Germaine Bazzle is a classy, classically-trained contemporary jazz vocalist and legendary music educator, and counts as jazz royalty in her native New Orleans. Born in 1932 in the Seventh Ward, Bazzle grew up in a musical family and studied her craft at Xavier University of Louisiana. She then began a nearly fifty-year career as a music teacher and choir director, first in Thibodaux and then at her alma mater, Xavier Prep, from which she retired in 2008. (To this day, her former students – including prominent musicians – can still be instantly silenced when “Miz Bazzle” casts her practiced teacher’s eye their way.)  She is also a long-time faculty member at the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp.

Bazzle is an impeccable singer who wields her vocal cords with warmth, depth and precision, and scats with her own unique style. As she told jazz historian Monk Rowe in 2016, “For me to learn how to do what I do, especially with scatting, came from listening to instrumentalists more than vocalists,” Bazzle said. “Listening to instrumentalists (on recordings) and learning their solos and …then to be able to sing those solos while you are doing the dishes without the recording, that was the challenge.”

Although her vocal talents are world-class, Bazzle chose to keep her performance schedule local, prioritizing her teaching career over musical fame. However, over the years, she remained active as a club performer, recording artist, and choral singer. She has worked with an A-list of modern jazz artists: Ellis Marsalis, Red Tyler, Peter "Chuck" Badie, Victor Goines, Lee Dorsey, Charles Brown, Johnny Adams, Wynton Marsalis, Davell Crawford, George French, Ed Petersen, and Larry Sieberth. Her club appearances are much rarer these days, but she can be heard on several recordings, including her own 2018 release, Swingin’ at Snug. In addition to numerous honors over the years for her vocal prowess, in 2015 Bazzle received OffBeat's Lifetime Achievement in Music Education award.