Lizz Wright was born in the small town of Hahira, GA, one of three children of a minister father and a mother who sang gospel at church services. In her childhood, she began playing piano and singing in church with her two siblings. She first came to national attention in 2002 when she played a series of tribute shows to the great Billie Holiday. Reviewing one of those shows, The LA Times proclaimed with only a hint of hyperbole, “she walked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl a virtual unknown. Fifteen minutes later, she walked off a star.”

Since then, Wright has toured the world growing her audience and meeting new fans.

Her 2003 debut, Salt, introduced Wright as both an accomplished songwriter and an effortlessly magnetic performer, delivering subtly persuasive vocal performances in understated jazz/R&B settings. Lizz Wright was hailed by People as “one of the year’s most promising new voices,” and Salt won international acclaim, earning Wright comparisons with such formidable figures as Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln. The album also struck a chord with the public, reaching the Number 2 slot on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart.

Her third album, The Orchard, reflects Wright’s lifelong musical journey. The New York Times’ Stephen Holden praised Wright’s “astonishing maturity and poise” and wrote that she “stirs jazz, gospel and rhythm and blues into a reflective, flowing style that elongates songs into prayerful meditations that never wander into vagueness,” and described her singing as “pitch-perfect, with a smoky, full-bodied texture... impressive in its steadiness, control and rhythmic subtlety.”