Antoinette Montague: The Jazz Royalty Reviving Newark’s Musical Legacy

Antoinette Montague: The Jazz Royalty Reviving Newark’s Musical Legacy
by Raul da Gama

Antoinette Montague is a name that resonates with the heritage of jazz and blues royalty, tracing its lineage back to iconic figures like Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. As the youngest of seven children in a musically inclined household, Antoinette's passion for jazz runs deep, making her a prominent force in the jazz scene of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. When the glorious and stately Antoinette Montague begins to sing, you will always discern that blues as the root begets jazz as its fruit. In fact, she will remind you many times in a conversation about her music, “Blues is the root, jazz is the fruit, baby!” She is not, of course, the lone voice in the metropolitan desert to repeat this truism.

Naysayers and refuseniks beware, because Antoinette is about to change all that. If you haven’t heard of her, shame on you, because Antoinette is descended from blues and jazz royalty that goes back to Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Ella, Sarah Vaughan and all the royal women of blues and jazz. The youngest of seven children born into a musical household, and “longtime activist of jazz-imbued New Jersey-New York-Connecticut, Antoinette Montague is a force to reckon with,” says Susan Brink, Jazz Journalists of America board member. 

To read more, visit https://mags.hothousejazzmagazine.com/a76282af89.html#page/6.