June Katz
Individual
Roles
MusicianBiography
June Katz has been singing vocals with acclaimed jazz pianist Miles Black accompanying her on both piano and guitar since she was a part owner and music manager at Alma Street Café, Vancouver’s premier jazz venue from the mid 1980s to the 1990s. She has also performed numerous times with Vancouver’s jazz greats Ron Johnston and Oliver Gannon. Now semi-retired, June recently hosted an intimate performance with Miles at The University Women’s Club. “I had jazz in my amniotic fluid and music in my soul,” says the Brooklyn-born songstress, referring to being raised in its hot jazz scene in the 1950s. She went on to teach high school English in Florida and, when she moved to Vancouver in 1973, three sons in tow, she started singing jazz by circumstance. “This isn’t what I thought I’d be doing,” says the “godmother” to Ross Taggart and other then-emerging jazz artists. She recently dedicated her sixth CD, Mixed Bag, to her four grandchildren.Inspired, 2018