Hailing from the East Bay town of Hercules, August Lee Stevens is a masterful young singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose work encompasses elements of soul, jazz, and modern folk. Possessed of a velvet-smooth voice and an innate gift for lyrical expression, Stevens is an artist whose profile is destined to rise.

She has performed widely around the Bay Area and beyond, sharing the stage with Mara Hruby at Oakland’s New Parish and featured in NPR’s roundup of Tiny Desk Concert submissions.

After the release of a string of singles, her newest EP, 2024’s Better Places, is an uplifting and deeply personal collection of songs that look to the light at the end of heartbreak and loss, recorded in collaboration with Women’s Audio Mission in San Francisco.

Stevens is known to SFJAZZ audiences for her performance at vocalist Martin Luther McCoy’s tribute to Gil Scott-Heron with Brian Jackson, Kev Choice, and Howard Wiley in Miner Auditorium in October 2024 and a concert co-presented by the Museum for the African Diaspora in November