Monday, February 5th, 7pm
(doors open at 6pm)

Club Fugazi, 678 Green Street
Tickets are $50 general and $25 student/senior/artist
415-273-0600

The San Francisco Arts Education Project proudly presents its annual Producers Circle benefit concert, this year headlined by cabaret great Paula West along with her special guests Ruby Day, Anna Laura Quinn, Jocelyn “Jojo” Thompson-Jordan, and Jamie Zee.

All the performers have special connections to SFArtsED – Paula serves on the Artistic Advisory Board; Ruby and Jojo have worked with students as Artist Mentors; and Anna Laura and Jamie are alumni of SFArtsED Programs. And they’re all joining their prodigious talents to benefit SFArtsED’s performing arts programs, including the SFArtsED Players.

Paula West

is an American jazz and cabaret singer known for her rich, powerful contralto voice and for her highly nuanced interpretations of an extraordinarily eclectic selection of songs that range from the Great American songbook to reinterpretations of songs by artists such as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Johnny Cash.

Ms. West has performed predominantly in clubs in San Francisco and New York, with additional performances in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and select European cities. For ten years she held a one-month residency at the Empire Plush Room at the York Hotel in San Francisco. She has had recurring engagements at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Mezzrow in New York as well as SF Jazz, Feinstein’s at The Nikko, and Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Her nights at the Algonquin Hotel’s famed Oak Room earned her three straight New York Magazine Nightlife Awards as “Outstanding Female Jazz Vocalist.” The New York Times has been particularly vocal in their praise for Ms. West, singling out her “thickly textured voice [that] has ripened into a driving expressive force” and an “ever-deepening feel for the blues.” She has also performed at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, The White House, and Maison de la Musique in Paris as well as at numerous jazz festivals, including: the Monterey Jazz Festival, Spoleto Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Fest, Big Sur Jazz Festival, Los Gatos Jazz On The Plazz, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival.

Ms. West has recorded four albums (three studio and one live), including: Temptation (1997), Restless (1999), Come What May (2001), and Live at Jazz Standard (2012). In February 2013, Ms. West traveled to New York to appear with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to perform in Blood on the Fields for which he won a Pulitzer Prize.

For half-price student/senior/artist pricing, choose your desired number of tickets then hit “buy tickets.” On the next screen, toggle from adult to student, and that will get you the discount pricing.

Ruby Day

is a Bay-Area native and began her theater training at Idyllwild Arts Academy. She received her BA in musical theater at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. After a year of touring the US, Canada, and Asia with the national touring company of Annie, Ms. Day decided to come home again and joined the final cast of Beach Blanket Babylon at Club Fugazi from 2017 until its closing in 2019. Along with performing locally, most recently in the Christmas Panto at the Presidio Theater, Ruby teaches theater and singing at the Pacific Singers & Actors Workshop and SFArtsED.

Anna Laura Quinn

is a New Orleans-based vocalist, bandleader, and arranger  known for her particular blend of contemporary jazz, reworked gems from the American Songbook, French and Brazilian music, and more, all delivered with style, sensitivity, emotional power, and a joie de vivre that recalls the charm and mystique of a bygone era.

A 2021 graduate of the Jazz Studies masters program at the University of New Orleans, Anna currently performs leads projects under her own name, also appearing as the duo Quinn & Barrett with her longtime guitar player, Ed Barrett; and with the Unmentionables, a band she founded in 2020 that plays what she likes to call “New Orleans Getdown Music.” She can be found performing all around New Orleans – from such venerable jazz venues as Snug Harbor, Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar and the New Orleans Jazz Museum, to some of the city’s most well loved barrooms like Saturn Bar, Vaughan’s, and BJ’s Lounge. In 2022, Anna released her first full length album Open the Door.  The record features nine of her own arrangements, which Jazz Times critic Andrew Gilbert praises for “artfully thread[ing] the jazz needle” and “establishing her own winsome identity as a savvy vocalist and arranger with an appealing sound, unfailing taste, and expansive palette of influences.”

​Anna is propelled by her unwavering dedication to music, visual art, and collaboration, and is constantly seeking out experiences that will open the door for personal growth, self-understanding, and a deepening  sense of  community.  Whether singing Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell, or Dr. John, she brings a playful spirit to her craft as a vocalist,  leaning  into improvisation and delivering lyrics and melodies with sincerity, humor, and imagination.  Anna hopes that her music may convey a spectrum of emotions and above all a heartfelt expression of her joy.

Jocelyn “JoJo” Thompson-Jordan

is a native of San Francisco who has been performing on stage since she was a child. Jojo loves participating in productions that showcase the diverse city they grew up in and is extremely excited to participate in this extraordinary event. “I believe that uplifting BIPOC and Queer voices/experiences in the Bay Area is so important, and when I say that, I mean ALL aspects of the BIPOC and Queer experience. I’m tired of only hearing about the struggles and pain our people have survived. Let’s highlight our JOY, INTELLIGENCE, BEAUTY, and TALENT that have been the blueprint for American culture and the inspiration to nations around the world.” Last summer, JoJo was part of the SFArtsED-San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company production of I, Too, Sing America: The Next Gen.

Jamie Zee

is the original conceptualist for Sign My Name to Freedom musical and is currently serving as a music educator in Richmond, California. Jamie performs frequently as the lead vocalist in Mild Universe, a dreamy, soul, groovy band from SF and has appeared in Twelfth Night at SF Playhouse. This SFArtsED, SFJAZZ HSA/MNB, LJYE, SOTA, and CJC alumna is one of the winners of Jazz Search West and remains one of the Bay Area’s most sought out artists.

Jamie  has already opened for countless performers such as Herbie Hancock, Paula West, the Pacific Mambo Orchestra and has worked alongside with Bay Area Legends, Marcus Shelby, Doctor John Calloway, John Santos, Rebeca Mauleon, and more. Jamie Z. has sung at world renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, SFJAZZ Center, Super Bowl 50 City Stage, San Francisco Playhouse, Yoshi’s San Francisco, Yoshi’s Oakland, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, California Jazz Conservatory, The Sound Room, Fox Theater, The Freight and Salvage, The Brava Theater, DNA Lounge and Teatro Valle in Rome. @jamiezeema