Kiki Ebsen

Kiki Ebsen (born January 14, 1958) is a singer/songwriter/keyboard player from Southern California.

She has performed and toured nationally and internationally with many award-winning musicians, including Boz Scaggs, Al Jarreau, Christopher Cross, and Tracy Chapman.

Kiki's vocals appear on Eric Marienthal's album One Touch (GRP Records, 1993) in the song, "That's the Way", a song co-written by Dave Koz, Ebsen, and Randy Hall.

Ebsen's composition, "Blue", which is included on Boney James' Backbone album (Warner Brothers, 1994), features James on tenor saxophone and Ebsen on keyboards.

Her sophomore effort, Love Loud, made it into Muse's "Muse Top 10" of 2002.

She later reunited with Paul Brown to create Kiki, which was added to Steve Quirk's Fusion Flavors Best of 2005 list.

Says Quirk, "Kiki is a sleeping giant in contemporary music, who deserves to be heard."

Saxophonist Jessy J. included Ebsen's composition, "Turquoise Street", on her 2008 album, Tequila Moon (Peak/Concord).

She released her first cover CD in 2009, Cool Songs Vol. 1, featuring classic pop tunes such as "Time After Time," "It's Too Late," and "Diary."

Kiki's music appears on several compilations worldwide.

Today she divides her time between writing, recording, touring solo (and with select artists) and nonprofit work with T.H.E. Ranch, an equine rescue and educational organization that she founded.

Her earliest television appearances with the Al Jarreau Band were on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Arsenio Hall Show before embarking on a world tour.

The band featured future stars including N'Dea Davenport (Brand New Heavies), Rickey Minor (American Idol, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno), and Felicia Collins (Late Show with David Letterman).

Additional TV credits include performances with Take Six, Blake Shelton, Glen Campbell, Michelle Branch, Robert Goulet, Dolly Parton, Lee Ann Womack, Gloria Estefan, Kenny Loggins, Melissa Etheridge, Patty Griffin, and many more.

Ebsen began writing songs as a teenager, and continues to compose to this day.

Several of Ebsen's CD releases to date feature strictly her own songs, including Red, Love Loud, and The Beauty Inside. Three of Ebsen's compositions have been covered by sax artists Eric Marienthal, Boney James, and Jessy J.

From 1987 to 2021, she released one single and eight full length solo CDs, issuing her sixth CD, Scarecrow Sessions (Painted Pony Media) on September 30, 2014.

The result of a successful Kickstarter project, the Scarecrow Sessions album is a collection of jazz standards, a tribute to her father, Buddy Ebsen's, life and career.

Today, Ebsen divides her time among writing, recording and performing music, and works with rescued horses, developing educational programs with her California nonprofit organization, The Healing Equine Ranch.

Kiki Ebsen was born Nancy Kiersten Ebsen at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

Her father is actor Buddy Ebsen and her mother is Nancy Wolcott, also an actor and executive producer/director of the Newport Harbor Actors Theater.

Kiki has three sisters, two half sisters, and one brother.

She spent the first three years of her life on Hutton Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

Then the family moved to Balboa Isle, where she enjoyed the waterfront and learned to sail from her dad.

She moved at age 11 to a secluded ranch in the Malibu mountains.

There, her love of horses led to several successful years as a champion equestrian.

Ultimately, the arts beckoned, and at 18, she left her horses to pursue a career in music.

Kiki started playing piano as a child, following in the footsteps of her mother, aunt, and grandmother.

Picking up melodies effortlessly by ear, she began composing her own songs at an early age.

She pursued her love of music balanced by her love of animals and nature while growing up in the coastal town of Balboa Island, California and on a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.

While Kiki was in high school, Buddy Ebsen developed a family troupe, during a hiatus from filming the CBS television show, Barnaby Jones, that went on a tour of southern California.

Kiki sang and played keyboard, brother Dustin played drums, and sister Bonnie sang and danced with Buddy, while older sister Susannah was the company manager, and another sister, Cathy, helped with transportation when her schedule showing horses permitted.

The Ebsen troupe traveled to dates in Merced, Visalia, Placerville, Sacramento, San Jose, and El Camino College in Torrance.

An equal amount of time was spent studying acting with her mother, performing and singing in several productions before graduating from high school.

Ebsen then focused on music primarily as her career interests narrowed, and honed her skills in countless California garage bands.

Ebsen went on to earn a degree in classical voice from California Institute of the Arts.

Just out of college, Kiki won Collegiate Entertainer of the Year and from there embarked on a touring career with the multiplatinum recording and touring band, Chicago, as a keyboardist and MIDI tech.

Two tours and one record later, Ebsen left to join Al Jarreau's touring band.

While featured early in her career on the recordings of several of the musicians with whom she toured, ultimately Kiki signed a contract with the Sin-Drome label, on which she would release her first solo CD.

Ebsen's inaugural CD, Red, was produced by hit smooth jazz producer Paul Brown and features inspired performances from Boney James, Buzz Feiten, and Paul Jackson, Jr. It was dubbed "the kind of debut most artists can only dream of creating" by the Mac Report.