As a teenager in the late 1990s, Chrisette Michele led a gospel choir in her father’s church. Before long her voice became a muse for some of hip hop’s biggest stars, and she appeared on albums by The Game, Nas, Jay-Z and more. By 2007 Michele had come into her own as a recording artist, releasing her star-making debut album I Am and several hit singles including “Be OK,” which earned her a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. She followed up with an appearance on The Roots album Rising Down and her chart-topping second CD, Epiphany, which confirmed her status as one of R&B’s most creative singer/songwriters. Since releasing an acclaimed hip hop-inflected album last year, Let Freedom Reign, Michele has taken her music in an entirely new direction with an ambitious homage to a triumvirate of jazz legends: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Tapping into her early love of jazz and American Songbook standards, Michele displays the improvisational skills and scat chops that she’s largely kept under wraps during her rise as an R&B diva. She premieres her latest project in the spectacular Paramount Theatre, a perfect setting in which to revisit the glories of jazz history.