Meryl Zimmerman

With her teal hair, vibrant outfits, and vocal stylings reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald, jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman is hard to miss. 

 

Like New Orleans, the city she’s called home for a decade, her performances are infused with spontaneity and color. She achieves this through her love of improvisation, her uncanny ability to scat, and her versatility- no song is sung the same way twice. Her repertoire is expansive, focused mainly on the Great American Songbook and jazz standards with occasional forays into 90s alternative, murder ballads, and bops from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

 

Originally from Long Island, Meryl got her Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with acclaimed vocalists Kate McGarry, Theo Bleckmann, and Peter Eldridge. Though her years of training are evident in her impeccable technique and impressive vocal range, her ability to affect her audiences through her emotional connection with the music is paramount. She “displays her vocal chops with relish,” according to Offbeat Magazine.

 

Meryl’s performed at venues across New Orleans including the city’s premier jazz club Snug Harbor, as well as Tipitina’s, The Spotted Cat, Three Muses, and Buffa’s, to name a few. She has performed at the French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. When the pandemic shuttered bars and clubs, Meryl transformed her front porch into a stage. Under a ceiling bedecked in twinkle lights and tinsel, she sang holiday songs out into the cold night for a crowd of smiling neighbors sitting in rows of camping chairs on the sidewalk. 

 

She has self-released two consecutive albums, Crystalline (2020) and A Very Meryl Christmas (2021). “…the more familiar ideas are dressed up in uncommon arrangements that take them into interesting places. Her bossa nova version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” was compelling…” writes music journalist Alex Rawls on his “Twelve Songs of Christmas” podcast.

 

When she’s not performing, Meryl teaches at the University of New Orleans and Loyola University of New Orleans as a private voice instructor.