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Peter Albin
Guitarist
This founding member of Big Brother and the Holding Company helped
organize campus folk festivals that brought acts like the Chamber
Brothers and Dick and Mimi Farina to campus.
Photo © John Byrne Cooke.  |
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Vernon Alley
Bass player
This jazz legend studied music at SF State in 1940 but he got his
real education on the road playing bass for Lionel Hampton, Count
Basie, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. |
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Sam
Andrew
Guitarist
Before he met fellow SF Stater Peter Albin and formed Big Brother and the
Holding Company, he was a literature major who aspired to teach university-level
linguistics.
Photo © John
Byrne Cooke. |
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George Duke
Jazz musician
At age four he watched Duke Ellington perform and "went a little
crazy," running around and shouting to his mother, "Get
me a piano!" He grew up, earned his master's degree in composition
and became a critically acclaimed keyboardist, vocalist and Grammy-nominated
producer. |
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Vincent Guaraldi
Jazz pianist
He died in 1976 after recording the soundtrack for "It's Arbor
Day, Charlie Brown," the 15th and last Peanuts TV special to
boast his original jazz riffs—sounds that still bring smiles of
recognition. He honed his talents in the beatnik club scene while
studying music at SF State. |
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James
Edward Goettsche
Vatican organist
In 1961 Professor Alfred F. Alberico arranged for him to play for
Fernando Germani, a famous virtuoso organist visiting from Rome.
Goettsche was invited to complete his studies in Italy, where he
now performs for millions as the pope's official organist. |
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John Handy
Saxophonist
In the 1950s, he blew his horn from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. at an Oakland
jazz joint called Bop City then hustled over to San Francisco State
for an 8 a.m. biology class.
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Dan Hicks
Band leader
He was finishing his senior year when he signed up with the Charlatans,
pioneers of the San Francisco Sound. He left the group to form his
own “folk jazz” band, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. |
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Ella Jenkins
Musician, Recording artist
The “First Lady of Children’s Music” majored in
social work in the late 40s and early 50s and continues to use techniques
for group work learned at SF State in the music she produces with
children. She won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2004. |
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Johnny Mathis
Singer
This 1957 “Chances Are” crooner was a star high jumper
at SF State but he rose to even greater heights as one of America's
favorite troubadors.
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Kitty Margolis
Jazz singer
Renowned sax player and former SF State instructor Hal Stein asked
this student to take over his
long-standing gig at Peta's, a North Beach instituition. |
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Kent Nagano
Conductor
On top of his duties as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra
and artistic director of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, he
guest conducts many of the world's leading orchestras. |
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Dan
Nakamura
Hip hop producer
The Los Angeles Times called this design and industry major "dance
music's greatest alchemist of the moment.” Under the moniker “Dan
the Automator,” he followed up his Grammy-nominated "Gorillaz" with "Lovage," an
eccentric concept album. |
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Jacqui
Naylor
Singer
She came to SF State to study marketing, but after hearing the album "Sarah
Vaughan Sings George Gershwin" in a music appreciation class,
became seriously interested in vocal jazz. Today she plays to sell-out
crowds.
|
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Pauline
Oliveros
Composer, performer and humanitarian
While pursuing her bachelor's degree in music composition in the
1950s, she was one of just two women in Dr. Wendell Otey's Composer's
Workshop. She has since influenced American music profoundly. Many
credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. |
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Cal Tjader
Drummer/Vibraphonist
Hailed as the greatest anglo performer in Latin music, he studied
music and education at SF State before signing on as the drummer for
Dave Brubeck's trio. His album "La Onda Va Bien" won a Grammy in 1979.
|
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Wesla Whitfield
Singer
This popular cabaret singer paid her way through SF State as a singing
waitress. These days, she serves up torch favorites at New York's
Algonquin Hotel and San Francisco's Plush Room. |
