging for jazz enthusiasts in the Canadian city of Edmonton. The Yardbird Suite, a modest club on Whyte Avenue that would later become one of Canada’s most prestigious jazz venues, was drawing audiences eager to listen to exciting performers. Among its most talked-about attractions was a young singer of Indian and African heritage: Judi (also spelled Judy) Singh.

Born in 1945 to a Sikh immigrant father and an African-Canadian mother whose family had settled in Alberta from the Mississippi Delta, Singh grew up listening to gospel, blues, and Hindustani classical music. Her father, Sohan Singh Bhullar, carved a bansuri and often played Hindustani melodies. The diverse musical influences she absorbed in childhood helped shape her wide-ranging artistic sensibility, but it was jazz that ultimately became her calling.

By her late teens, the vocalist was already turning heads. In February 1965, Barry Westgate, the Edmonton Journal columnist, caught her set at Yardbird and wrote a prophetic note in his Nightside column: “Incidentally, was down at the Whyte Avenue spot late Saturday to listen in on some sweet sounds from diminutive Judy Singh, a newcomer who could start going places quickly. She has the voice, but still needs more...

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