Sarasota jazz vocalist Synia Carroll dies

Synia Carroll, the Sarasota-based jazz vocalist who left a career as a schoolteacher and storyteller to devote herself full time to music, died Friday after a struggle with cancer. She was 67.

Carroll was a frequent and popular performer in the bay area, particularly at St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater, where she was awarded a Creative Fellowship in 2023. Backed by a group made up of local jazz luminaries, she presented “Nina on My Mind,” a tribute in song to Nina Simone, in 2023 and 2024. They were both smash hits, as was her Palladium show devoted to the music of Sarah Vaughan.

“Synia was a kind, wonderful and loving person,” said pianist John O’Leary, a frequent collaborator. “She was so great at telling the story behind the music she chose. And when she chose Nina Simone, she immersed herself in that role and brought Nina back to life.”

Synia Carroll with her “Nina on My Mind” band in 2023: John O’Leary, left, Brandon Robertson, Mark DeRose, James Suggs and Paul Gavin.

Music educator and bandleader David Manson also worked with Carroll frequently. “Synia had an exceptional voice, kind disposition and a dynamic stage presence,” he said. “It was a delight featuring her with the Helios Jazz Orchestra.”

A Philadelphia native, Carroll sang in a worldbeat band, studied musical theater at Wesleyan University and taught theater and Spanish in public schools. She and husband Ed Linehan worked as professional storytellers, and were named Connecticut State Troubadours.

Carroll was not a big jazz fan growing up; her tastes then learned towards Carole King and Stevie Nicks.

But jazz called to her.

When she and Linehan moved to Sarasota in 2014, she began sitting in at local jazz jams. “My voice just started to emerge,” she told the Catalyst in 2021, “in ways I never really knew were there.”

Singing, she said, was similar to storytelling. “The music has communication between you and the players – that’s really important – as well as you and the audience. And there’s a story behind every song; you want to tell the story.

“And it has this freedom. Like, you don’t have to sound pretty all the time. You just have to be real. You have to be authentic. Sometimes that means sounding pretty, and sometimes that means sounding whatever. It may not even be a sound. And all the notes that are silent! In other words, the space between the notes counts. It all counts.”

Linehan was president and managing director of the Sarasota Jazz Club from 2018 to 2023.

Carroll told her story in song with the one-woman show Finding Sassy at Sarasolo Festival in 2019.

Singer Whitney James shared the stage with Carroll on several occasions. James wrote on Facebook that “her beautiful smile was pure sunshine and her laugh was infectious. Synia left her mark on our hearts and in our music community. Her music and artistry lives on.”

Said pianist Simon Lasky, via Facebook: “In performance, she was a force of nature: No matter a big concert hall (with a knowledgeable, attentive audience) or a tiny wine bar (with no one listening!) Synia had the ability to grab the audience by the scruff of the neck and bring them along with her. By the end of the show, you hadn’t just been at a concert, you’d had an EXPERIENCE!”

Carroll’s  second album, Water is My Song, was released last year. She used her Creative Fellowship cash award to partially finance the recording, and her CD-release show in May marked her final appearance at the Palladium (her last local performance was in November at the Suncoast Jazz Festival in Clearwater).

A May 8 Palladium concert, originally to be a benefit to help with medical bills, will now be a memorial and tribute by her musical friends.

“Synia,” said the theater’s executive director Paul Wilborn, “was a star at the Palladium. She was that elusive artist who had real talent and sold tickets. When she was on stage, you didn’t check your phone. You couldn’t take your eyes off her.”

According to Carroll’s daughter, Janina McQuillen, there will be a Celebration of Life in Sarasota sometime in April. The exact date and location have not been determined, but the news will be posted via the Synia Carroll and Jazz Club of Sarasota websites and social media pages.

McQuillen said a GoFundMe page, to help with costs and to launch a scholarship in her mother’s name, has been established.

In her Catalyst interview, Carroll was effusive in her praise for young bay area musicians; she’d been sharing stages with them virtually since her 2014 arrival in Florida.

“I hear all of them reaching. And it’s really cool, because I’m reaching too,” she explained.

“People will say ‘Oh, you’ve gotten so much better.’ I’ll say well, give me a couple more years. I’m not done. This is just the beginning. I’m going to be reaching until I’m reaching for the next life.”