Denise King | "People Get Ready"

Acclaimed Vocalist Denise King Sings Classic Songs of Protest and Prayer by Icons of Rock, Blues, R&B, Jazz and Folk on Her Profoundly Moving New Album

People Get Ready Features Meaningful Songs by Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan, Abbey Lincoln, and Others

Available on CD on Digital Platforms on October 17, 2025 and on Vinyl on December 5, 2025 via Jazzbook Records

Philadelphia-based vocalist Denise King has long been acclaimed as a bewitching interpreter of jazz and Songbook classics. King steers a different course on her breathtaking new album People Get Ready, applying the same passion, soul and sensuality to a collection of socially conscious songs from the worlds of rock, blues, R&B and folk music.

Due out October 17, 2025 via Jazzbook Records, People Get Ready boasts some of the most powerful and profound music of King’s four-decade career. In keeping with the spiritual and political message suggested by its title – and the Curtis Mayfield favorite from which it was taken – the album features timeless anthems of peace, unity and civil rights from such revered songwriters as Mayfield, Bob Dylan, Abbey Lincoln, and Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.

“Being a jazz head all my life, I never imagined that I’d be covering Bob Dylan or the Animals, or even Edwin Starr,” King marvels. “But I’ve known all of these songs since they were new, and I particularly enjoyed singing them because the message that they carry is so pertinent. The lyrics speak to the times that we’re living in as much as the times in which they were originally recorded.”

People Get Ready came about through a fortuitous meeting between King and Jazzbook label founder Seydou Barry, who also served as manager and producer for Ahmad Jamal prior to the legendary pianist’s death in 2023. The two were introduced following a performance in Aix-en-Provence, France, when Barry broached the subject of the recording. As King says, “I always say things happen when they’re meant to and as they’re supposed to happen, and the stars aligned for us to meet and take my recording career in a new direction.”

The project was conceived and arranged by guitarist and musical director John Shannon, who recently released his own album, A Day in Tarifa, through Jazzbook. The session features a stellar group of musicians – Shannon, percussionist Vieux Kanté, pianist and organist Cliff Barnes, drummer James Johnson III, and bassist Chyco Siméon – and was simply in search of the perfect vocalist.

They found her in Denise King. The message of the repertoire aligns perfectly with the humanity-focused mission exemplified by the singer’s offstage life. “I like to fancy myself as an artist-activist,” she says, but it’s more than a simple fancy. King heads a non-profit organization in her native Philly called Hope and Healing Community Arts Project, donating school supplies, winter coats and Christmas toys to children in need; and founded the literacy program BeBoppin’ Books.

“I connected with this project immediately because it speaks to everything that is important to me,” she says.

The album begins with a jolt of motivation/inspiration, the spiritual “You Gotta Move.” The song has been revived by everyone from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi Fred McDowell to Sam Cooke and the Rolling Stones. King and the band bring the sanctified spirit of a tent revival meeting to the song, setting a bracing tone for the album to come.

The tone becomes more somber and pleading on “Why Can’t We Live Together,” R&B singer Timmy Thomas’s Vietnam-era hit yearning for an end to war abroad and peace at home. Its themes are echoed by Edwin Starr’s Whitfield/Strong-penned Motown protest classic “War,” here reimagined with a Flamenco tinge on the chorus and an eruption of funk for the emphatic verses. Far from abstract sentiment, the songs’ message hits close to home for King, whose world travels have seen her visit, and make close personal friends war-torn regions including Ukraine and the Middle East.

King witnessed firsthand the power of her version when she premiered the arrangement during a concert in Dakar, Senegal. “At one point in the performance, the band cuts out and I scream out the word, ‘war!’ Everybody in the audience was stunned. The background singer was crying, and I was close to tears myself.”

The mood takes an introspective turn for “Throw It Away,” giving King the opportunity – and the challenge – to put her own spin on the signature song of one of her chief inspirations, Abbey Lincoln. Swathed in the cathedral hues of Barnes’ organ, “House of the Rising Sun” becomes a quest for redemption, melding seamlessly from the familiar New Orleans-set lament to the prayerful “Amazing Grace.” It is perfectly paired with the frantic “Sinner Man,” best known from Nina Simone’s indelible rendition.

As a duo between King and layers of Shannon’s acoustic and slide guitars, U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)” becomes soaring an intimate; King sees it as a banner waved for the LGBTQ+ community. The title track is a perfect distillation of both its gospel and R&B roots, while “Gotta Serve Somebody” closes the album with a throttling funk groove striking an apt balance for Dylan’s ode to the tug of war between sacred and profane.

People Get Ready inaugurates a new chapter for King, one that promises a wealth of possibility for the boundless singer. “At this stage of my life, I’m leaning more towards doing whatever I feel like doing,” she declares. “I’ve been in the jazz box for a long time – and I love it, of course. But sometimes you just want to have some fun and say something meaningful at the same time.”

2025 TOUR DATES

10/31 Con Alma – Pittsburgh PA

11/01 Con Alma – Pittsburgh PA

11/07 Windmills – Grandscape TX

11/08 Windmills – Grandscape TX

11/14 Windmills – Hyderabad INDIA

11/15 Windmills – Hyderabad INDIA

11/21 Windmills – Bangalore – INDIA

11/26 Studio de L’Ermitage Paris – France