. . . it was indeed a pleasure to hear the romantic and dramatic voice of Steve Washington. He is a jazz singer in the great tradition of Billy Eckstine, Johnny Hartman and Joe Williams.”

Cabaret Scenes (Ron Forman)

Steve Washington

Steve Washington has been performing since the early '80s with humble beginnings in Princeton University a cappella singing groups and theatrical productions. After Princeton, Steve joined numerous professional productions, eventually earning union membership when cast in an Arena Stage production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. Forays into dramatic theater landed him the role of Demetrius in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shakespeare Theater at the Folger. A theatrical highlight was working under the direction of Sir Cameron Mackintosh himself in a production of Hey, Mr. Producer.

After shifting focus to music in the 90s, he formed the Steve Washington Project, a jazz-funk oriented effort performed in the area’s top venues as well as multiple tours in Italy. Steve has also played countless hotels and concert halls as a lead vocalist in various society bands and orchestras. Noteworthy venues where Steve has headlined include Blues Alley, Bohemian Caverns, Mr. Henry’s (Capitol Hill), The Katzen Arts Center, the Atlas Theater, the Carlyle Club, Westminster Jazz, the Jazz & Cultural Society, The Metropolitan Room (NYC), and more. And Steve has traveled the globe headlining on the world’s finest cruise ships with his main stage acts Nat & Sammy Remembered and Rhythm, Blues & Broadway.

More recently, Steve has been focusing on his own unique mixture of jazz and blues. In 2015, Steve released his second CD Right to Love featuring the Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra. In 2018, Steve completed a two-month tour of Russia, playing dozens of jazz clubs and philharmonic halls across the country, including the famous International House of Music in Moscow. That tour resulted in a new CD recorded in Moscow entitled Skylark

Recent highlights include fronting the highly regarded Smithsonian Masterworks Jazz Orchestra for a Nat “King” Cole tribute concert presented at the Smithsonian American History Museum. Shortly thereafter, Steve was invited to be the vocalist at Westminster DC's jazz tribute concert honoring the music of Billy Eckstine.

In 2020, Steve performed three live-stream concerts courtesy of the Blue House Studio's "Covid Sessions" series. A live CD will be produced and presented soon consisting of highlights from those concerts. And in February 2022, Steve will open the Wilmington Jazz Festival.

Steve continues to share his music wherever possible in the DMV and beyond and looks forward to more discovery and adventure in the enduring and always exciting world of jazz and, more broadly, the world of entertainment.

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