Kim Rene Nalley (born 1969) 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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer with a 3½

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

range.

Early life

Raised in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, Nalley is from a musical family that includes jazz drummer and photographer Reggie Jackson, she received piano lessons from her great-grandmother. She attended Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) in New Haven.

Career

Nalley switched to jazz shortly after moving to

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

in the late 1980s, where she attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(UC Berkeley). She received from UC Berkeley a B.A. degree in History and sang in the Cal Big Band.Andrew Gilbert liner notes, ''Need My Sugar'' "She studied classical music and theatre and, while attending college, she gained important experience singing in local clubs and jam sessions." While performing weekly at the

Alta Plaza Alta Plaza is a park in San Francisco, California and caps the top of the western edge of Pacific Heights. It falls under the jurisdiction of the City's Supervisorial District 2. The park is served by several San Francisco Municipal Railway bus li ...

, director

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

discovered Nalley, recorded her in concert, and hired her to sing a program of Gershwin tunes with the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...

. She began performing with the Johnny Nocturne Band, charting at No. 12 on the Gavin list and embarking on a national and international touring schedule that included the Mountain Stage. She also performed at the Teatro Zinzanni as Madame Zinzanni. After spending a couple of years living in Switzerland, she returned to San Francisco to own and run the Jazz at Pearl's North Beach night club during 2003–2008.

Discography

As leader

* ''Need My Sugar'' (CE Jazz & Blues, 2002) * ''She Put a Spell on Me: Kim Nalley Sings Nina Simone'' (CE Jazz & Blues, 2006) * ''Ballads for Billie'' (CE Jazz & Blues, 2006) * ''Christmas Time Is Here'' (2010) * ''Blues People'' (2015)

As guest

*With

Rhoda Scott Rhoda Scott (born July 3, 1938) is an American soul jazz organist. Scott was first attracted to the organ in her father’s church at age seven. "It's really the most beautiful instrument in the world", she stated in a 2002 interview. "The first ...

*''Beyond the Sea'' (Doodlin')

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nalley, Kim 1969 births Living people American jazz singers American women jazz singers American blues singers Singers from California Jazz musicians from California 21st-century American women