Suzanne Pittson

A lifelong inhabitant of the San Francisco Bay Area, Suzanne Pittson approaches jazz singing and songwriting with bold, horn-inspired phrasing that reflects her deep admiration for saxophonists Michael Brecker and John Coltrane. The vocalist, equally adept at nuanced lyric interpretation and intricate, cerebral scat, entered the world as Suzanne Haight in Oakland, California, where her mother Betty Haight—a onetime jazz singer—along with uncle Bill Wilson on drums and aunt Madge Wilson on piano and organ, nurtured her early affinity for the music. She took up piano at eight, later enrolling at San Francisco State University to work with saxophonist John Handy and complete a master’s degree in music; there she shifted her professional focus from instrumentalist to jazz vocalist. Married to pianist Jeff Pittson, she issued her debut leader date, Blues and the Abstract Truth, in 1992 at age thirty-nine, then delivered the follow-up Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane in 1999 at age forty-five.