Save the Date
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Main St, Half Moon Bay
Tickets on Sale Now
The third annual Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival is bigger and better than ever. In addition to the main event on Saturday, June 1st, we’ve added two more special events on Friday and Saturday nights.
Taste Outstanding California Wines
The Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival features some of California’s finest wineries. We believe some of the best wine in the world comes from California, and we hope you’ll come sample them for yourself. When you arrive, you’ll get a commemorative stemless wine glass and an event wristband – then you’ll be free to explore the many winemakers that will line Half Moon Bay’s historic Main Street.
2024 Participating Wineries
- 3P Wine Co.
- Adobe Road Winery
- Anarchist Wine Co.
- Avinodos Wines
- Baldacci Family Vineyards
- Bocce Ball Wine
- Caelesta
- Cairjn Wine Cellars
- Caliza Winery
- CASS Winery
- Clos de la Tech
- E16 Winery
- Elaine Wines
- Emercy Wines
- Firetree Family Vineyards
- Garage Gal
- Half Moon Bay Winery
- Hendry
- Hope Family Wines
- Intent Wines
- Kaleidos
- Klinker Brick Winery
- Matchbook Winery
- McPrice Myers
- mid•point winery
- Muscardini Cellars
- Neal Family Vineyards
- Obsidian Wine Co
- ONX Wines
- Peachy Canyon Winery
- Peltier Winery
- Pope Valley Winery
- Ramey Wine Cellars
- Rockbound Cellars
- Romeo Vineyards & Cellars
- Salvestrin Winery
- Starfield Vineyards
- Stilson Cellars
- Truchard Vineyards
- Ultima Tulie
- Wente Vineyards
- Wolfe Heights Estate and Winery
- ZANOLI Wines
- Zialena Winery
- Zobéto Wines
Experience World-Class Jazz
Saturday, June 1 | 12pm-5pm
It’s an honor to bring some of the finest jazz musicians in the world downtown for the Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival. Appearing on stage at the Main Event on Saturday are the Jahari Stampley Trio, Kim Nalley Band, Howard Wiley Quartet, Michela Marino Lerman, and Ayo Brame Quartet. At various locations along Main Street we’ll also have music by El Guajiro, Brian Andres Trio, and Jeff Bordes & the Big Easy.
Jahari Stampley Trio
Jahari Stampley, a 24 year old piano prodigy from Chicago, is the winner of the Herbie Hancock Institute International Competition and is considered one of the fastest rising stars in jazz. Jahari released his debut album entitled “Still Listening” which rose to #1 on Apple iTunes in the first weeks of the album’s release.
Jahari Stampley
Jahari Stampley is a Chicago-born pianist who began playing the piano at the age of 14. Within two years of exploring the instrument, he began winning various competitions including Best High School Jazz Soloist Award and the National YoungArts Competition. By the age of 18 years old, he was recognized and followed by many world-renowned musicians including Yebba Smith, Jill Scott, Robert Glasper, Cory Henry, Jacob Collier, Stanley Clarke, and Derrick Hodge, among others. Jahari has toured with Stanley Clarke and is featured on Derrick Hodge’s "Color of Noise" album.
Jahari has performed in venues such as Radio City Music Hall in NYC, The Met Philadelphia, Byline Bank Aragon in Chicago, Carnegie Hall in NY, San Francisco Jazz Center, and MANY others. He’s also headlined & performed solo piano tours in Berlin, Koethen & Magdeburg, Germany, Geneva, Switzerland, and Los Angeles, California. He’s conducted music workshops in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, and taught masterclasses in Spokane, Washington. Jahari is also the band leader & featured pianist playing the part of Bill Wither’s keyboardist in the feature film “Spinning Gold". Many of Jahari’s performances have garnered praise in various media outlets, articles & magazines throughout the world.
Jahari won first place in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute International Competition, 2023 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz, 2023 Chicago Youth Symphony Alumni Award, the first non-classical musician to receive the honor; and awarded the 2023 Luminarts Fellowship for his debut album “ Still Listening.” Earlier in his life Jahari won the Bösendorfer prize for the international 2019 American Jazz Pianists Association Competition (for ages 18-25), the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Fran Morganstern Davis Scholarship, and the National Young Arts Foundation 2018 Young Arts Winner.
Alongside all of this, Jahari released his first Debut Album entitled “Still Listening” which rose to #1 on Apple iTunes in the first weeks of the Album’s release. The music on “Still Listening” has also been set in an orchestral arrangement for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Jahari Also designed and wrote the music for a music Education mobile game, "Piano Chronicles”. It is available as a mobile app for all mobile devices on Google Play Store and the Apple Store.
Kim Nalley Band
Dr. Kim Nalley has been called “legendary” and a “San Francisco institution” and is a fixture of the San Francisco jazz scene with her 3½ octave range and incomparable stage presence. The SF Chronicle says “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.”
Dr. Kim Nalley
Awarded "Most Influential African American in the Bay Area" in 2005 and "Best Jazz Group" in 2013, vocalist Dr. Kim Nalley is already being called "legendary" and "San Francisco institution. Nalley was discovered by Michael Tilson Thomas singing to packed audiences live with no amplification. MTT recorded her singing live with no amplification and invited her to sing with the San Francisco Symphony. Subsequently she became a Rounder Records recording artist and went on a worldwide tour gracing concert halls from Moscow to Lincoln Center and festivals from Umbria Jazz to Monterey Jazz garnering effusive international press, awards and ranking high on the Jazz charts and Gavin Report for her many albums. Nalley had a solid background in classical music before switching to Jazz for the freedom it provided. A true Renaissance woman, Kim Nalley has been a featured writer for JazzWest and SF Chronicle's City Brights, shortlisted for a Grammy nomination, a produced playwright, an avid Lindy Hop & blues dancer. and the former jazz club owner of Jazz at Pearl’s. She earned her Ph.D. in history at UC Berkeley and is a published scholar. She was shortlisted by Downbeat Critics Poll in 2017 as a "Rising Star" (Deserving Wider Recognition). Nalley's many philanthropic endeavors include founding the Kim Nalley Black Youth Jazz Scholarship, fundraising for Richmond-Ermet Aids Foundation, BLM, Next Village, SF-Marin Food Bank, and Department of Economic and Covid relief sponsored in part by Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts as part of their 2020 Artists Respond grant program.
In 2022 She was commissioned by San Jose Jazz for a new work. Nalley composed and wrote a five movement jazz operatta "To 'Joy My Freedom" based on the African American washerwomen strike in 1881 which was the first successful African American strike. The title of Nalley's work is from historian Tera Hunter's award winning book To 'Joy My Freedom.
In looks, Kim Nalley exudes the aura of a diva from a by-gone era. According to San Francisco Chronicle, "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 classical music and theatre in high school 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 San Francisco Symphony conductor 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. Tilson Thomas hired Kim Nalley to sing a program of Gershwin with the San Francisco Symphony and recorded her farewell concert at the Alta Plaza.
Since then, Dr. Kim Nalley has performed globally, including major jazz festivals 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 has collaborated 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 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.
Nalley 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" for Jazz at Lincoln Center, "Freedom's Song: Music of the Civil Rights Movement," musical director and curator for the Martin Luther King Institute's Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and "The Heart of Lady Day," a Billie Holiday biopic. She has performed with Angela Davis recreating her seminal book "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism" for SFJAZZ. As a playwright she has written "Ella: the American Dream" a bio-musical about Ella Fitzgerald which premiered in 2008. 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-Phillips.
Dr. Kim Nalley's dissertation "GI JAZZ: African Americans as Artists and Occupiers in post-WWII Germany" details the German chittlin' circuit that popped up on and around Military bases, how some Jazz musicians chose to stay in Europe to become expats, interracial relationships, and tells the story of the 7th Army Band which boasted the titans of jazz, including: Cedar Walton, Eddie Harris, Leo Wright, Lex Humphries, Lanny Morgan, Don Menza, Don Ellis, Sam Fletcher and Billy Paul. Other scholarly papers by Dr. Nalley include “Two Gardenias for Civil Rights: Robin Carson’s photo of Billie Holiday” and “This Bitter Earth: Infertility for Billie, Ella and Sarah." She is also featured on Google Talk for her presentation “Rethinking Billie Holiday on her Centennial.”
Howard Wiley Quartet
Howard Wiley is a Resident Artistic Director at SFJazz and has been heralded as “the most prodigious Bay Area saxophonist of his generation.” He has performed at jazz festivals worldwide, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Fest, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, and SXSW.
Howard Wiley
Born in Berkeley, California, Howard Wiley displayed a unique musical talent from a young age saying, “the first time I picked up the saxophone, it became a part of me, like an additional limb. I knew I had found my purpose.”
Wiley’s love of jazz and arranging led him to fuse his jazz sounds with funk. Ever the soulful live musician, he has built a strong reputation for presenting jazz shows ‘that you can dance to’. He successfully fuses jazz with funk, gospel and soul, creating a never-before heard sound on the saxophone.
Howard was a featured artist performing his original music for the official new APPLE iPhone commercial and global conference. In March 2021, he was awarded a commission to create new works for the San Jose Jazz New Works Fest, which he debuted live in April 2021. An in-demand live performer, Wiley has toured internationally, recorded, and performed with artists including Miss Lauryn Hill, Sheila E, Cory Henry, Christian McBride, Chester Thompson and more. He is one of the resident saxophonists for Miles Mosley & The West Coast Get Down, and has performed worldwide with a vast array of artists. Over the years as a solo artist, Wiley has performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s, North Sea Jazz Fest, Blue Note Club, Madrone Art Bar, Cape Town Jazz Festival, the Grammy Museum, Yoshi’s Oakland, Malcolm X Jazz Festival, Sonoma Jazz Festival, Smalls NY, and SXSW, to name a few.
Currently, along with writing/recording his latest solo project, his extensive touring schedule, and his weekly residency at Mama Kin in San Jose, Howard will be a Resident Artistic Director for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, presenting new music and performing multiple shows over two seasons with his core band and several very special guest artists. Additionally, he will participate in the SFJ educational series of events. Past SFJ Resident Artist Directors include Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride, Esperanza Spalding, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Bill Frisell, and Jason Moran.
Michela Marino Lerman
Michela Marino Lerman is the Artist-in-Residence for the 2024 Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival. She’s an internationally-known tap dance artist who has appeared everywhere from Sesame Street to a US postage stamp, and during Saturday’s event you’ll find her performing alongside Howard Wiley on the Main Stage.
Michela Marino Lerman
Michela Marino Lerman is a globally sought after tap dance artist, performer, choreographer, educator and all-around creative spirit. The Huffington Post has called her a “hurricane of rhythm” and the NY Times has called her both a “prodigy” and has described her dancing as “flashes of brilliance”.
She is very proudly a student of Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Leroy Myers and Marion Coles. Lerman has performed, choreographed, produced, and directed many projects throughout her career but she holds closest to her heart the shows she has led as a bandleader at some of New York’s greatest music venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls, Ginny’s Supper Club, Joe's Pub and many more. Her most current music project is called "Love Movement".
In 2017 Michela conceived, co-created, choreographed, and starred in “This Joint is Jumpin” which debuted in Andrew Lloyd Weber's new London West End Theater, The Other Palace. Michela is a proud member of the band Michael Mwenso and the Shakes and can be seen performing and touring with them regularly. She also has had the esteemed honor of performing with many masters such as Wynton Marsalis, Savion Glover, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Roy Hargrove, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Benny Golson, Barry Harris, Marcus Roberts and many, many more.
Ayo Brame Quartet
Ayo Brame, at only 16 years old, is a talented, up-and-coming saxophonist out of Oakland, California and has been labeled “an emerging force” in jazz. In addition to the saxophone, he plays the clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and music production where he’s beginning to lay original tracks.
Ayo Brame
Ayo Brame is a 16-year old up and coming Tenor Saxophone Jazz musician out of Oakland, California. He is a student of Jazz Great Richard Howell by way of Oaktown Jazz Workshops.
He considers himself a purist when it comes to jazz as he channels late greats such as John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter. Embraced by the jazz community, he has been very lucky in acquiring additional mentors that influence and challenge him on a regular basis such as Kev Choice, Ayinde Webb, Stacy Dillard, Stabe Wilson and Eric Wyatt.
He has been fortunate to share the stage with so many accomplished musicians at venues such as the Black Cat in San Francisco, Brownstone Jazz in Brooklyn Jazz, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in Oakland, CA, the Nash in Phoenix, Az., GR Noir in Grand Rapids, MI, Dizzy’s Coca Cola Room & Sour Mouse in Manhattan, NY, and Small’s Legendary Jazz Club in The Village, NY.
This year he completed his inaugural 8 city tour to gain visibility outside of his immediate community where he was able to play with an array of professional musicians around the USA. In addition to the saxophone, he plays the clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and music production where he's beginning to lay original tracks.
El Guajiro
EL GUAJIRO is a quartet performing classic romantic boleros and Latin standards with a Cuban twist.
Brian Andres Trio
The Brian Andres Trio performs original compositions and exciting new arrangements of jazz and Latin standards.
Jeff Bordes & the Big Easy
Jeff Bordes is a Bay Area trumpet player & composer who has recorded with artists such as Branford Marsalis, Tom Petty, and John Mellencamp.
Schedule
| 11:00 AM | Check In Begins |
| 11:15 AM | El Guajiro (Main St between Mill and Kelly) |
| 11:30 AM | Ayo Brame Quartet (Main Stage) |
| 12:00 PM | Wine Tasting Begins |
| 12:45 PM | Brian Andres Trio (Main St and Miramontes) |
| 1:00 PM | Howard Wiley Quartet with Special Guest Michela Marino Lerman (Main Stage) |
| 2:15 PM | Jeff Bordes & the Big Easy (Main St and Correas) |
| 2:30 PM | Kim Nalley Band (Main Stage) |
| 4:00 PM | Jahari Stampley Trio (Main Stage) |
Event Map
Food Court
With all of that wine tasting and music, you’re going to get hungry, so we’ve assembled a food court where you can purchase food from some of our favorite local eateries.
Beer and Cider Garden
It’s a wine and jazz festival, but if wine isn’t your thing, or you’re just craving a cold one to wash down that delicious food from the food court, beer and cider will be available for purchase from a some great local breweries and cideries!
Special EventCelebrating Harlem of the WestFriday, May 31 @ 5:30PM or 8:00PM
In the 1940’s and 1950’s, San Francisco’s Fillmore District was the jazz center of the Bay Area, celebrated as the “Harlem of the West”. Friday night’s special event aims to capture the spirit of that place and time with an evening reminiscent of the supper clubs that were popular at the time. The multi-faceted show will weave jazz music, dance, and poetry together in an unforgettable performance.
The show will feature vocalist Kenny Washington, the Marcus Shelby Quintet, tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman, vocalist Chloe Jean, poet Enid Pickett, and historian Lewis Watts.
The entertainment will be paired with a delicious three-course culinary experience* at Pasta Moon. Two seatings of the show are available, one starting at 5:30 PM and one at 8:00 PM on May 31st, as a separate ticket purchase.
*Menu will include gluten-free and vegetarian menu options; vegan options on request.
Kenny Washington
Kenny Washington thrills audiences across the globe with his soulful interpretations, seemingly limitless range, and rapid-fire scatting. Described as one of “the Bay Area’s best kept musical secrets,” Washington’s astounding improvisational flights, inventive approach and emotional intensity are awe inspiring.
Kenny Washington
Kenny Washington thrills audiences across the globe with his soulful interpretations, seemingly limitless range, and rapid-fire scatting. The New Orleans native, now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, appeared in 2013 at Jazz At Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra to perform Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio Blood On The Fields, alongside vocalists Gregory Porter and Paula West. In 2014, Washington returned to Jazz at Lincoln Center to perform Basie & The Blues with pianist Eric Reed and again in 2016 as the featured vocalist in JALC’s tribute to Frank Sinatra, in celebration of Sinatra’a 100th birthday. In 2017, Washington performed with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra and vocalist Roberta Gambarini to celebrate Ella Fitzgerald’s 100th birthday.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Washington grew up singing gospel in the church where his parents were choir members and playing saxophone in school bands. Jazz caught his interest during his senior year of high school, when the great clarinetist Alvin Batiste performed at his school with a band of students that included two precociously talented teenage brothers named Branford and Wynton Marsalis. Inspired, Washington went on to study music at Xavier University, playing saxophone and singing in a variety of styles including pop, classical, R&B and jazz, while listening closely to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Tormé.
After college, Washington played with the honorary U.S. Navy Band Guam, followed by the U.S. Navy Band 7th Fleet, stationed in Japan. He auditioned as a saxophonist, but upon discovery of his singing talent, he became one of the featured vocalists with both bands. For nine years Washington performed with the Navy bands across Asia, Russia, Australia and the U.S.
After settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington had an early success with a high profile project came when he was cast in a featured role in an off-Broadway jazz theater production called Fire at Keaton's Bar & Grill, by saxophonist Roy Nathanson. Washington performed at the New York City debut in a glittering cast with Elvis Costello, Deborah Harry and Nancy King. He then went on the road for several European performances. The project was captured on an excellent cast album, released in 2000 on Six Degrees Records.
Washington returned to the national and global stage when vibraphonist Joe Locke brought Washington to New York for a week-long run at the Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, a residency that began an annual Dizzy’s tradition. Washington is featured on Joe Locke’s For The Love of You (E1 Records, 2010) and has appeared internationally with The Joe Locke Group in Germany, Georgia, and Scotland and at various festivals.
Washington is also the featured vocalist on three recordings by tenor saxophonist Michael O’Neill, The Long and the Short of It (2004), Still Dancin’ (2007) and New Beginnings (2014) on Jazzmo Records.
Described as one of “the Bay Area’s best kept musical secrets,” Washington’s astounding improvisational flights, inventive approach and emotional intensity are awe inspiring. If you have never heard this New Orleans native sing before, prepare to join a global audience that has welcomed the introduction to Washington’s talent.
Other recent highlights include The 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival with the Michael O’Neill Quintet, a 2014 Grammy win for the eponymous album from The Pacific Mambo Orchestra, which featured Washington’s stand-out rendition of Stevie Wonder’s tune ‘Overjoyed” and two new releases that feature Washington on vocals: Groove Conspiracy, from drummer Tommy Igoe’s modern big band, and New Beginnings, the third collaboration with saxophonist Michael O’Neill. In 2013, Washington appeared at The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, The 2013 Virginia Arts Festival, and as an adjudicator for the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Festival. Recent solo international performances include dates in Germany, Spain, Denmark, Georgia, Czech Republic, Singapore, South Korea, Mongolia, Canada, Japan and Russia. With this growing recognition, Washington was voted a “Rising Star” in the male vocals category in the 57th Annual Downbeat Critics’ Poll.
Marcus Shelby Quintet
Marcus Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator whose work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements and music education. Shelby is a jazz icon synonymous with Bay Area jazz and the spirit of collaboration.
Marcus Shelby
Marcus Anthony Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who currently lives in San Francisco, California. His work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives social movements and music education.
In 1990, Marcus Shelby received the Charles Mingus Scholarship to attend Cal Arts and study composition with James Newton and bass with Charlie Haden. Currently, Shelby is the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz, an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and a past resident artist with the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Shelby has composed several oratorios and suites including “Harriet Tubman”, “Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio”, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”, “Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues”, “Green and Blues”, and a children’s opera “Harriet’s Spirit” produced by Opera Parallel 2018. Shelby also composed the score and performed in Anna Deavere Smith’s Off-Broadway Play and HBO feature film “Notes from the Field” (2019). Shelby is also the voice of Ray Gardener in the 2020 Oscar-Winning Disney Pixar film “SOUL”. Shelby has also worked with a range of artists including Angela Y. Davis’ “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” (2019), Joanna Haigood’s “Dying While Black and Brown” (2014), Margo Hall’s “Bebop Baby” (2013), and “Sonny’s Blues” (2008), the Oakland Ballet’s “Ella” The SF Girl Choir (2013), The Oakland Youth Chorus (2014), and many other productions over the past 23 years. Shelby has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2013 and has worked with the Equal Justice Society for over 20 years. The Marcus Shelby Orchestra has released 5 CDs--“The Lights Suite”, “Port Chicago”, “Harriet Tubman”, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”, and “Transitions”.
Michela Marino Lerman
Michela Marino Lerman is the Artist-in-Residence for the 2024 Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival. She’s an internationally-known tap dance artist who has appeared everywhere from Sesame Street to a US postage stamp, and during Saturday’s event you’ll find her performing alongside Howard Wiley on the Main Stage.
Michela Marino Lerman
Michela Marino Lerman is a globally sought after tap dance artist, performer, choreographer, educator and all-around creative spirit. The Huffington Post has called her a “hurricane of rhythm” and the NY Times has called her both a “prodigy” and has described her dancing as “flashes of brilliance”.
She is very proudly a student of Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Leroy Myers and Marion Coles. Lerman has performed, choreographed, produced, and directed many projects throughout her career but she holds closest to her heart the shows she has led as a bandleader at some of New York’s greatest music venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls, Ginny’s Supper Club, Joe's Pub and many more. Her most current music project is called "Love Movement".
In 2017 Michela conceived, co-created, choreographed, and starred in “This Joint is Jumpin” which debuted in Andrew Lloyd Weber's new London West End Theater, The Other Palace. Michela is a proud member of the band Michael Mwenso and the Shakes and can be seen performing and touring with them regularly. She also has had the esteemed honor of performing with many masters such as Wynton Marsalis, Savion Glover, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Roy Hargrove, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Benny Golson, Barry Harris, Marcus Roberts and many, many more.
Chloe Jean
Chloe Jean is an award-winning Bay Area recording artist and songwriter. In May 2023, Chloe released her album, Fairy Tale Fail, to much critical acclaim. Her R&B background lends a unique take on jazz standards, while her original tunes draw from her experiences in both heart-ache and love.
Chloe Jean
Chloe Jean is a Larkspur based award-winning recording artist and songwriter. She has shared the stage with Pete Escovedo, The Ray Obiedo Group, Tony Lindsay of Santana, Azure McCall, Robert Cray, Jose Luis Rodriguez (aka. El Puma), Nelly McKay, and many others. Produced by famed guitarist, RAY OBIEDO, Chloe's 2023 debut Jazz Album reached #11 on the Jazz Week Charts, #1 on the Play MPE Charts and received much critical acclaim. Chloe has worked as a session vocalist and songwriter for Ken Caillat’s Sleeping Giant Records since 2016 as well as a songwriting mentor for Artist Max. She is also a Sofar Sounds Artist.
In May 2023, Chloe released her album titled, Fairy Tale Fail. This record was Chloe’s first foray into jazz. Her R&B background lends a unique take on standards like “Blue Skies”, “Cry me a River” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Chloe’s original tunes draw from her experiences in both heart-ache and love.
The sidemen on this release are notable. Santana keyboardist DAVID K. MATHEWS, Tower of Power bassist MARC VAN WAGENINGEN and percussionist PETER MICHAEL ESCOVEDO are all featured on the record. The rhythm section also combined the talents of keyboardist PETER HORVATH, Hamilton bassist DAN FEISZLI, drummers BILLY JOHNSON and JASON LEWIS, and features solos by flugelhornist MIKE OLMOS, saxophonists NORBERT STACHEL and CHARLES McNEAL.
Chloé celebrated the album's release to a sold out venue at The Sound Room in Oakland, CA on March 30th, 2023.
Enid Pickett
Enid Pickett is a poet and educator who in 2021 became the first ever poet laureate of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Speaking of Enid’s talent, Marcus Shelby said he was “inspired by her ability to weave words and sentences like a musician playing the blues — full of clear, articulate tension and release.”
Lewis Watts
Lewis Watts is a photographer, archivist curator, art historian, author, lecturer, and educator. He is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His book, Harlem of the West — the San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era, celebrates a unique chapter in jazz history, and also inspired the theme of this special performance.
Lewis Watts
Lewis Watts is a photographer, archivist/curator, and Professor Emeritus of Art at UC Santa Cruz, where he taught for fourteen years. His research and artwork center primarily around the “cultural landscape”, focusing primarily on communities of African Descent in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Orleans, Harlem, and most recently Cuba, Europe, and South Africa. His research examines the imprint of migration and the things that people bring with them from one place to the other and how that is expressed in the places where they are as well as in the places they come from. He uses those conditions as the field to make successful photographs.
He is co-author of the 2006 book, Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era, which features oral histories and his restorations of salvaged and collected photographs that portray musicians, patrons and the cultural life of the vibrant jazz scene in the Fillmore District during the 1940s, 50s & 60s.
“New Orleans Suite”, was published by UC Press in 2013. It covers the cultural and environmental life in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.
Portraits, EditionOne Press Berkeley 2020. Portraits of Black creatives, intellectuals and others taken in different parts of the world.
He has lectured on these and other projects at New York University, Harvard University, The University of Baja California, The Oakland Museum, Ruhr University, Bochem Germany, Renne University, Britany France, Louisiana State University, Stanford University, USC, and San Jose State University among other places. He is affiliated with the Rena Branstein Gallery, San Francisco
Lewis Watts’ photographs have been exhibited at or can be found in the collections of:
- Autograph London
- Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans;
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- The Oakland Museum of California
- Light Work, Syracuse, NY
- The Nueberger Museum, Purchase NY.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem
- Galerie Califia, Horazdovice, Czech Republic
- The Newark Museum, Newark New Jersey
- The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford Conn.
- Citè de la Musique, Paris France
- The University of Renne, Brittany, France
- Richmond Art Center
- The Paul Sack Collection, San Francisco,
- The McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Germany
When: Friday, May 31, 2024 @ 5:30pm OR 8:00PM
Where: Pasta Moon, 845 Main Street, Half Moon Bay
Cost: 175 per person
Special Event Saturday Sunset SwingSaturday, June 1 @6:00PM
For those who want to keep the party going after the main event, the Saturday Sunset Swing features Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
The Grammy-nominated jazz singer and swing revivalist leads her all-star band of musicians to close out the festival at Half Moon Bay’s historic San Benito House on Main Street.
It all takes place in San Benito House’s newly-renovated private garden area, which will be set up with room for dancing in front of the stage. Guests will be able order food and drinks to enjoy while swinging the night away.
Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
Lavay Smith is the vocalist and bandleader of the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, one of the top swingin’ Jazz and Blues bands in the world. Lavay has become an internationally recognized Diva of Jazz and Blues, with a singing style influenced by Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Little Esther Phillips and other legendary greats.
Lavay Smith
Lavay Smith is the vocalist and bandleader of the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, one of the top swingin’ Jazz and Blues bands in the world.
Lavay grew up in Southern California and the Philippines and has become an internationally recognized Diva of Jazz and Blues, with a singing style influenced by Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Little Esther Phillips and other legendary greats. Whether singing her own compositions or drawing on a large repertoire of classics, Lavay and her all-star 7-piece band bake up an instant recipe for dancing and good times.
This sultry chanteuse evokes a sensuous era of Jazz queens and sexy pinups and adds a modern, feminist twist. No wonder Los Angeles Magazine chose her as one of the sexiest people around! Lavay began attracting crowds right from the start thanks to her big, bluesy voice, exciting stage personality, and glamorous approach. According to Fox TV, the band has become “a San Francisco Landmark”, winning numerous awards including a “Wammie” and a “Bammie”. In 1998, the reader’s of San Francisco’s two major newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, voted Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers the “Best Band” in the annual readers poll.
Important publications have sung the praises of Lavay Smith and her band, including Downbeat, The Los Angeles Times, Jazziz, The Boston Globe, Blues Revue, The New York Press, Living Blues, and the Alternative Press (see attached pages for juicy quotes). Television and Radio appearances include Public Television’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer”, Fox TV’s “Fox Files”, and NPR’s “To The Best of Our Knowledge”. World famous celebrities have jumped on the Lavay Smith bandwagon as well. Johnny Otis says “Lavay is wonderful! She and her band are a breath of fresh air.” Dan Aykroyd, a.k.a. Elwood Blues, says of Lavay’s debut album, “One Hour Mama”, “...this CD is guaranteed to make you feel better.” Even President Clinton has seen the light, proclaiming, “I love this band - they’re great!”
When: Saturday, June 1, 2024 @ 6:00PM
Where: San Benito House, 356 Main Street, Half Moon Bay
Cost: 60 per person
Thank You to Our Sponsors
The Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our sponsors and community partners. Sponsorship opportunities are still available for this year’s event, use our contact form to request more information.
Supporting Education
The Half Moon Bay Downtown Association is excited to be partnering with the Cabrillo Education Foundation (CEF) for this event. CEF is a non-profit organization that operates independently – but in partnership with – the Cabrillo Unified School District for the benefit of enriching educational excellence for the students attending our local public schools.
CEF will be a beneficiary of the festival with donations going toward the growth of the endowment and toward programs supporting creative arts and music.
