Supernova in Waiting

Elena Pinderhughes, poised on the threshold of stardom.

Elena Pinderhughes at the 2016 Montreal Jazz Fest. (Dave Kaufman / All About Jazz)

Let’s begin with a story. Just over seven years ago, I convened an especially sharp edition of The Year in Jazz at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. My esteemed fellow panelists —

Michelle Mercer

, Eugene Holley, Jr. and Giovanni Russonello — spent a brisk 90 minutes conversing about th…