Gifted with both a powerful voice and a name fit for the stage, Kat Factor sings from a place that she describes as “spontaneous, fun, and deep.” Drawing inspiration from Sarah Vaughan, Factor’s smoldering vocals are well-suited for the jazz-fusion she performs both as a solo artist and with her folk band, Abalone Grey.
When she first moved to Santa Cruz, Factor lived out of her ’89 Honda Accord, busking on Pacific Avenue before teaching children’s choir at Cabrillo College for three years. Now, in between getting her doctorate in Medical Anthropology at UCSC and raising a 4-year-old daughter, the singer finds time to write and perform her own music while booking and promoting the monthly Swing Night show at the Crepe Place. Not one to be pigeonholed, Factor is taking her sound in a completely new direction this summer with the release of a full-length electronic album.
But despite her various endeavors, Factor’s “master plan” isn’t music-related: she hopes to one day open a medical clinic in her family’s hometown of Aloneros, in the Quezon province of the Philippines.
After visiting Aloneros in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, Factor was struck by the devastation: “Seeing the poverty in the Philippines made me realize, ‘Ok, if I’m onstage, it has to be for a larger purpose … I have a voice, I have a public platform. People are listening. So what do I want to be telling people, if they’re listening?’”
INFO: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29-May 1 at Camp Krem, 102 Brook Lane, Boulder Creek. $45-$120. 204-0751. doitourselvespresents.com/events
