A local treasure debuts at Yoshi’s

Globetrotting jazz vocalist Kitty Margolis returns to Fillmore — source of some of her earliest musical inspiration — for her debut performance at Yoshi’s on June 24.

“When I was a kid, barely 12 years old,” says the fourth generation San Franciscan, “I would go to the Fillmore and Winterland and see all sorts of bands on the same bill — Miles, the Dead, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix.”

Margolis left the city to study at Harvard, but music had her in its grip. She dropped out and returned to San Francisco just in time to record her first album, “Live at the Jazz Workshop,” in 1988 shortly before the revered club closed.

“My first apartment was on a tree-lined one-block alley in North Beach, down the street from Stan Getz and his Dalmatian, James,” Margolis remembers. “Nearby was another one of the last great clubs, Keystone Korner.”

Margolis has gone on to international acclaim, traveling and performing at clubs and festivals around the world. Although she continues to live in San Francisco, she rarely performs here, making the Yoshi’s date a special treat for a local treasure.