Welcome to my MySpaceMusic. My name is Gail Dobson. I was born and raised in San Francisco. I am the proud mother of 4 children, proud grandmother of 4. I grew up in a musical household that listened to jazz day and night. My brother, Martan Mann, grew up playing classical and jazz piano. Martan was my first accompanist. We performed for our relatives during family gatherings. These "gigs" were my first lessons in singing for an audience that was there to do more than just be avid listeners; they ate, they talked! Believe me, this "schooling" help develop me into who I am today. S.F. Examiner critic Phil Elwood called me “a first-rate, especially knowing performer”. My first bigtime gigs were here in San Francisco playing such legendary North Beach haunts as the Purple Onion, the Hungry i, and the Jazz Workshop, and also singing at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay. I worked these gigs with my first husband, jazz pianist George Muribus.
Remarried for 27 years to jazz pianist/singer Smith Dobson, I continued my musical journey with Smith until his untimely death in April of 2001 in a car accident coming home from his gig. For those of you who didn't know him, Smith was a great pianist, singer, teacher, recording artist, songwriter, and most of all, a great father, son, husband, and friend. His life was cut short in this terrible accident, but no person I've ever personally known left so many people that loved him. One of his students, who happens to be my pianist, said that Smith was the first teacher he ever had that taught him in a completely positive way, affirming his strengths, and that this experience changed his life forever as a musician and person.
Eventually Smith and I settled in Santa Cruz Ca. to raise our two children, the older kids already on their personal paths. For twenty years I was the featured vocalist at the Garden City Restaurant/Jazz Club in San Jose, Ca, performing with Smith. We played many times at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. We were featured nationally and internationally. Along with Smith I appeared with such jazz luminaries as Bobby
Hutcherson, Red Holloway, Harold Land, Ernie Watts, Pete and Conti Candoli, to name just a few.
I've been featured many times at both the Monterey and San Jose Jazz Festivals, and performed in the “Tribute to Gershwin” for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. I've performed and given vocal clinics throughout the States; in Canada, Japan, and in Australia touring five major cities, and at the DuMarier Jazz Festival in Vancouver Canada.
I appeared with the Bennett Friedman Big Band, Neil Finn Union Dues Big Band, and have been the featured vocalist with the Ray Brown Great Big Band for over 15 years. With these bands I've performed at the Russian River, San Jose, and Monterey Jazz Festivals and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
In 1991 the Monterey Jazz Festival featured the Dobson Family Band, which included myself on voice, Smith on piano and voice, vocalist/daughter, Sasha, and drummer/vibraphonist/son, Smith V (Sasha and Smith V are now 28 and 30, and both professional musicians). This exhibition of young talent amazed adults and always left a strong impression upon children, who witnessed the fact that their own peers can play wonderful music, and that musical achievement need not wait another ten years. The Dobson Family Band performed over 100 jazz concerts for the Artists in Education Program (Spectra), throughout Santa Cruz County, San Jose, and Bay Area, and in Kelowna, Canada.
In the last 5 years I've continued with my chosen path, both musically, and personally, and this journey has been a bumpy one, with it's highs and lows. Thank God for my family, my friends, my music, and my teaching. I've moved from Santa Cruz to San Jose and back to my home town San Francisco. I recorded a tribute cd for Smith called Parallel Reflections, and recently put this new band together, Gail Dobson and her Latin Jazz Sextet. Please take a listen to our music and if you'd like to buy our demo, let me know. All the profits from the demo go to Music In Schools Today, in memory of Smith. If you need a vocal teacher please let me know. I teach Tuesday thru Thursdays in Cupertino, Ca. at the World of Music, and I teach in Carmel, Ca. I perform with my students, Gail Dobson Youth in Jazz, and run the Gail Dobson Milk, Cookies, and Jazz Workshop, an interactive workshop designed for children of all ages.
And if you need a band, hire us!
Blessing from the Dobson's. Our legacy continues!
Jazz Warrior,
Gail
