Price was born in Australia and raised in Hendersonville, Tennessee. When she was nine, she performed with The Voices of Bahá, a Bahá’í choir directed by her dad, Tom Price.[3] At twelve, she was a soloist. The choir toured in India, Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Australia. Price has said that she had a large personality as a child and accepted every opportunity to sing.[3]
Price practices the Baháʼí Faith, and explains its influence on her musical career this way:
We believe that music is praise, and that is service, and service is prayer, and so that's how I think about it. ... I think music is an extremely spiritual art form. I do it for praise and gratitude. That's what the Faith has taught me about music.[3]
She was attracted to jazz at the age of five when she heard Ella Fitzgerald singing "The Lady is a Tramp". She recorded her first album when she was 17. She admires Bonnie Raitt and Nancy Wilson in part for their longevity in the music business.[4]
In 2003, Price received an honorable mention at the Montreux Jazz Festival's International Jazz Vocal Competition. In 2004, she was a semifinalist and the youngest competitor in the history of the Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition. In August 2004 she made her U.S. jazz festival debut at Yale's Jazz On the Green, where she opened for Joshua Redman.[5] She won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Best Gospel Song with her recording of "My God, My Adored One" with the Boston Praise Collective.[6] She appeared in concert as a featured vocalist with the T. S. Monk Sextet.[7]
With help from an award by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Lake Street Dive recorded In this episode..., their debut album in 2006. They started touring soon afterwards.[8][9]Nonesuch released the album Side Pony in February 2016.[10] Their previous album, Bad Self Portraits, was released in February 2014.[9]
Rachael & Vilray
Rachael Price and the guitarist and singer Vilray also met as students at the New England Conservatory, in 2003.[11] Under the name Rachael & Vilray, the duo perform jazz, pop, and Tin Pan Alley songs from the 1930s and 1940s.[12] Nonesuch released their self-titled first album in 2019.[13]
Hot Tuna
In 2015 Price toured with Hot Tuna on the Jefferson Airplane 50th Anniversary tour. She sang Grace Slick's parts.[14][15]
Personal life
Price has been married to Canadian singer-songwriter Taylor Ashton since 2019.[16]
^ abc"Rachael Price". Brilliant Star Magazine. November 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
^"Rachael Price". AllAbout Jazz. November 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
^"Jazz Singer Rachael Price". Retrieved 26 Feb 2018. In 2003, Price was tapped by the Grammy Foundation as a vocalist with the High School Grammy Jazz Choir, and she was a semi-finalist at the Montreux International Jazz Vocal Competition in France.