Unique among Western instruments, the trombone does not use valves or keys; instead, the instrument uses a movable slide to change the notes played. The slide can be moved quickly between two positions to play two distinct notes. The range of the instrument also closely resembles that of the voice, more so than any other instrument. Trombonists often achieve the effect of a human voice speaking. Hailey uses the trombine as a background vocalist, she doesn;t polay notes bur rather "words" emulating the "words" of the lyrics.
A finalist in the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. Critics have pointed to your versatile arranging sensibilities, which remain reverent to jazz tradition yet flushed with contemporary nuance. So not only is Hailey a virtuoso trombonist but an accomplished vocalist too.
Her performance highlights include prestigious venues such as Dizzy’s Club, The Kennedy Center, The North Sea Jazz Festival, The Kimmel Center, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Birdland, The XPoNential Music Festival, The Lake George Jazz Festival, World Cafe Live, The Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival, and The Washington Women in Jazz Festival.
She has played and recorded alongside many of today's top jazz artists, including Sean Jones, Ken Peplowski, Jimmy Heath, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jon Faddis, Luis Bonilla, Wycliffe Gordon, René Marie and Dick Oatts, Jon Faddis and Wycliffe Gordon.
On March 17, 2023 Hailey released "Beautiful Tomorrow", her second album. "Beautiful Tomorrow is quite a different sound from her first album a couple of years earlier emohasizing her Swing/Bebop jazz genres.