The San Francisco Bay Jazz Ensemble is an eighteen-piece big band under the direction of award-winning music director Charles Hamilton, an accomplished conductor with a track record of leading jazz bands to excellence and nationally recognized achievements. The band plays instrumentals and vocals from Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Count Basie,Woody Herman, Bill Holman, Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, and many others.

SF Bay Jazz is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide live music to the San Francisco Bay Area community as well as through international venues to further public awareness and appreciation of the valuable American musical heritage, jazz. The group was founded in California and has been performing internationally and to local community, including art and wine festivals, senior centers, hospitals and corporate events over the last two decades.

Charles plays each of his bands like a fine-tuned instrument. He is involved with a handful of his own ensembles, playing trombone, flugelhorn, and trumpet. His passion for jazz, and working with aspiring musicians, is outstanding. Hamilton’s well-known accomplishments include his taking over the leadership of the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble in 1981 from Phil Hardymon, a renowned jazz musician, composer and educator, who since 1975 had led the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble to winning state-wide jazz competitions and often earned a spot at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Under Hamilton’s directorship, the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble has continued to thrive and develop some of the best musicians in the jazz world, including Peter Apfelbaum, Ben Ball, Will Bernard, Dave Ellis, Rodney Franklin, Kito Gamble, Benny Green, Craig Handy, Jessica Jones, Josh Jones, David Murray, Miles Perkins, Lenny Pickett, Josh Redman and Michael Wolff.