Greg Jacobs was born in London and grew up in San Rafael, where he started playing classical piano as a child. At twelve, he was inspired by the music of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Claude Debussy and local pianist Zack Hornstein, who rehearsed with Greg’s brother, Josh, at their home, playing blues and Dylan covers.

Greg studied classical and jazz piano with the brilliant Gini Wilson for about four years while he attended San Rafael High School, spending countless hours playing the standards and falling ever deeper in love with the music of Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. He played in jazz combos, participated in classical recitals and competitions and attended jam sessions in San Francisco, while also playing organ, guitar, and keyboard with friends that liked to play reggae, ska, blues and other music. Greg attended Jazz Camp West twice, taking a class by Elio Villafranca on Afro-Cuban piano methods; he was inspired by his experiences there to play with as many other musicians as possible. While getting his Bachelors degrees in Biology and Spanish at San Francisco State University, he played in the jazz combos directed by Andrew Speight and continued to play trio and quartet gigs at private events. Shortly after graduating from university in 2013 Greg performed more frequently, taught private lessons and then decided to pursue music full-time.

Tonight at Bird & Beckett, Greg leads a trio with Chris Amberger on double bass and Mark Lee on drums, bringing the musical alchemy gained from working close to 100 gigs with them in the course of Greg’s weekly trio and quartet residencies at the Elite Café (2015), Le Colonial (2016-2017) and Hawthorn (2018-2019) in San Francisco.

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