The Jewish jazz singer raising her voice

Discussing Torme – a Polish-Jewish immigrant to the US and a superstar in his day – brings us neatly to her passion: her Jewish heritage. It is a fact she was unaware of until she was 18. She does recall feeling “different” as a child: “Kids would say to me ‘You’ve got a Jewish nose,’ or ‘Why is your hair curly?’ I knew I was different, I didn’t know why.”

Smith grew up in Harpenden – “no synagogue, no Jewish culture”, in “an evangelical Christian missionary church” which was her father’s choice, she says. She first visited Israel at 16: “A historical vacation with my dad’s side, my non-Jewish family. I remember thinking everyone here looks like me. They spoke to me in Hebrew. It felt like I came home.”

Only when she spoke to her maternal grandmother about feeling “different” did the penny drop. “She told me her maiden name was Cohen, then said: ‘Yes, we’re Jewish, love.’”

She found out her mother, Simone, had also been abused at school, in Romford. “They threw stones at her, awful things happened. She had no shul, no community. She thought burying her Jewishness was protecting my brother and I.”

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Smith regrets having missed out on High Holidays, Shabbat, her Jewish community. Meeting Jewish relatives in the US brought her to tears. She began her application to make Aliyah (which she hasn’t yet finished); she has visited Israel eight times this year alone: “I half live in Tel Aviv now.”

In January 2024, she played in Israel “to spread the joy”, the first international artist to perform there since the October 7 attacks. She knew of the risks: she was in fact caught in the Iranian attack. “I was in a shelter for two days, missiles being intercepted above my head,” she says. She drove on her own through the night, escaping via Egypt. “It was very scary, but it won’t deter me from going [to Israel]. I have to be around my people.”

She says since October 7, being Jewish is even more so “a forefront of my identity, personality, activism. I try to platform Jews in the arts in any way I can… The more I learn about antisemitism, the less choice I have in being vocal about it.”

On stage she wears a Magen David and her costumes are designed by her Israeli friend Shahar Avnet – also worn by Beyonce and singer Netta. Smith wears an Avnet feather-trimmed getup in eye-popping orange on her newly released album, Bitter Orange. It is very Streisand in Hello Dolly! The figure-hugging outfits on her previous album, Meshuga Baby, weren’t Avnet but are just as headline- (and attention-) grabbing.

Bitter Orange sees her take on jazz standards like Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, and My Funny Valentine, plus original songs like What Took You So Long, co-written with her producer/collaborator, pianist Jamie Safir. It shows the “bitter and sweet, humour and heartbreak, ups and downs, wins and the losses…the camp ridiculousness and raw vulnerability – all of that is me.”

Hers is quite a musical heritage: her muso parents worked with the Three Degrees, Leonard Bernstein, Mari Wilson and Paul Weller; and as Five Star Swing are still on the circuit. Her grandfather Chris Smith Sr. was an East End trombonist who played with Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., and Streisand, and “never skipped a day’s practice. He taught me you’re only as good as your last gig.”

Back to her love life, she seems a little sad about the end of a relationship “with an amazing Jewish man, it was very important to me.” Yet she does not have time now for a relationship. “It may sound cheesy, but I want to follow my dreams with total freedom.”

Emma Smith plays Ronnie Scott’s on 6 and 7 August.

She performs with James Torme at the Torme 100 shows in London in September.

Bitter Orange is out on La Reserve records.