Nanci Zhang performs under the name Nanci Zee — friends and fans also know her as “Nanci with the laughing face,” the name she's used for her music page for years. She's been a fixture of the Frenchmen Street jazz scene for well over a decade, known for her interpretations of the Great American Songbook — real, wry, and delivered with a phrasing that's entirely her own.
The Nanci Zee Trio — guitarist Jordan Samuels, bassist Tomoko Funaki, and drummer Austin Lee Harris, with a fuller band depending on the night — has become a regular fixture at the city's best small rooms: The Spotted Cat, the Blue Room at the Hotel Monteleone, the Royal Frenchmen Hotel, Marigny Brasserie, Three Muses, and a standing engagement at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel. She's also performed as part of the New Orleans Jazz Museum's live series and been featured by WWOZ, the city's jazz and heritage radio station. She's carried that sound beyond New Orleans too, with dates at venues from San Francisco to Mobile, Alabama.
Off the bandstand, Zee is also an accomplished social dancer, with training in swing, Argentine tango, salsa, bachata, and merengue — a background that shows up in the rhythmic pocket and physicality of her live performances.
