Event

Marcus Shelby Trio with Tiffany Austin

Marcus Anthony Shelby is a bandleader, composer, arranger, bassist, educator, and activist. Over the past 25 years he has built a diverse biography as a composer. His work and music has focused on sharing the history, present, and future of African American lives, on social movements in the United States of America, and on early childhood music education.

Shelby is active in music education and currently teaches at The Community Music Center, Old Adobe Elementary School, St. Pauls Middle School, and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Shelby has also led many of the San Francisco Jazz Festival Family Matinee Concerts, often with childrens book author Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket). In March 2013, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appointed Shelby to the San Francisco Arts Commission where he serves on the Community Arts Grants and Education Committee and the Street Artists Committee.

Shelby will be joined by an All Star Band.

Vocalist Tiffany Austin's tradition-rooted yet totally modern style has established her as one of the fastest rising jazz stars in the nation. Before earning a law degree at U.C. Berkeley, shed performed on three continentsaround her native Los Angeles while attending college, then for a year in England, and eventually for five and a half years in Tokyo. However, instead of taking the bar exam, she decided instead to devote her life to her first lovemusic.

Austin's music and voice draw upon influences such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and Aretha Franklin, yet she also infuses songs with her own signature style that is precise, intelligent, and soulful.