Gail Dobson, vocals
Kam Mombasser, guitar
Aaron Cohn, bass
Omar Aran, drums
and special guests

$20 cover charge (cash please)
Reservations, call 415-586-3733
BYOB

Gail Dobson, a native-born San Franciscan with a smoky, amber contralto, traces her performance history to legendary North Beach haunts including the Purple Onion, the Hungry i and the Jazz Workshop, as well as the Bach, Dancing, and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay. For 23 years, she’s been the featured vocalist for Ray Brown’s Great Big Band, and she leads her own combos.

Says Gail, “I’m a Jazz Singer, Recording Artist, Vocal Teacher, Mom, Grandma. I’ve sung all my life and have shared this blessing with my first husband, pianist George Muribus, with my late husband, Smith Dobson, pianist/singer, and with my children, Sasha Dobson, a fellow vocalist, and Smith Dobson V, a drummer, vibraphonist, saxophonist. I’ve experienced first hand what hard work and dedication, mixed with lots of fun can do for music, and for children who want to sing, play music and perform, and I’ve had the blessing of teaching this to hundreds of children thru the years. My band, which features top Bay Area musicians, is a marriage of traditional jazz harmonies with Afro-Cuban and Latin rhythms, and highlights my philosophy and strong inclination to allow the music to unfold naturally. through encouraging player interaction and soloing. This is the tradition that I grew up with in jazz.”

Gail’s “Youth in Jazz” ensemble features students from the teenage years down to age five. A few very special singers from that group will come out to take part in tonight’s performance. Teamed with her first-rate jazz band, Gail’s students have appeared throughout the Bay Area, playing at San Francisco City Hall for the Mayor’s office, at the Ghirardelli Square Tree Lighting Ceremony performing for over 2,000 people, at the San Jose Jazz Festival in 2008, 2010 and 2012, at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Jazzschool in Berkeley and four sold out concerts at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, and have recorded a live DVD at Wave Street Studios in Monterey.

Tonight, in the company of a fine trio comprising Kam Mombasser, Aaron Cohn and Omar Aran, Gail will draw on music from the Dobson Songbook — songs of love, loss, family, hope, laughter, promise, future, written by Wayne Shorter, Gershwin, Sting, Stevie Wonder,  Abbey Lincoln, Nat Adderley and more.

Come out for a special night with a jazz legend.