The Donna Spitzer Jazz Group

The alchemy that Bay Area vocalist Donna Spitzer brings to audiences with her newest Jazz group is a stellar lineup of accomplished local musicians, her brilliant voice and a richly eclectic repertoire of spirited, tasteful Jazz, Swing, and Blues.

Donna Spitzer's Jazz band benefits from the experience of the many musical genres Donna has explored throughout her career. Designed to be flexible for the occasion, the group offers fair goers or dancers a Brian Setzer/Louis Prima-style Big Band Jump tune, a throbbing blues a-la Stevie Ray Vaughn, a lively New Orleans Honky Tonk, some straight-ahead instrumental and vocal Jazz. In clubs and cabarets, they draw on these selections plus Latin Jazz, ballads and Standards from the Great American Songbook and lots of unusual compositions hand picked for their humor, sophistication and beauty. In Donna's vocals you'll hear the influences of Ella, Diana Krall, Bonnie Raitt, Rickie Lee Jones, each emerging in the right tune at the right moment. Her voice has been described as "sultry and warm", "brilliant and alive", her stage presence warm and inviting, with a touch of wry humor and a taste of the bawdy when the Blues come to the fore.

Donna's singing career is a natural outcome of a life-long involvement in the performing arts. She was a member of experimental theatre groups and danced with a small company in her native New York. Always a music lover (her mother had a brief career singing Opera), Donna began singing in San Francisco as a founding member of the Vocal Jazz Quartet, Full Swing. She's sung with a twenty piece Big Band, with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and in numerous Jazz combos and duos under her artistic direction.

Following a successful engagement at The Hotel Alpha Playboy Club in Japan, Donna has appeared locally at the The Starlite Roof of The Sir Francis Drake Hotel, as bandleader at The Terrace Bar of The Claremont Resort Hotel, at local nightspots such as Pearl's, Cetrella, the no name bar, Joe LoCoco's, Hotel Mac, The Mason Street Wine Bar, Harry's, The Dock, The Union Hotel and Mulhern's. She has entertained for numerous major corporate affairs, fundraisers, country club functions and galas in a career that has spanned two decades. A longtime favorite for local parties and galas, Donna is the bandleader and lead vocalist of the popular variety dance band, The Full Tilt! Band. With Full Tilt! Donna and her group perform music from cocktail Jazz to Modern Rock for their party goers. In presenting her Jazz combo, Donna sharpens the musical focus toward the eras and styles of the music that first won her heart.

Donna's instrumentalists are among the best Jazz musicians and recording artists in the Bay Area. They appear regularly in San Francisco jazz clubs and major hotels, keeping the Jazz tradition alive. Their credits include playing music with such artists as Jimmy Witherspoon, Robben Ford, Joe Henderson, Patti Austin, and Maria Muldaur, and with national acts such as Harry Belafonte, Van Morrison and James Brown on tour. Donna also performs with The Full Tilt Band.