Awarded "Most Influential African American in the Bay Area" in entertainment, legendary vocalist Kim Nalley, at her young age, is already a San Francisco institution. With an international reputation as one of world's best jazz & blues vocalists, she is known for her ability to turn a chattering cocktail-sipping crowd into a rapt audience of lifelong fans in minutes. No trip to San Francisco is complete without seeing Kim Nalley perform.

Kim Nalley, in looks and presence, exudes the aura of a diva from a by-gone era. Vocally, she has pipes to burn packing a 3 1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, projection that can whisper a ballad yet is capable of filling a room with no microphone, and the ability to scat blistering solos without ever losing the crowd's interest or the intense swing. She has been compared to all the greats, but in the end, it's Kim Nalley and no one else - an unforced instrument with clarity and jazzy musicality, effortlessly delivered, and a sense of humor to boot.

A born singer from a family that boasts several generations of jazz musicians, Nalley was taught piano by her great-grandmother and studied opera and theatre at the Educational Center of the Arts in New Haven, CT, before relocating to San Francisco in the footsteps of the Grateful Dead. Working her way through college by singing in small dives and jam sessions, Nalley learned all of the intricacies of jazz the old fashioned way. Music critic Phil Elwood and SF Symphony director Michael Tilson Thomas quickly discovered Kim Nalley and brought her to national attention after they noticed her singing nightly at the Alta Plaza to packed audiences - without amplification.

Since then, Kim Nalley has performed globally, including most of the major jazz festivals in United States, Europe, Japan and Canada such as Monterey, Umbria Jazz and Lincoln Center and lived in Europe for several years before returning to San Francisco to re-open the jazz club Jazz at Pearl's. During her tenure from 2003 to 2008, Nalley raised the club to iconic international acclaim as the owner and artistic director.

She frequently collaborates and performs with artists such as Rhoda Scott, David "Fathead" Newman, Houston Person, James Williams, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. She has recorded several critically-acclaimed CDs on both major and indie labels, including She Put A Spell On Me, which was short-listed for a 2006 Grammy Award, and Million Dollar Secret, which charted in the Jazz Top 40.

Kim has studied history at Oxford and UC Berkeley and often combines music and history to create historiographical concerts , including her award-winning "Ladies Sing the Blues*," "She Put a Spell on Me: Tribute to Nina Simone," the multimedia presentation Black History Month Concert Series and "The Heart of Lady Day," a Billie Holiday biopic. As a playwright she has written "Ella: the American Dream" a bio-musical about Ella Fitzgerald that she also starred in. As an actress she portrayed Billie Holiday in the dramatic play "Lady Day in Love," Blues Speak woman in Zora Neale Hurston's "Spunk" and has starred in Teatro Zinzanni as Madame Zinzanni, a role subsequently filled by Joan Baez and Sandra Reeves-Phillipes.

Kim Nalley is on faculty at the newly accredited college, The Jazz Institute and is on several advisory boards, including San Jose Jazz Society's. She is a history student in UC Berkeley's PhD program with plans to write her dissertation on the Globalization of Jazz and Black Cultural Politics.