Kitty Margolis (born November 7, 1955, in San Mateo, California) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer, educator, producer, and journalist. She founded Mad Kat Records in 1988 with vocalist Madeline Eastman and has released 5 albums. Her second album, ''Evolution'' (1994), featured

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and very occasional flute player. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day an ...

, and

Joe Louis Walker Louis Joseph Walker Jr. (December 25, 1949 – April 30, 2025), known as Joe Louis Walker, was an American musician, best known as an electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His knowledge of blues history is revealed by his u ...

, while her follow-up, ''Straight Up With a Twist'' (1997) had appearances by Charles Brown and

Roy Hargrove Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved critical acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...

. These were followed by ''Left Coast Life'' (2001) and ''Heart & Soul: Live in San Francisco'' (2004).

Early life

Margolis grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

exposed to a wide range of music influences and began playing guitar at age 12 inspired by

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her Bonnie Raitt (album), self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed Americana (mu ...

, folk, country, blues and the eclectic concerts she attended at

The Fillmore The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California. Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...

and

Winterland Winterland Arena (more commonly known as Winterland) was an ice skating rink and music venue in San Francisco, California, United States. The arena was located at the corner of Post Street and Steiner Street. It was converted for exclusive use ...

Career

Margolis began playing gigs while attending

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the mid-1970s as a singer and rhythm guitarist in a western-swing band. She began to study jazz after she attended a "life altering" concert by

Rahsaan Roland Kirk Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grove Music Online''. ''Grove Dictionary of M ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jaz ...

. She eventually returned to San Francisco where she attended

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

, learning recording engineering and studying under saxophonists

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor saxophone, tenor and baritone saxophone, baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and ...

and Hal Stein. Margolis was the first woman to attend Stein's improvisation class, and eventually she took over his weekly gig at Peta's in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The regular gig launched Margolis's professional career in 1978. In 1988 Kitty Margolis and Madeline Eastman co-founded the first women-owned label on the West Coast, Mad-Kat Records, in order to make their own music with no commercial or artistic constraints. In 1997, Margolis won the BAM Bammie award for outstanding jazz vocalist after being nominated for her album Evolution in 1994. She was nominated for the

Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. After airing locally on WCIU-TV in Chicago, Illinois, for a year, it aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featu ...

" Lady of Soul" Award in 1999, and has been recognized in the

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

Critics' Poll numerous times. Jazz critic

Stanley Crouch Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American cultural critic, poet, playwright, novelist, biographer, and syndicated columnist. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Lo ...

observed that "Kitty Margolis is an original who has made the heritage of all the great jazz singers her own... She is, as they say, 'the real thing.'" Margolis has toured extensively, including appearances at

The Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

The Boston Pops The Boston Pops is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orche ...

, the

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

, the Telluride Jazz Festival, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. In 2022 she performed at

Ronnie Scott Ronnie Scott Order of the British Empire, OBE (born Ronald Schatt; 28 January 1927 – 23 December 1996) was a British jazz Tenor saxophone, tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London's Soho district ...

's in London as part of a celebration of her former bandmate and close friend, the late saxophonist, composer, and arranger

Pee Wee Ellis Alfred James Rogers (April 21, 1941 – September 23, 2021), known as Pee Wee Ellis due to his diminutive stature, was an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. With a background in jazz, he was a member of James Brown's band in the 19 ...

. Also in 2022, she was the first jazz artist to perform at the newly renovated and re-opened Presidio Theater in San Francisco. She was a VJ for BET on Jazz and was featured on

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland Order of the British Empire, OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire, . PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English and American jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She was the host of ...

's syndicated radio show "

Piano Jazz ''Piano Jazz'' is a weekly one-hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It began on June 4, 1978, and was hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland (1918–2013) until 2011. It is the longest-running cultural pr ...

" in 2006. In 2005 she was the subject of a one-hour radio program, Melanie O'Reilly's "Jazz Across the Bay" on Ireland's National radio station RTE; the show was reformatted and rebroadcast on KCSM in 2022. Margolis has worked with various non-profit organizations. She served as Solo Jazz Vocal representative on the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) Resource Team for 8 years. In 2009 she participated on the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

(NEA) "Jazz Masters Live" panel. In 2011 she co-moderated a panel "Exploring the Recording Artist/Record Producer Relationship: A Dialogue About Creative Synergy" with

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

VP Nick Phillips at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. She has also been a guest lecturer at many universities and high schools. Margolis served on the national board of trustees of

The Recording Academy National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

(

Grammys The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

) from 2011 through 2015, after serving on the executive committee of the Recording Academy's San Francisco chapter board from 2008 through 2010. She is on the advisory board of Music in Schools Today (MuST), which serves over 10,000 children and youth annually advocating to restore music as an essential principle of

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

. Margolis is also in the Circle of Advisors for "Bread & Roses Presents," an organization that provides live music and the performing arts to individuals in institutional settings in the San Francisco Bay Area. Margolis and her husband
Alfonso Montuori Ph.D.
also teach educational seminars that explore "collaborative creativity" and the "improvisational mindset" of jazz artists for non-musical environments such as the workplace, which has been presented at the

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American Retreat (spiritual), retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanism, humanistic alternative education. The institute played a ke ...

, the Italian energy company

Enel Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel was first established as a public body at the end of 1962, and then transformed into a limited company in 1992. In 1999, following the liberali ...

, and

UCSF School of Medicine The UCSF School of Medicine is a multisite medical school of the University of California, San Francisco, with a historical campus located at the base of Mount Sutro on the Parnassus Heights campus in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1864 b ...

. In 2021 Margolis became a contributing writer to San Francisco's

Nob Hill Gazette The ''Nob Hill Gazette'' is a regional monthly magazine founded in 1978 by San Francisco businessman and socialite Gardner Mein, who operated the title until 1986. The magazine, which provides a people-focused account of San Francisco culture, ...

, writing about music and culture.

Recordings

''Live at the Jazz Workshop''

Margolis's first album ''Live at the Jazz Workshop'' was recorded in 1988 at the

Jazz Workshop The Jazz Workshop was a jazz music nightclub in San Francisco, located in North Beach at 473 Broadway Street. Numerous live recordings were made there, during its heyday in the 1960s. As of 2016, the space is occupied by a bar and music venue cal ...

in San Francisco for the KJAZ radio show ''See's Sunday Night.'' The concert featured Al Plank on piano, Scott Steed on bass and

Vince Lateano Vince Lateano (born 1942) is an American jazz drummer who has toured with numerous jazz musicians over the years, including Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, Vince Guaraldi, and Stan Getz. Lateano was born in Sacramento, California in 1942, and was in ...

on drums. Margolis put the recording out on Mad-Kat Records, the independent label she created with fellow vocalist Madeline Eastman. The album established her as an important new voice in jazz, leading

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...

to state that Margolis was "the next great jazz voice".

''Evolution''

Her second album, released in 1994, made extensive use of the possibilities of studio recording. The album included guest appearances by

blues guitarist

Gaylord Birch Gaylord G. Birch (March 10, 1946 – April 14, 1996) was an American drummer for the bands Santana, Graham Central Station, Cold Blood, Pointer Sisters and Herbie Hancock. History Birch was the drummer for the Pointer Sisters during 1974 and ...

, Kenny Brooks,

Joyce Cooling Joyce Cooling is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She has performed with Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Mark Murphy, Al Jarreau, and Charlie Byrd. Music career Cooling was born into a musical family. Her mother, a music teacher, ...

, Dick Hindman, and

David Rokeach David Rokeach is an American drummer. Career He has been working primarily in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas for more than 30 years. Rokeach toured nationally and internationally with Ray Charles from 1990 to 1991. This included conc ...

. The album includes new lyrics for Wayne Shorter's song "Footprints" written by Margolis. The

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

called ''Evolution'' "the best jazz-vocal disc in years" and

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

's review of the album said "her versatility brings to mind

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

and

Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretati ...

''Straight Up With a Twist''

''Straight Up With A Twist'' was released in 1997 and included a duet, "

Wouldn't It be Loverly "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play ''My Fair Lady''. The song is sung by Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her street friends. It expresses Eliza's wish f ...

," with blues legend Charles Brown. Other collaborators on the album included

, Kenny Brooks, Joyce Cooling and Jay Wagner.

gave the release four stars, calling it "one of the most compelling vocal collections of the year", and it was listed in 1998's ''MusicHound Jazz: the essential album guide''.

''Left Coast Life''

Margolis's 2001 album explored some of the challenges San Francisco was facing in the

Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

with her own composition "You Just Might Get It," as well as covers of Pink Floyd's "

Money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

" and Tom Waits's "Take it With Me". Guests included Eric Crystal on sax, Steve Erquiaga on guitar, and guitarist Joyce Cooling.

wrote that "''Left Coast Life'' is a major jazz vocal release",

All Music AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the datab ...

called it a "nonstop program of sweet, soulful, and swinging music," and the International Association for Jazz Education Journal found it to be "The #1 Vocal Jazz CD of 2001".

''Heart & Soul (Live In San Francisco)''

Guests for Margolis's fifth album, released in 2004, included

Michael Bluestein Michael Bluestein is an American musician. He is currently a member of the rock band Foreigner since 2008, and has been a high-profile touring keyboardist and vocalist since moving to Los Angeles in 2003. Bluestein began classical piano studi ...

of Foreigner,

Allison Miller Allison Miller (born September 2, 1985) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Michelle Benjamin on the NBC series ''Kings'', Skye Tate on the Fox series '' Terra Nova'', Carrie on the NBC series '' Go On,'' and Dr. Maggie Bloom i ...

, and Jon Evans. The album was named one of the top 10 CDs of 2004 by Newsday,

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' was an American print magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade ...

wrote that Margolis was "an equally potent blend of class, integrity and chutzpah", and the

All Music Guide AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...

review wrote that Margolis "commands instant attention to every word she sings on ''Heart & Soul: Live in San Francisco'' and is quite, quite glorious".

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolis, Kitty 1955 births Living people American women jazz singers American jazz singers 21st-century American women