Carol Luckenbach – JAZZ VOCALIST
Vocalist, Carol Luckenbach, with her elegant and very personal style, brings fresh interpretations of vintage tunes and rarely heard gems to her loyal audience. A regular artist at the former Empire Plush Room, Carol developed an intimate and sensual sound that transports her listeners back in time. Carol has been performing in the Bay Area for over a decade and is accompanied by the best of the best. Ken Muir and Carol have worked through the years to develop arrangements that give insight and an often “tongue in cheek” view of some of the most well-known songs. As a young person, Carol performed in Southern California with several groups, from classical to rock and roll, and as a solo act in many restaurants and nightclubs during the “folk era.” Putting her love of music aside to raise and support her two children, Carol devoted her “middle years” to making her mark in the Real Estate Industry. Known as the “note-able” Broker, Carol continues to embrace her business and her creative abilities, bringing that added dimension to her clients and her audience.
Ken Muir – JAZZ PIANIST
Ken Muir is a San Francisco based jazz pianist / composer who has performed in the Bay Area and in New York and in Europe. “A breathtaking pianist” (New York Daily News) “A wonderful pianist who can make any song sound pretty”(Jazz Now) “Muir’s lush chords bring Bill Evans to mind.” (Express) “Subtle, expressive, spare…a sure touch that makes understatement a virtue and values the spaces between notes.” (Culturevulture.net) “Jewel like solos” (San Jose Mercury News). “Takes familiar songs that risk being tired and makes them sparkle” (Yellow Dog Report). Ken played and arranged for three of vocalist Paula West’s CDs and has performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Big Sur Jazz Festival, Davies Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Algonquin Hotel and Jazz at Lincoln Center. At home Ken was a familiar face at the famous Plush Room. Ken is currently writing a jazz opera.
John Joseph Legaspi – SINGER, DANCER & ACTOR
Born and raised in New York, John Joseph Legaspi began singing and dancing in the Gin Mill bar in Brooklyn at the age of five. He is a singer, dancer and actor who has appeared in engagements for corporate and private events at the Plaza Hotel, the Waldorf Hotel and Essex House and regularly volunteered to entertain at hospitals, senior centers and veterans’ organizations. Stage credits include “Annie Get Your Gun”, “Oklahoma”, “Funny Girl” and concert performances as the Emcee in “Cabaret” and as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” He studied privately at the New York School of Music, Queens College and at the New School. John moved to San Francisco in 1979 and enrolled at San Francisco City College in the Theatre Arts Department where he was cast as a member of ensemble performers for two seasons in a production of the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes.” He appeared in 86 performances at San Francisco’s historic Hotel Utah in 1981 and was one of the four founding members of “The Fabulous Dumonts” R&B Revue starting in the Bay Area in 1982 appearing with the group in two memorable performances at the Castro Street Fair in 1985 and 1986. John has been a popular performer at San Francisco Bay Area clubs and venues for over 40 years including Trinity Place, Sutter Mill and Belden 22 in the Financial District. He is known to have “commanded the stage” at the Great American Music Hall. There were regular appearances at Buckley’s Bistro in Hayes Valley, at the Nightbreak and Trax on Haight Street, Valencia Rose Café, and Octavia Lounge where John was a regular performer. Today, with business and industry experience, he brings valued skills in LEADERSHIP as Artistic Director of the San Francisco Association of Performing Artists.