Leslie Vincent

About

Long Bio

Leslie Vincent is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader whose work draws on dating, marriage, anxiety, memory, and modern relationships, delivered through a warm alto voice and an electric live presentation shaped by years in theater. Blending jazz, swing, blues, pop, and singer-songwriter traditions, Vincent approaches songs as lived stories with sharply defined emotional points of view.

“I like to create transformative experiences for my audiences,” she says. “We can start as a group of strangers, but by the end, we’ve gone through something together.”

Vincent has performed on iconic stages around the country, including the Dakota in Minneapolis; the Mabel Tainter in Menomonie, Wisconsin; Noce in Des Moines; Café Coda in Madison; the Blue LLama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor; the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania; and Don’t Tell Mama in New York City. She has collaborated with pianist and music director Gregory Toroian, pianist and composer George Maurer, and indie darling jeremy messersmith.

Her evolution has culminated in 2026’s Little Black Book, Vincent’s third album and first full-length collection of original songs, released April 17, 2026 via Jazz Is Cool Records. Written across several years and recorded with her longtime working band — pianist and keyboardist Patrick Adkins, guitarist Blake Foster, bassist Matt McIntyre, drummer Ben Ehrlich, and trumpeter Mitch Van Laar. Guest contributors include jeremy messersmith, Stephanie Wieseler, Zach Marley, and Mary Alice Hutton, with a horn arrangement by Sam Charlton.

Over the past several years, Vincent has become one of the most recognizable jazz vocalists to emerge from the Minneapolis music scene while increasingly touring outside the state. DownBeat described her as “as much a storyteller as she is a jazz singer,” while The Big Takeover praised her “controlled and beautiful voice, one that sounds timeless.” Her 2023 album About Last Night mixed standards, vintage blues, and original songs, earning regional and national attention; Jazz88 named the original “Icetown Blues” among its Best Jazz Songs of the Year. At press time, Vincent had roughly 49,000 Instagram followers and 15,000 monthly Spotify listeners. In addition to many best-of lists, Vincent has been awarded an Everwood Farmstead residency for songwriting.

“I find I’ve funneled a lot of people into jazz that otherwise never would have found it,” Vincent says. “When I started, I’d do standards, but also throw in an ’80s cover or a Billy Joel song because that gave people a way in. Then suddenly they’re coming back to the club, and they’re curious about the music. One of my missions onstage is helping people let go of the academics of it. You don’t need to know why something is good to feel it.”

Born in Newport, Rhode Island into a military family, Vincent spent her childhood moving throughout the East Coast and the United Kingdom while her father served as a Navy JAG officer. Moving every few years proved destabilizing, and music became the constant. “ I’ve been singing since the time I could make sounds,” she says. “I’d sing for anyone who would listen.” She grew up listening to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, while spending all of her free time in choir, theater productions, and voice lessons.

By age 11, theater had become central to her life. After earning a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theater Degree in Washington, D.C., she spent years working professionally in theater, including dramas and musical comedies, before jazz became her primary focus. By the time Vincent began working steadily in jazz, she already had years of stage experience behind her as a performer and storyteller.

Vincent learned jazz primarily onstage. An early monthly residency at an intimate Minnesota wine bar became a practical education in booking musicians, building audiences, shaping arrangements, and holding a room. “That residency gave me the best education,” she says. “I built a new show every month for two years. It was a wild way to learn, but it taught me how to hold a room.”

Her next recordings pushed further toward conceptual arrangements and personal interpretation. One version of “Stars Fell on Alabama,” inspired by her grandparents, stretched and abstracted time to evoke memory loss and dementia, with the arrangement briefly snapping into clarity before dissolving again. Onstage, Vincent often reframes standards through personal stories, bringing her individual point of view to modernize classic tunes*.

Original songwriting increasingly became the center of Vincent’s work. On About Last Night, she included two originals — including the blunt and humorous “Psychedelics With You,” inspired by taking MDMA with a close friend. “There were no metaphors,” she says. “The lyrics are what they are ‘I’m doing drugs and having a great time.’” The response convinced her to keep writing.

Vincent cites artists such as Norah Jones, Nellie McKay, and Madeleine Peyroux as touchstones for their songwriting voices and stylistic freedom. “They’re putting themselves out there,” she says. “Similarly, I’m writing and singing to share my thoughts and curiosities with people.” Her career has evolved from humble wine bars to playing festivals and embarking on two East Coast tours — culminating thus far in Little Black Book.

The album moves from the digital exhaustion of “Analog Love Affair” to the dating-app repetition of “Tallying Strangers,” the aftermath of ghosting on “Till They Do,” the domestic intimacy of “You & I (Go Together Like),” and the anxiety at the center of “Rainy Days.” Throughout the record, Vincent writes about present-day emotional life.

Though Minnesota remains her home base, Vincent has begun touring more heavily through festival appearances, regional runs, and collaborations with artists around the country. “I’m not a passive person,” she says. “And I’m just getting started.”

Medium Bio

Leslie Vincent is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader whose work draws on dating, marriage, anxiety, memory, and modern relationships, delivered through a warm alto voice and a live presence shaped by years in theater. Blending jazz, swing, blues, pop, and singer-songwriter traditions, Vincent approaches songs as lived stories with sharply defined emotional points of view. “I’m more storytelling and narrative focused than bebop inspired,” she says. “Every standard that I do, I have a narrative. I try not to sing anything without specificity.”

That storytelling reaches a new peak on Little Black Book, Vincent’s third album and first full-length collection of original songs, released April 17, 2026 via Jazz Is Cool Records. Written across several years and recorded with her longtime working band — pianist/keyboardist Patrick Adkins, guitarist Blake Foster, bassist Matt McIntyre, drummer Ben Ehrlich, and trumpeter Mitch Van Laar — the album also features Jeremy Messersmith, Stephanie Wieseler, Zach Marley, and Mary Alice Hutton, with horn arrangements by Sam Charlton. Its songs move through digital exhaustion, dating-app repetition, ghosting, domestic intimacy, and anxiety, filtering present-day emotional life through jazz, swing, blues, and pop songwriting.

Over the past several years, Vincent has become one of the most recognizable jazz vocalists to emerge from Minneapolis while increasingly touring beyond Minnesota. DownBeat described her as “as much a storyteller as she is a jazz singer,” while The Big Takeover praised her “controlled and beautiful voice, one that sounds timeless.” Her 2023 album About Last Night mixed standards, vintage blues, and original songs, earning regional and national attention; Jazz88 named the original “Icetown Blues” among its Best Jazz Songs of 2023. At press time, Vincent had roughly 45,000 Instagram followers and 15,000 monthly Spotify listeners.

Born in Newport, Rhode Island into a military family, Vincent moved throughout the East Coast and the United Kingdom before studying musical theater and spending roughly a decade working professionally onstage. She learned jazz largely by doing it: booking musicians, building audiences, shaping arrangements, and holding rooms through a monthly Minnesota wine-bar residency that became a practical education. That background still drives her mission. “One of my missions onstage is helping people let go of the academics of it,” she says. “You don’t need to know why something is good to feel it.”

Short Bio

Leslie Vincent is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader whose work blends jazz, swing, blues, pop, and singer-songwriter traditions with the theatrical instincts of a seasoned storyteller.

A warm alto with a sharp sense of narrative, Vincent writes and interprets songs through the lens of dating, marriage, anxiety, memory, and modern relationships.

Her third album, Little Black Book — released April 17, 2026 via Jazz Is Cool Records — is her first full-length collection of original songs, recorded with her longtime working band and featuring Jeremy Messersmith, Stephanie Wieseler, Zach Marley, and Mary Alice Hutton.

One of the most recognizable jazz vocalists to emerge from Minneapolis, Vincent has earned praise from DownBeat, The Big Takeover, and Jazz88, which named her original “Icetown Blues” among its Best Jazz Songs of 2023.

Born into a military family and trained in musical theater, she spent years onstage before making jazz her primary focus.

“One of my missions onstage is helping people let go of the academics of it,” she says. “You don’t need to know why something is good to feel it.”