Joan Carroll is an accomplished jazz vocalist and has been singing professionally for over 20 years. She was born in Columbus, Ohio on June 11, 1955 and some of her earliest memories as a child are listening to her mother sing popular songs of the big band era. Later Joan and her sisters would work out the voice parts to Beatles songs and sing along with the records. Joan participated in choir all through school and dabbled in guitar and piano lessons. In college she majored in Vocal Performance and fell in love with the classical vocal repertoire. She then discovered jazz when she got a job in a record store and heard a Betty Carter record. Joan has studied with local San Antonio jazz heroes, Kyle Keener and Ron Wilkins. She is well known for her sensitive phrasing, excellent intonation and her comprehensive knowledge of the jazz repertoire.
Joan and her band Footprints played the San Antonio JazzS’Alive Festival in 2000 and 2002 and played the Texas Jazz Festival from 2001 through 2003 and the Texas Lutheran University Jazz Festival in 2004. She performed in the Musical Offerings Jazz Meets Classical XIII Concert in San Antonio in 2000. She has appeared with numerous groups outside of Footprints including performance projects with Gerry Gibbs, and has sung frequently with the Paul Elizondo Big Band and the River City Big Band. In 2002, she was a featured soloist with the San Antonio Municipal band. She has also been a featured soloist with the University of the Incarnate Word Jazz Ensemble and the Reagan High School Jazz Ensemble. In 2005 and 2006 she performed in KRTU’s “Sunday Jazz at the Witte” concert series with Gerry Gibbs’ Thrasher Big Band (2005) and Bett Butler and Shelley Murray (2006 - the 3 Divas.)
Joan has recorded 2 CDs with Footprints, available on line and through Joan’s website (www.joancarrolljazz.com.) She also performed with Gerry Gibbs’ Thrasher Big Band and is on the “Live at Luna” CD available from Whaling City Sound records. Joan’s most exciting experience in the studio happened in March 2006 when vibraphonist, Terry Gibbs invited her to sing 2 songs on his new CD called “Findin’ The Groove”, with Hubert Laws, Tom Ranier, Dan Faehnle, Hamilton Price and Gerry Gibbs on the JazzedMedia record label. Then in May 2006 Joan performed with Terry Gibbs’ Dream Band in the LA Jazz Institute Big Band Festival in Los Angeles.
Joan also hosts her own radio show called “The Jazz Voice” on KRTU FM91.7 (www.krtu.org) Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm CST.