Carla Van Blake

Carla Van Blake possesses a variety of skills, from software engineering to couture design to jewelry making, but her first and enduring love is music. She’s led an interesting life, growing up in New York State and Nigeria, volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mali, and surviving a near-death experience  “My parents moved me to a remote area in Nigeria when I was eight years old,” she said. “My father took his jazz collection with him, so I grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, and Nina Simone.

When trumpet maestro and jazz icon Bobby Shew heard her for the first time, he said, “The phrasing and everything was right, and she sings in tune, and she has the whole persona as a jazz singer.” A New Mexico Music Awards finalist, Carla will be singing her beautiful original songs from her new CD at Paradiso, bringing her positive lyrics to uplift…