While studying classical voice at San Francisco's public arts high-school, Jamie Zee felt drawn to jazz music. The genre’s non conformist ethos seemed to mirror Zee’s experience as a half white, half Chinese, bisexual and non binary person.
Today, the San Francisco singer composes jazz music that reflects her intersecting identities and coaches young singers in the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble. In this edition of Bay Area Beats, Jamie Zee speaks on her musical journey and the importance of improvising.
"Music has a lot of rules that they teach you . . . everything is very mathematical and scientific and it all makes sense. But when you really start playing the music, anything can happen."
You can hear Jamie Zee at a Valentine's Day themed cabaret happening this thursday at the Starline Social Club in Oakland.
