Alma Zygier, Tel Aviv, July 2026.
On first listening, it's tempting to compare Alma Zygier to the primordial early Blues singer Bessie Smith. Like Bessie, Alma has an outsized voice, an outstanding vocal range, a deep feeling for pathos, a raw and sometimes rowdy delivery, and a complete repertoire of songs from earlier eras.
But as you listen to Alma, who was born and raised in Melbourne to Australian superstar musicians Willy Zygier and Deborah Conway, although it's mighty clear who her influences are, her own unique musical identity quickly moves front and center.
The quality of her voice, first of all, is arresting and personal. Her expansive range, her exacting execution, her exquisite timing, her passion for full vowels and drawn-out consonants, her vivid body language — here is a singer! And she listens, too.
Alma's ability to captivate the room – small or large – from the first bare notes of her performance is something not often seen today. Her generation is typically constrained by flashy costumes, lithe dancers and million dollar traveling sets, not to mention being 'under the influence' of heavy digital interventions. Alma is as pure and as raw a singer as it gets. Frankly, she hardly needs a microphone even when she is whispering.
The fact that Alma is only 28 today makes it easy to pigeonhole her. But I'll give odds that we're seeing only the first fruits of a singer who can bring a lot of people, audiences, musicians and singers alike, back to the most meaningful, most moving sources of this music, and then, given some time (like a fine red wine), also take us to some completely new places.
You can really hear Alma when she does Stardust. It's also a treat to provide this clip of Alma performing her current song list recently with her Dad on guitar.
The image of Alma is from a packed performance yesterday at the Jazz Kissa jazz club in Tel Aviv with Yonatan Rosen on drums, Ram Erez on bass and Yonatan Rikles on piano. And that's Willy, her Dad, on guitar.