Lily O'Brien is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
Jazz vocalist **Kurt Elling'**s craft goes way beyond singing. A deep thinker inspired by the prose and the preaching of great poets and philosophers, past and present, he has carved out his own rightful place among them with his heartfelt lyrics—poetry that often searches for answers to important universal questions—about life and death, love and hate, and right and wrong. With…
Back in the day, Marin County was the place to be if you were hip. The sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll culture that characterized and defined the mid-'60s flocked to this gloriously beautiful part of the Bay Area and settled. Among them were members of the Grateful Dead, the Bay Area band that embodied the spirit of peace, love and community.…
When The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse opened its (original) doors in 1968 in Berkeley, Calif., the intention was to create a cafe and gathering place for the community. Housed in a former used furniture store (thus, the name of the venue), it began to attract local musicians—acoustic guitar strummers, banjo pickers, fiddle players and more. It soon became the nexus…
When the SFJAZZ Center opened its doors in January of 2013, in the heart of San Francisco’s cultural district, it made a huge impact. Now recognized nationwide as a premier center for jazz, it has totally changed the cultural landscape of the city, and has established jazz as an essential, significant and legitimate art form. In addition to almost 500 shows…
