Jacquelyn Suzette Wright (born May 17, 1977), better known by her stage name, Jaguar Wright, is an American R&B and neo soul singer and songwriter. She is part of the Okayplayer collective. She started her career as an intern with various record labels. Wright has performed and collaborated alongside rap acts such as The Roots, Jay-Z, and Blackalicious.
Wright was brought to the attention of hip-hop group The Roots in 1998, which eventually led to her going to tour with them. She later appeared as a back-up singer for Jay-Z in 2001, and appeared in a Coca-Cola advert as part of the brand’s “Nu Soul” campaign. She has released two solo albums to date: Denials, Delusions & Decisions in 2002, and Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul in 2005. Wright also recorded an album entitled. And Your Point Is? which was due for release in 2003 on MCA Records (who also distributed her debut), before the label folded. However, many of the tracks recorded for that album later appeared on Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul. In 2007, two new songs appeared on her MySpace profile. One was a live version of new song “Sometimes”, the other a cover of “Let’s Do It Again”. A further two new songs surfaced in 2009, “Beautiful” and “Surely Shawty”, although neither saw an official release. She has toured every year since her debut album was released. In March 2008, she toured Europe with Bahamadia and Hezekiah for the “Philly Sounds” tour. Wright did not perform any new material on the tour, but did live cover versions of Cherrelle’s “Saturday Love” and Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”. During the tour, Wright announced that she was in the process of writing a novel, and working on a third album. No release dates have been confirmed for either as yet. In 2008, she supplied backing vocals for Al Green’s album Lay It Down. In January 2011, Jaguar Wright toured Europe with Lady Alma on the “Philly Sounds 2011” tour. She revealed that she was working on a third album, due out in the summer of 2011, the lead single from the new album to be called “Switch”. In the summer of 2012, she assembled a “rock & soul band” of seasoned Philadelphia musicians called The W.E. ft. Jaguar Wright.
Written by Dianne Washington