Critics have dubbed Kitty Margolis the inheritor of the great vocal jazz tradition passed down by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter and Carmen McRae, noting her “sumptuous, heart-stopping ballads” and “scat so rare in this day and age you might think you’ve found the Holy Grail.” Yet Margolis is very much an innovator within this tradition. Her live shows have been heralded as “world-class jazz experiences” that take the listener on an exhilarating journey through a repertoire that ranges from Tom Waits to George Gershwin, with stops to visit Aretha Franklin and John Coltrane along the way.

Margolis is a fourth generation Californian, as much a part of San Francisco as the 49ers, earthquakes, and cable cars. Her great-grandfather was a gold rush pioneer, her grandmother survived the 1906 quake, and her grandfather was the president of the famous Market Street Railway. Growing up with the San Francisco Sound and experience had a big influence on Kitty. As a youngster, when she was glued to underground radio stations like the legendary KSAN, she’d tag along with her big brother to concerts at the Fillmore, Winterland and the Avalon Ballroom. “I saw all sorts of bands on the same bill – Miles, the Dead, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Gary Burton, Muddy Waters, John McLaughlin, Taj Mahal, Buffalo Springfield, Charles Lloyd, Frank Zappa and B.B. King – which imprinted in me a kind of eclecticism that’s an intrinsic part of my music today,” notes Kitty.

At the same time, the young music fan became a musician. She got her first guitar and soon she had taught herself to play, emulating her heroes Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt and creating bands with her friends during high school. At age 20, after performing professionally with a western swing band around the Boston area at night while maintaining Dean’s list standing at Harvard University by day, the fledgling artist heard saxophone collossus Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the Village Vanguard during a weekend visit to New York. Margolis describes the impact of that night as “life-altering.” Turning her sights to jazz, she moved back to the Bay Area to attend San Francisco State’s world-class recording arts program. While there, she studied with veteran saxophonist John Handy, formed her own jazz unit and honed her technique and improvisational ability in the thriving Bay Area club scene. Fortuitously, her apartment was located near the now defunct San Francisco club Keystone Korner, where she came to know jazz legends of the past and present, many of whom she would ultimately perform with.

Although she continues to make her home in the city by the bay, Margolis has become a singer of international acclaim, a favorite artist at the top festivals, clubs and performing arts venues on four continents. She has appeared at The Kennedy Center, The Sydney International Arts Festival, The Boston Pops, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, New York’s Blue Note, Holland’s North Sea Jazz Festival, Oakland’s Yoshi’s, Switzerland’s Yehudi Menuhin Music Festival and eight performances at the Monterey Jazz Festival. She has worked with many of the greatest names in jazz and blues, including Joe Henderson, Lionel Hampton, Elvin Jones, Roy Hargrove, Charles Brown, Hank Jones, Herb Ellis, John Handy, Joe Louis Walker, Red Holloway, David “Fathead” Newman, Pee Wee Ellis and Eddie Henderson. She has also performed and/or recorded with such diverse artists as the rap group The Coup and Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead. Her lyrics have been sung by such artists as Diane Reeves, and her song “It’s You” has become an underground remix hit in Tokyo and London.

She has recorded five critically acclaimed CD’s on Mad-Kat Records, the indie label she co-founded in 1988. Her most recent one, Heart & Soul: Live in San Francisco, released in 2004, received rave reviews. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette captured the essence of the CD and of Kitty’s live shows noting, “Margolis and the band sound as if they’re having the time of their lives. Effervescent and witty, deeply romantic, invigorating and downright fun.” New York’s Newsday named the disc one of the “Top 10 Jazz CD’s of 2004.”

Other awards include a 2004 nod a “Top Female Vocalist” in the Downbeat critics poll, her sixth such honor. Her fourth disc, Left Coast Life, was nominated for the 2003 California Music Award (BAMMIE) for “Best Jazz Album,” as well as being named the “#1 Vocal Jazz CD” of 2001 by the International Association for Jazz Education Journal. In 1999, she was nominated for the Soul Train “Lady of Soul” Award. Coinciding with the release of her third CD, Straight Up With a Twist, Margolis won the coveted BAMMIE Award for “Outstanding Jazz Vocalist” in 1997. She has also received the “Certificate Recognizing Exceptional Creativity” from the BAMMIE’s three times, including “Best Jazz Album” for her 1994 release Evolution, which the San Francisco Examiner called “the best jazz vocal disc in years.” All of Margolis’s recordings have received Top 10 radio airplay nationwide.