Brenda Boykin

Boykin began singing in the choir of the North Oakland Missionary Baptist Church and was a solo singer there. During her high school years, she learned clarinet and turned to jazz and blues while studying psychology at Berkeley University .  She became known as a singer of the Johnny Nocturne band . She has appeared at many international festivals including the DuMaurier Jazz Festival in Vancouver , the Monterey Bay Blues Festival , the Monterey Jazz Festival , the San Francisco Blues Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival.  She was the winner of the Montreux Under the Sky competition at the 39th Montreux Jazz Festival ; her quartet has been honored as the best band of the entire outdoor festival . In 2015, she appeared as a soloist with the Russian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of St. Petersburg at the gala of the Tent Music Festival in Freiburg . She is a regular guest at this festival.  She worked closely with guitarist Eric Swinderman for a long time , but moved from San Francisco to Wuppertal in 2004 . She is involved in the German Nu Jazz project Club des Belugas .