Jazz vocalist and Artist of the Year Tammi Brown dies

Beloved Santa Cruz-based jazz and gospel singer and Santa Cruz County’s most recent Artist of the Year Tammi Brown died on Saturday. The news was announced on the GoFundMe page set up to help with her medical care.

Brown had been suffering from ovarian cancer. In 2023, her condition was so bad that she told Lookout last summer that she was preparing to die. “I just accepted,” she said. 

But she rallied dramatically later that year and in 2024 even took up performing again. Last summer, however, her health struggle took another turn. She died on Saturday, said the announcement, surrounded by friends.

Tammi Brown was a prominent figure on the Santa Cruz live music scene for more than 20 years. Having grown up in the Bay Area in the social milieu of the Black church, she learned gospel at an early age and took up jazz later. She had a deep and richly expressive voice that vaulted her to prominence in Bay Area jazz circles, having performed for long periods with many collaborators from Stanley Jordan to Bobby McFerrin.

She was named the county’s Artist of the Year for 2024 and performed last June in a celebration of that honor.

No public memorial or celebration of life has yet been announced. 

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