An Austin, Texas native, Chandra inherited
her musical ear from her mother. She did not begin singing publicly until
the early ‘80's, performing background vocals in lingala with an East
African dance band, Bantu in Washington, D.C. It was during this period she began singing
with Sweet Honey in the Rock’s a capella vocal workshop In Process... She also sang in Malinke language and
danced for the performance group Memory of African Culture. Participating in a jazz vocal workshop hosted
by D.C.'s jazz vocal icon Ronnie Wells, Chandra competed in the 2nd
Annual East Coast Jazz Festival Vocal Competition as a semi-finalist.
Chandra returned to Austin in the early
‘90's. She sang background for several
local Austin bands. As a percussionist,
she never received any formal training.
She learned through natural rhythmic ability, merging her exposure to
complex Senegambian polyrhythms as a professional dancer with ear training,
observation, and playing.
Singing so-called “musician’s tunes” at a jazz open mic caught
the attention of vocalist Pamela Hart, who invited her to sing in one of her
first Women in Jazz performance series.
In 1998, Chandra played balafon in a workshop and live recording
session at the Community Education Center in Philadelphia with
world-renowned baritone saxophone master Hamiet Bluiett (World
Saxophone Quartet co-founder) and his trio. She also collaborated with Bluiett in his Vegi Deli project in 2009 (see All About Jazz LINK: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34587
Back in Austin in 1999, the late vocalist and visionary Tina Marsh requested her services
in her Circle of Light holiday project as a dancer, to augment the Kwanzaa
representation of the program. Once her
music talents were realized, Marsh promptly enlisted Chandra in her Collaborative
Voices vocal ensemble, and incorporated her balafon, djun-djun drumming
and hand percussion skills into the project.
The project inspired Chandra to write a Kwanzaa song. The tune, KwanzaaTime was eventually
recorded on the Circle of Light CD.
She also sang as one of the Collaborative Voices, and played
percussion on several tracks of the recording.
Chandra enjoyed participating in Circle of Light for 10
consecutive seasons. In 2007, KwanzaaTime
was included on a compilation CD of holiday music by the Austin
Convention and Visitors Bureau. For 3 consecutive years, Chandra performed in Bemba Entertainment's Wild Is The Wind Nina Simone Tribute.
For First Night Austin 2006,
Chandra directed/performed original poetry and music a capella with area
artists. She also performed in First
Night with Circle of Light that year. Working with Hamiet Bluiett,
they presented the performance project, Healing Caravan for First
Night Austin 2006, and she later assumed the position of Artistic Director
and performed in two subsequent Healing Caravan installations for the
Black Arts Movement Festival, Austin, TX (2007 and 2011). The June, 2011 installation
opened for The Last Poets. Future
plans are to tour the project. She performed background vocalist for singer/songwriter Jeffrey Brian, Kiko Villamizar, and as lead vocalist/percussionist in the musical trio, Elements, Featuring Chandra
Washington. She currently tours with the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, vocalist James Robinson and drummer Brannen Temple as a dancer and support vocalist, Spirit of the Drum collective as percussionist, assembled a collection of Austin's finest musicians to perform for the annual Black History Month celebration at Rosedale School for special needs children, and most recently led and debuted a percussion project, Rhythmic Equations at the George Washington Carver Museum's 2023 Stay Black and Live Junetenth Observance.
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