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Kat Edmonson has an intimate vocal style and stage presence that recall some of the jazz greats.
(Donald R. Winslow ) |
MUSIC REVIEW
Tunes sung with feeling from one jazzy Kat
You see a show like the one Kat Edmonson put on Tuesday night at Scullers, and you wonder what the heck people are doing at Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry concerts. Really, the world is unjust.
Edmonson, a petite singer from Austin, Texas, is at once a throwback and a pioneer. Her intimate vocal style and stage presence recall the heyday of jazz - she has the expressiveness of Billie Holiday, the elegance of Ella Fitzgerald, and the voice of Blossom Dearie. Yet she doesn’t merely retread standards. Sure, she likes her Cole Porter, but she and her pianist/arranger, Kevin Lovejoy, molded and modernized chestnuts like “Just One of Those Things,’’ “Night and Day,’’ and “It’s All Right With Me’’ into entirely fresh tunes with new harmonies, inventive rhythm structures, and sometimes mysterious undertones. They even did “Fever’’ in 5/4.
Most strikingly, they twist the cores of modern pop songs so that they become jazz and fit alongside the classics. She and her five-man band - which included piano, saxophone (and bass clarinet), bass, drums, and hand percussion - turned the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven’’ into a dreamy bossa nova and John Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over’’ into an aching ballad.
Edmonson has grown quite comfortable inside these songs, taking even more liberties with them than she did on her recent CD, “Take to the Sky,’’ which stands among the best records of 2009. Like Holiday, Edmonson likes to sing just behind the beat, which infuses her demure voice with drama and heartbreak. She delayed the opening line of “Just Like Heaven’’ for so long - nearly a whole bar - that she risked falling too far behind, but she knew what she was doing, and the delivery was gorgeous. She opened “Angel Eyes’’ in a similar manner, giving herself the freedom to let the rhythm run way ahead of her.
The evening’s loveliest moment was its sparest. Four of the musicians left the stage, and Edmonson sang “Why Try to Change Me Now’’ with only piano behind her. Lovejoy demonstrated here that he is more than an accompanist. This was a bona fide duet; Lovejoy’s voice is in his hands, and he played with deep feeling. His notes were no backdrop; they intertwined with Edmonson’s words. When she ended the song not on the tonic but a step higher, it underscored her confidence in her own skill, and it crystallized this point: Kat Edmonson is our next great jazz singer.
Steve Greenlee can be reached at greenlee@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
