Meet 18-year-old Kai Devitt-Lee, a Healdsburg-raised fret wonder who made his debut at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival last year.
Now living in New York and studying at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Kai has already racked up an impressive list of accomplishments. His fleet fingers and pure tone have brought him victories in several competitions, earning him slots in the Monterey Jazz Festival Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts YoungArts Week in Miami, the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony at the University of the Pacific, and several more institutions.
In Healdsburg, Kai is backed by two other young Bay Area talents currently making waves in New York: Zach Ostroff, 19, on bass; and Jesse Simpson, 22, on drums. Ostroff is highly melodic player who has shared stages with Julian Lage, George Cables, Howard Wiley and Taylor Eigsti. Simpson’s volcanic playing has gotten him work with Benny Green, Cedar Walton and others.
