NicoleYvette | "Say Yes" - DL Media Music

On Her Debut Outing, Say Yes, Vocalist/Composer NicoleYvette Embodies a Story-Filled Lifetime of Departures and Arrivals in Her Journey from the Dark Night of the Soul to the

Dawn of the Self

Featuring Kurt Elling, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joel Ross, J. Ivy, Keyon Harrold, and Paul Cornish

Produced by Three-Time GRAMMY® Winner Sara Gazarek

Available August 14, 2026

The First Single “Say Yes” (featuring Joel Ross), is

Now Available to Stream

Say Yes is a fully realized jazz statement, personal and purposeful in equal measure. On her debut outing, remarkable vocalist/composer NicoleYvette embodies a story-filled lifetime of departures and arrivals in her journey from the dark night of the soul to the dawn of the self.

Her producer, three-time GRAMMY® winner Sara Gazarek, says, “Like a diamond shaped through years of essential work, NicoleYvette emerges fully formed and luminous, with no excess and no apology. Her voice and original songs carry the gravity and grace of jazz and soul’s deep lineage.” Say Yes showcases 10 originals as well as modern interpretations of “Night and Day” (Cole Porter) and “What a Wonderful World” (Bob Thiele and George David Weiss).

Gazarek’s deep roots in the music community made it possible to assemble an exceptional team around NicoleYvette. The core band: pianist/arranger Dawn Clement, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, bassist Jermaine Paul, and drummer Christian Euman. The album boasts an extraordinary roster of guest artists: vocalist Kurt Elling, vibraphonist Joel Ross, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, alto saxophonist Lenard Simpson, pianist Paul Cornish, performance poet J. Ivy, drummer/percussionist Terri Lyne Carrington, organist Larry Goldings, and arranger Geoffrey Keezer.

NicoleYvette’s connection to Gazarek began in 2023 at Jazz Camp West in La Honda, California. “I was in Sara’s vocal intensive workshop where she planted seeds in me that changed what I thought was possible,” she says. Those seeds grew into a full producing partnership.

NicoleYvette wrote the affirmative title track, featuring Joel Ross on vibes, in 2013. “I wrote ‘Say Yes’ when I was in a musical crisis,” says the Carson, California native. “I grew up in a very conservative Christian household where Gospel and hymns were the soundtrack of my life. But when my heart began to lead me somewhere else, I stepped away from sacred music and found that jazz met my spiritual need. It’s a divine musical language that I’m still learning. Writing ‘Say Yes’ was my consent to expressing myself musically in new ways.”

Two trips to India, the first in 2010 and the second in 2024, gave NicoleYvette the emotional material for the album’s opening triptych. “Such Is the Love” and “Let It Be” are love songs layered with meaning, sitting in the complicated territory between suffering and peace. “Crossing Over,” the opening track, arrived from that second journey, a confirmation of something she had already felt but hadn’t yet fully named. With Larry Goldings delivering transporting organ lines and a background vocal choir organized by three-time GRAMMY® winner and arranger Amanda Taylor, NicoleYvette sings of departure with quiet conviction. “It’s as if I’m back in the wooden pews with the stained-glass windows above me that I left,” she says.

NicoleYvette eventually made her way to Seattle with her husband, and it was here that jazz became her new home. “I didn’t know anyone, but slowly I began singing at open mics, learning new songs, taking classes and doing some scary kind of jazz things, like writing jazz music,” she says. Central to that process is her collaboration with pianist Shawn Schlogel. “I write songs but don’t play an instrument,” she says. “That process would be terribly frustrating without a collaborator who can translate the melodies and chords in my head.”

The core band tracked at Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles, NicoleYvette laid down vocals at Studio X in Seattle, and featured artists contributed their parts remotely. Speaking of featured artists, Kurt Elling sings on the second single, “Such Is the Love.” “I wasn’t there when Kurt recorded his part, but when Sara sent me the file I absolutely freaked out. There was Kurt Elling singing the heck out of a song I wrote, perfectly.”

“Come Close” finds Keyon Harrold’s trumpet bringing what NicoleYvette calls an “inviting and sexy” heat, while J. Ivy’s baritone spoken word transforms the song into a genuine co-creation. “He brought his own lyrics and created his own cadence,” she says. “It’s a beautiful performance.” On “Saturday,” alto saxophonist Lenard Simpson transformed the song entirely. “Before Lenard played on it, I treated it like a sweet song,” NicoleYvette says. “Hearing Lenard made me want to sing it with more soul and less sweet. I wanted that Etta James quality.”

Say Yes also features two beloved standards. “Night and Day,” arranged by Geoffrey Keezer, is one of NicoleYvette’s favorite Ella songs to perform. Dawn Clement’s inspired choice to play the Moog sealed it. “I listened back and heard Prince reflected,” NicoleYvette says. “What a marriage of ideas!” “What a Wonderful World” has been her favorite song since she first heard the sincerity in Louis Armstrong’s voice. “That song is evidence that music can be aspirational,” she says. “Armstrong was singing about a world that didn’t yet exist for Black people in America.” Dawn Clement’s arrangement gives the song gravity. “It almost feels like a prayer,” NicoleYvette says.

“Inuka Uangaze,” which means “rise and shine” in Swahili, was written during NicoleYvette’s father’s long illness and is typically performed live with only drums, percussion and voice. Gazarek suggested bringing in Terri Lyne Carrington, knowing she would be perfect. Carrington brought her own interpretation. “Terri presented me with a song I’d never heard before, and I was scared to death!” NicoleYvette says. “It was like vocal double dutch. I asked myself, am I too scared to do this? I’m glad the answer was no.”

NicoleYvette’s most personal song, “If I Could,” appears twice on the album, both versions arranged and performed by rising star pianist Paul Cornish. “This song is an expression of my grief and love, written while my father was actively transitioning,” she says. “The version with the full band feels like an ascension into the ineffable things of life, death, and dying. Then Paul and I revisited it as a duo. It is a real texture change, very raw. I had to stop recording at times to allow my emotions to pass.”

“We Rise at Dawn” is the most recently written song on the album, born out of NicoleYvette’s despair following the 2024 U.S. elections. But the song refuses to stay in that darkness. “How did we get there?” she says. “How do we get out of this?” Renfroe’s guitar sounds its own battle cry, with Euman’s drums as the pulse beneath it all. NicoleYvette captures the essence of the entire album in five words: “This is my call to action.”

2026 TOUR DATES

July 18: Birds of a Feather Jazz Lounge, Los Angeles, CA; Pre-Release Concert and Celebration, 7:30pm

August 23: Beachcrest Brewing Company, Lincoln Beach, OR, 4pm

August 30: The Royal Room, Seattle, WA; Album Release Show

November 6: Seattle Jazz Fellowship, Seattle, WA, 7:30pm