In this episode, Queen Jazz shares her 22-year journey with Samba—an art, a culture, and a spiritual lineage she first encountered through her father’s love for Brazilian jazz. What began as curiosity evolved into a lifelong devotion after her first encounter with Samba in San Diego, eventually leading her to Rio de Janeiro and Brazil’s heartlands of Bahia and Salvador.
Queen reveals Samba’s true ancestral roots, tracing back to African and Indigenous Brazilian traditions and the Yoruba word mesimba—“to pray.” Through this lens, she describes Samba not as performance, but as embodied prayer, medicine, and a portal to ancestral remembrance.
Throughout her journey—from performer to producer to teacher—Queen has learned from elders through presence, humility, and energetic transmission. Samba became her spiritual practice: fire ceremonies, ocean rituals, skirts and headwraps, and deep communion with ancestors. These experiences shaped her path as a cultural alchemist and Griot, eventually leading her to create the Samba Queens Academy across multiple U.S. cities and her newest offering, Samba Journeys, including a five-month online course and her first in-person ancestral retreat.
Queen also reflects on how Samba prepared her for motherhood and shares her mission to preserve, honor, and pass on ancestral stories through dance, teachings, and community. She is currently working on a book chronicling her two-decade journey—from age 23 to her 20th “sambaversary.”
Part 1 closes with an invitation to continue this story in Part 2, where she and Jennifer will explore her motherhood journey within the Samba community and the deeper layers of legacy, lineage, and becoming.
