Black History Month: Kim Nalley Sings Black Broadway at California Jazz Conservatory

Take a musical trip on how African Americans carved a path on the Great White Way. Out of vaudeville of James Bland and onto Broadway with shows like Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along and Porgy and Bess , this anthological look at Black Broadway through the decades covers songs by Paul Robeson, Fats Waller, Lena Horne , Ethel Waters, Nancy Wilson, Juanita Long Hill, Diahann Carol, Pearl Bailey , Leslie Uggams. Melba Moore Stephanie Mills, Nell Carter and Phyllis Hyman.

Artist/Group Bio(s)

Awarded "Most Influential African American in the Bay Area" in 2005 and "Best Jazz Group" in 2013, vocalist Kim Nalley is already being called "legendary" and "San Francisco institution. With an international reputation as one of world's best jazz & blues vocalists, she has graced concert halls from Moscow and Umbria Jazz to Lincoln Center and Monterey Jazz. She had a solid background in classical music before switching to Jazz for the freedom it provided. A true Renaissance woman, Kim Nalley has been a featured writer for JazzWest and SF Chronicle's City Brights, shortlisted for a Grammy nomination, a produced playwright, and the former jazz club owner of Jazz at Pearl’s. She is a Ph.D. candidate in history at UC Berkeley, and an avid Lindy Hop & blues dancer. She was shortlisted by Downbeat Critics Poll in 2017 as a "Rising Star" (Deserving Wider Recognition) and her albums have all made the Jazz Weeks Charts Nalley's many philanthropic endeavors include founding the Kim Nalley Black Youth Jazz Scholarship at Califronia Conservatory. She has collaborated and performed with artists such as Rhoda Scott, Terri Lynn Carrington, Angela Davis, David "Fathead" Newman, Houston Person, James Williams, Branford Marsalis, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony....

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Take a musical trip on how African Americans carved a path on the Great White Way. Out of vaudeville of James Bland and onto Broadway with shows like Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along and Porgy and Bess , this anthological look at Black Broadway through the decades covers songs by Paul Robeson, Fats Waller, Lena Horne , Ethel Waters, Nancy Wilson, Juanita Long Hill, Diahann Carol, Pearl Bailey , Leslie Uggams. Melba Moore Stephanie Mills, Nell Carter and Phyllis Hyman.

Artist/Group Bio(s)

Awarded "Most Influential African American in the Bay Area" in 2005 and "Best Jazz Group" in 2013, vocalist Kim Nalley is already being called "legendary" and "San Francisco institution. With an international reputation as one of world's best jazz & blues vocalists, she has graced concert halls from Moscow and Umbria Jazz to Lincoln Center and Monterey Jazz. She had a solid background in classical music before switching to Jazz for the freedom it provided. A true Renaissance woman, Kim Nalley has been a featured writer for JazzWest and SF Chronicle's City Brights, shortlisted for a Grammy nomination, a produced playwright, and the former jazz club owner of Jazz at Pearl’s. She is a Ph.D. candidate in history at UC Berkeley, and an avid Lindy Hop & blues dancer. She was shortlisted by Downbeat Critics Poll in 2017 as a "Rising Star" (Deserving Wider Recognition) and her albums have all made the Jazz Weeks Charts Nalley's many philanthropic endeavors include founding the Kim Nalley Black Youth Jazz Scholarship at Califronia Conservatory. She has collaborated and performed with artists such as Rhoda Scott, Terri Lynn Carrington, Angela Davis, David "Fathead" Newman, Houston Person, James Williams, Branford Marsalis, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

“Four Stars! With her vaunted 3 1/2 octave vocal range San Francisco jazz mainstay Kim Nalley is the musical equivalent of the pitcher with a 102-MPH fastball. While the baseball flamethrower is usually relegated to the closer's role, Nalley brings the heat every moment...”
-Downbeat

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