At 18, Cécile McLorin Salvant left Miami for Aix-en-Provence to study law and Baroque voice, two disciplines that punish deviation. Three years later she had won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the most prestigious vocal prize in jazz. This episode traces how that leap was possible, starting with a childhood in a household where her Haitian doctor father and French mother, who founded a French immersion school, filled the house with English, French, and Haitian Creole alongside Haitian music, hip hop, soul, gospel, and Cuban music. Classical piano at five, the Miami Choral Society at eight, and private voice lessons at the University of Miami laid the technical foundation before reedist Jean-François Bonnel introduced her to jazz improvisation in France.

From her 2010 debut and Mack Avenue contract, the episode follows h ...