Tiffany Austin

“One of the country’s best jazz singers” (KQED Arts), Bay Area-based vocalist Tiffany Austin honors Thelonious Monk’s birthday with her take on the legendary Carmen McRae’s iconic 1990 album saluting Monk and his timeless compositions. 

An L.A. native, Austin spent five years in Japan as a singer before moving to the East Bay in 2009 to study at the UC Berkeley School of Law. During her studies, the pull of music was too strong to ignore, and she earned a full scholarship to the California Jazz Conservatory (formerly known as the JazzSchool), where she worked extensively with renowned Brazilian pianist Marcos Silva. 

Recorded live for the Novus label at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall in 1988, Carmen Sings Monk was one of the final albums McRae completed in her lifetime, receiving a GRAMMY nomination for the vocalist and featuring a stunning lineup of greats including longtime Monk saxophonist Charlie Rouse, saxophonist Clifford Jordan, pianist Larry Willis, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Al Foster. With titles changed due to copyright restrictions, the songs were adapted with lyrics by Jon Hendricks, Abbey Lincoln, Mike Ferro, and Sally Swisher, and have become the definitive versions of Monk’s compositions with vocals, particularly McRae’s luminescent takes on “Ruby, My Dear” (“Dear Ruby”), and “Rhythm-A-Ning" (“Listen to Monk”).