ABOUT

ABOUT TIFFANY AUSTIN

“ I always come back to soul. We must live with soulful connection to ourselves and our history.”

— Tiffany Austin

Far more than a charismatic vocalist, Tiffany Austin is a UC Berkeley Juris Doctor and a scene-defining musician with a 360-degree vision of an artist’s responsibilities. As a composer, arranger and interpreter with an expansive view of the jazz canon, she’s employed her legal skillset to open up opportunities for other artists via her work as a curator, educator, bandleader, philanthropist, and co-founder of the West Oakland performance space Wyldflowr Arts.

Sought out by jazz masters, Austin has performed with luminaries such as Pharoah Sanders, Roy Ayers, John Handy, Cyrus Chestnut, Taj Mahal and Doug Carn over the past decade. At home, she’s forged deep creative ties with many of the most consequential musicians on the Bay Area scene, including saxophonist Howard Wiley, pianist Tammy Hall, and drummer Leon Joyce Jr.

As a composer, Austin has written commissions for the Oakland Symphony, San Jose Jazz, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and Healdsburg Jazz, where she is currently Musical Director of the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir. Since taking on the role of artistic director of Albany, CA’s Juneteenth Celebration in 2021 Austin has turned the event into a forum for liberationist music.

Her community efforts include teaching at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, CA; guest speaking at educational and activist events; and the 2021 launch of her Con Alma Music Creative Intellect scholarship fund for BIPOC high school musicians who excel in the areas of leadership, community service, academics, and musical artistry.

A guest educator at series produced by SFJAZZ, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and local school districts, Austin has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Roots, Jazz and American Music program. Most recently, she co-launched the new Wyldflowr Arts venue in Oakland, CA, and co-founded The Diaspora Sessions, an immersive Black art experience combining music, dance, and visual art in an interactive context. Her vision is to build spaces and opportunities for communities to exchange ideas, connect, and create.

Austin brings the a similarly holistic sensibility to her own music. Nothing But Soul, her 2015 debut album, garnered a glowing review from NPR’s “Fresh Air” and Downbeat magazine for its bold recasting of Hoagy Carmichael standards. Her 2018 follow-up, Unbroken, was hailed by All About Jazz as a “fully formed masterpiece,” received a 4-star Downbeat review, and reached #16 on jazz radio charts.

Always looking to stretch into new settings, Austin was a featured vocalist in the Opera Parallèle productions Birds & Balls and Harriet's Spirit and the Vallejo Symphony’s staging of Porgy & Bess. She’s also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the Oakland Symphony. Austin has also opened for Christian McBride at Walt Disney Music Hall and Gregory Porter at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater, and headlined at prestigious venues from Birdland and Dizzy's Den to the SFJAZZ Center. Touring internationally, she’s performed in Europe, Asia, and Australasia.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Austin grew up in a house filled with music. Her parents listened to soul and pop masters like Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, while her Louisiana Creole grandmother introduced her to jazz. “She really taught me what soul was about,” Austin says. She draws on a broad swath of musical influences to create her sound: from Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan and beyond.

Her older brother John Austin IV was also a profound influence. A celebrated emcee and rapper, he’s best known as Ras Kass. “He got signed to a record label at 17,” she recalls. “I watched him pursue his music over the years. He never had a day job, and sustained himself from music. I’d sneak in his room and riffle through his records. He sampled lots of great music, and he’s responsible for my obsession with Ella scatting over the break in ‘A Night in Tunisia.’”

Austin took a very different path. She graduated from the vaunted Los Angeles High School of the Arts. At Cal State Northridge, she majored in creative writing, while studying classical voice. During the year she spent studying in the U.K., she started sitting in at jazz sessions around London.

After graduating in 2004, Austin set out for Tokyo with the plan that she’d look for gigs as a singer and spend a year in Japan. After finding regular work as an R&B chanteuse Austin ended up staying in Tokyo through 2009 and only returned because UC Berkeley’s School of Law made her a scholarship offer she couldn’t refuse.

Austin submerged herself in law school and left music behind. After the first year, she realized that she desperately needed a creative outlet. She began performing with bassist, composer, and bandleader Marcus Shelby on numerous projects, including a title role in Harriet’s Spirit, an opera about Harriet Tubman. “There was such a stark contrast between what I was doing in law school and what I wanted to do,” Austin says.

With a series of prestigious gigs and residencies, Austin quickly gained attention as the most exciting new voice in the region. Performing a program of songs associated with Hoagy Carmichael led to her 2015 debut Nothing But Soul, the album that catapulted her into national prominence. While building her own career, she’s poured her creative energy into elevating the wider scene. Austin makes it clear that she’s far more than a beautiful voice. Claiming her cultural birthright, she’s an artist drawing nourishment from all of African diasporic music’s roots.