Soul · Jazz · R&B · Gospel
New Orleans-raised singer & bandleader — Active
Naydja CoJoe is a New Orleans-raised singer and bandleader whose Lagniappe Section moves easily between smooth jazz, soul, gospel and R&B — and who now also carries the torch as a member of the legendary Dixie Cups.
Biography
Raised in New Orleans, Naydja CoJoe began singing through a NORD summer camp and went on to back Southern soul singer Mel Waiters beginning in 2001 — a schooling in the deep-soul tradition that still shows in everything she sings.
She leads her own band, the Lagniappe Section, whose repertoire stretches across smooth jazz, soul, gospel and R&B. The name fits: in New Orleans, lagniappe means a little something extra, and her shows deliver exactly that.
CoJoe later joined the Dixie Cups — the legendary New Orleans vocal group behind “Chapel of Love” and “Iko Iko” — singing alongside Barbara Ann Hawkins and Athelgra Neville Gabriel and carrying one of the city's most beloved harmony traditions forward.
The Jazz Foundation of America has presented her in its “Live from New Orleans” series, featuring CoJoe and the Lagniappe Section in full — another sign of a singer the city's institutions trust to represent it well.
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