Lucy Woodward is a powerhouse singer whose soulful, impeccably controlled vocals will turn on a dime, from a runaway-train full-throttle intensity to a soft, slow burning sultry whisper, only to take you back into an inferno. Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers was released in summer 2024 on GroundUP Music. The album features her bespoke 18-person jazz collective - featuring musicians from countries such as The Netherlands, Italy and Ghana - inspired by American composers such as Donny Hathaway and Billy Strayhorn. With dynamic arrangements explicitly written to match Lucy’s passionate vocal manner, color, and timbre; the songs range from high-energy explosions to hauntingly intimate meditations. Throughout her career, Lucy has always genre-bended. And with this jazz orchestra, The Rocketeers, each musician carefully chosen for the project, pulls inspiration from the icons of jazz and pulsing vibrations from the then to the now and future music makers.

Music-driven movement is within Lucy Woodward’s life force. Born in London to classical musicians and traveling since day one. Her childhood was spent traveling between The Netherlands, where her father lived after her parents separated, and her hometown of New York, where she lived with her mother, growing up on a steady diet of Chopin and Michael Jackson, the background of her NYC soundtrack she found in countless New York bodegas and on subways.

The debut album of Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers was recorded live in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in the city’s iconic hall, LantarenVenster. Lucy produced the sessions with Louk Boudesteijn, founder of the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra and Bonsai Panda. The Rocketeers' rhythm section is comprised of Jelle Roozenburg (guitar), Niek de Bruijn (drums), and Udo Pannekeet (bass), who have been Lucy’s touring band for years, performing with her at internationally renowned festivals such as the Istanbul Jazz Fest and Athens Jazz, as well as touring together throughout Europe. On the road, their musical chemistry and immense trust in each other’s abilities have gelled into something deeply organic, telepathic, and thrilling. Before anything, sitting around a piano, Lucy and Louk discovered songs they both loved in common. Louk’s arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s beautiful “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” and its intriguing mixture of fragility and wildness gave the two a clear vision of the complex musical/emotional scope they would strive for The Rocketeers.

“I love the Big Band genre and the singers from that era,” says Lucy, “but I want to contribute a different, boundary-breaking spin that moves this classic genre all forward.” The compositions and arrangements for this project fully employ Lucy’s full range and are vibrantly pushed forward by the players’ ambitions, consummate skills, and unbiased personalities.

“Plain Gold Ring” is likewise deeply multilayered. Lucy first heard Nina Simone’s bluesy and hauntingly direct version. As arranged here by Louk Boudesteijn and Jelle Roozenburg, the track brims with uncontrolled passion, devastating heartache, and seismic emotional turbulence. “When I sing our version of ‘Plain Gold Ring,’ I feel I’m on top of a bullet train, and the engine's propulsion is carrying my voice,” says Lucy. “Jelle first arranged Nina’s gem for my trio. When I played it for Louk, he was instantly inspired to include it in our repertoire, we knew immediately it would be the leading single for the album’s release. I’ve sung this song on the road for many years, and each time, I found freedom in being able to sing it differently every night. The song fluctuates between ownership and surrendering to a situation while also lyrically being completely helplessly in love. It covers a lot of emotional ground.”

The inclusion of the Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson song, “Tryin’ Times,” was motivated by watching the US Riots breaking out during the summer of 2020. Lucy watched in horror as the videos played on European news shows. America was burning once again; protesters were taking to the streets to fight for racial equality and justice. When Lucy was 12, her mother took her to her first peace march. So, for this project, she wanted a song that would honor that memory and her commitment to fighting for what is right, her memories of being swept away in the moment of the movement, and the renewed sense of rage sweeping through her country. “I grew up in NYC, a city which has, for me, a palpable and life-affirming pulse,” she explains. “I wanted our ‘Tryin’ Times’ to capture that energy, the conversations of the subway, people wanting to be heard in a city of millions. The Rocketeers have found the sound of people’s outcry, the sound of change. I wanted to dwell in that feeling of chaos so as to bring a sense to the rage.”

Some intimate moments on the album include their hushed lullaby of “Love Me Tender.” Boudesteijn distilled the Elvis track, carefully arranging the reeds and flute, and features Alexander van Popta on piano. “Rocketeer,” Lucy’s tender hymn, is a heartfelt goodbye to old ways and well-worn paths, which became the subtext of this project. Initially, “Rocketeer” was written by Woodward and Boudesteijn for her previous 2024 release, Stories From The Dust.