vr 19 september

A virtuosic jazz singer and educator, Judy Niemack is recognized for her deeply lyrical style and harmonically adept vocalese technique. Mentored by , Niemack emerged in the '70s with her debut LP By Heart. She also paired with for 1989's Blue-Bop and released a string of standards albums, including 1996's Night and the Music, 2003's About Time, 2007's Blue Nights, and 2017's Listening to You. Though a regular presence on the New York scene, Niemack has spent decades living in Europe where she has taught jazz singing as a professor at Jazz Institut Berlin and the Basque School of Higher Music in Spain. In 2022, she was joined by guest saxophonist on What's Love.

Born in 1954 in Pasadena, California, Niemack grew up in a musical family and first began singing in her church choir. By her teens, she was already a gifted vocalist, studying bel canto with Primo Lino Puccinelli. After high school, she pursued classical voice and jazz improvisation studies at Pasadena City College, and later attended the New England Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1975, she returned to California where she studied jazz with . It was with 's group that she made her New York debut at the Village Vanguard in 1977. Basing herself in N.Y.C., she released her debut album, By Heart, the following year.

Although she gigged regularly, Niemack waited several years to record another full-length, with Blue-Bop arriving in 1989. The album found her backed by pianist , whose songs "Bolivia," "Dizzy Atmosphere," and "Moanin'" she covered. The effort also featured a guest appearance by trombonist . More albums followed in the '90s, including Heart's Desire, Mingus, Monk & Mal with pianist , and Night and the Music with pianist , bassist , drummer , all on the Free Lance label.

It was also in the '90s that Niemack moved to Europe, where she taught vocal jazz in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She also recorded several albums with her then-husband guitarist Jeanfrançois Prins (they divorced in 2016). In 1995, she accepted the position of Professor of Jazz Voice at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" (aka Jazz Institut Berlin). She also authored the Hear It and Sing It! jazz vocal method book series and helped found the vocal jazz program at Musikene, the Basque School of Higher Music, in San Sebastian, Spain.