Singer Risa Branch is a fighter. As a self-proclaimed “former professional advocate,” she’s fought for civil rights, animal welfare, and gender equality around the United States and Canada. Now Branch has joined the fight to keep the sound of trad jazz alive. She’s dedicated her prodigious talent to singing period music in clubs, bars and concert halls.
Branch says she’s been through nearly every genre of music as she moved from her hometown of Dallas, Texas, to Austin to New York City to Boulder, Colorado, to Vancouver, Canada, and back to the Big Apple. It was the King of Swing, however, who struck a responsive chord with her starting in the 5th grade when she began learning the clarinet.
“I would say jazz started to come into my interest around that time because of Benny Goodman,” Branch told The Syncopated Times from her home in NYC. “And also, through the vocalists that Benny Goodman recorded as well. So, I got exposed to Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday. And something about their voices struck me. I was singing at that point, in choirs, in church. I started going to church at a young age and I’d always been in the choir. And I actually continued singing in gospel choirs through university.”
Music had stiff competition with Branch’s desire to fix the problems that she saw in the world. Instead of following her musical muses, she pursued an undergraduate degre
