Live Jazz Music With Kellye Gray | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

“Think of a layer cake with a dense Carmen McRae center, iced with swoops, dollops and occasionally wide swatches of Nancy Wilson and Billie Holiday, then dotted with Etta James bluesiness and Tina Turner wail. Gray’s is an impressive, indeed frighteningly vast talent”.

–Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes Magazine

With her stunning musicality and warm, enveloping voice, Texas native Kellye Gray is one of the most accomplished jazz vocalists on the national scene. Gray’s profile continues to grow by leaps and bounds, recording over half-dozen albums as a leader and logging performances nationally and internationally at world-class venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Spoleto Festival and SFJAZZ. Kellye has shared the stage with legends Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Etta James.

Her debut, Standards In Gray (Justice Records) broke her onto mainstream radio in 1990 landing the fledging, independent release in the top twenty. Her sound has been crafted over years of live performance, taking chances and immersing herself deeply in the art of making improvisational music and scat vocals. Known for being a “a real jazzer”, her career onstage began as an improvisational comic actor, stand-up comic and technical director of professional comedy troupe. It was this platform that laid the groundwork for her vocal abilities. She began using the voice in ways other than singing, Mimicking sound effects for actors onstage (water running, doors creaking), instrument simulation and sound effects. It would be during this time that she became exposed to scat vocals. She is tied to the rhythm. Every note she sings stays grounded in the time. Or, as Duke Ellington said it, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

This event is open for all ages.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.