The Devil I Knew is out July 17, 2026 on La Reserve Records. Pre order here

The Devil I Knew is the seventh album from 2X GRAMMY-winning vocalist, pianist, and songwriter Nicole Zuraitis — a cinematic, five-part concept album exploring self-reckoning, accountability, and emotional agency through the lens of a collapsing love story. Blending jazz virtuosity with literary inspiration and deeply personal songwriting, the album unfolds across five thematic movements — The Mirror, The Martyr, The Malediction, The Reckoning, and The Requiem — each connected through poetry by iconic female writers including Dorothy Parker, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. Recorded at EastSide Sound in New York City and mastered by Bernie Grundman, the project features a world-class ensemble including Christian McBride, Gilad Hekselman, Donny McCaslin, and Larry Goldings, with horn arrangements by Jerry Hey and string arrangements by Vince Mendoza, including the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. Produced by Larry Klein and Zuraitis, with Executive Producer Susan Bloomberg, the album positions Zuraitis within a burgeoning New Romanticism in jazz — music that is lush, literary, emotionally expansive, and unapologetically human in an age that keeps asking us to be smaller, quieter, and easier to process.

As a recording artist, Nicole Zuraitis has released five albums as leader, and her sixth album, How Love Begins, co-produced with eight-time GRAMMY-winner Christian McBride, won BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM at the 2024 GRAMMY® awards and features all original music. She is the only person ever to have won this award who wrote and arranged the entire album herself. In addition to leading her quartet, Nicole performed and recorded with the Birdland Big Band as the premier vocalist before taking off as a large ensemble leader of her own, co-producing the Dan Pugach Big Band and guesting for major big bands around the globe. She has headlined at Newport Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Caramoor, Saratoga Jazz Festival and Tanglewood, along with iconic NYC jazz clubs like Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Carlyle, 54 Below and the late, great 55 Bar. She also has appeared as a featured soloist with the Savannah Philharmonic, Asheville Symphony, and Macon Pops as well as the Danish Radio Big Band.

Nicole is a featured artist and producer on her husband’s, renowned drummer, bandleader, and composer Dan Pugach, 2025 GRAMMY-winning album, Bianca Reimagined: Music for Paws and Persistence (Best Large Ensemble) for which they composed the GRAMMY-nominated song, “Little Fears” (Best Jazz Performance). Nicole is a vocalist on the GRAMMY-winning “Last Sunday in Plains: A Centennial Celebration” alongside Jon Batiste, Keb’ Mo’, and LeeAnn Rimes. In 2024, Broadway World honored Nicole with the “Best Big Band Show” Award and she’s a 2025 Rising Female Vocalist in Downbeat Magazine. Nicole's arrangement of Dolly Parton's Jolene, co-written with Dan Pugach, was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY®, springboarding her career and making her a household name in the modern-day jazz landscape. In 2020, she was named in the top 40 under 40 for 2020 in Connecticut Magazine, and her weekly live stream during the Covid-19 crisis, "Virtual Piano Lounge," was featured in Forbes Magazine.

Nicole has collaborated with an extensive list of luminaries, including Christian McBride, Tom Scott, Keyon Harrold, David Cook, Gilad Hekselman, Veronica Swift, Benny Benack, Stephen Feifke, Cyrille Aimee, Antonio Sanchez, Javon Jackson, Nikki Giovanni, Dave Stryker, Omar Hakim, Rachel Z, Helen Sung, Melanie, Morgan James, Darren Criss, Livingston Taylor, Thana Alexa, Rachel Eckroth, Don Braden and Bernard Purdie. She is a proud educator and a current vocal faculty member at NYU and the Litchfield Jazz Camp. In 2024, Post University awarded Nicole an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters.

An ardent activist with a decade-long track record of giving back, her release of How Love Begins coincided with a self-produced music festival and day of activism for Save the Sound.Org. All proceeds of the GRAMMY winning album Bianca Reimagined go to pitbull rescues Nicole and Dan have fostered through the last 15 years.

Nicole website click here

Thank you to Crossover Media for sharing with us