Gail Dobson and Smith Dobson IV were popular fixtures in the Bay Area jazz scene for years. A concert tribute to Gail Dobson, who died recently, will be held in San Francisco on June. 2.An adventurous jazz vocalist, enthusiastic percussionist and inspiring educator, she was a creative presence on the Bay Area music scene for more than five decades.
Her youngest daughter, vocalist Sasha Dobson, has carved out a singular niche in New York City as a singer-songwriter steeped in jazz from birth. She last performed in the Bay Area in October as a featured vocalist with Kim Nalley in the national production “When You Wish Upon a Star — A Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney.”
Gigs were harder to find, and her failing eyesight made navigating the city difficult. But since she moved from Brisbane to the Richmond, “she’d been incredibly independent, getting around riding the bus,” he said. “She always found ways, like doing teaching on Zoom during Covid.” “I was getting a divorce, and Smith was getting a divorce,” Gail Dobson said in a 2007 interview with the Mercury News. “We fell in love playing music and four years later we were married. He helped me raise my two older kids, and we had two kids together.”