Jazz Articles about Cat Conner

About Cat Conner

Album Review

On Cat House, the follow-up to her superb debut album, Cat Tales, California-based vocalist Cat Conner shows again that she has the astuteness and chops to leave many other contemporary jazz vocalists floundering in her wake and gasping for air. This time around, Conner has chosen a baker's dozen of what she calls her “lucky tunes," and she gives each one the sort of eloquent reading that should entice the perceptive listener to revisit them time and again.

Album Review

Cat Conner: Cat House

Read "Cat House" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 3, 2014

West Coast Vocalist Cat Conner's debut recording, Cat Tales (Rhombus Records, 2012) was a critical highlight vocal recording of the year. Conner's grace and sophistication come from the same school that produced Shirley Horn, Rebecca Parris and Patti Wicks. She is a master of the slow ballad and that may be the least of her considerable talents as expressed on the present Cat House. Conner's song choice for Cat House was measured and forward thinking. It reflects ...

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Extended Analysis

Cat Conner: Cat Tales

by C. Michael Bailey
January 3, 2012

Cat ConnerCat TailesSelf Produced2011 One of the greatest jazz performance challenges is playing and singing ballads slow...sometimes called “calendar slow." The trick is playing slowly without dragging or stalling. It is simple physics, the difference between velocity and momentum. Simple tempo may be understood in terms of speed (or velocity) but swing, swing has the added element of musical weight about it, ensuring that once motion is started, no matter how ...

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Album Review

Cat Conner: Cat Tales

Read "Cat Tales" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 31, 2011

After thirty years as a jazz singer, California-based Cat Conner has recorded her first album, Cat Tales, an endeavor that is long overdue but no less welcome. For those who haven't heard Conner and may be curious as to what she and her compatriots have to offer, here's a brief summary. Lustrous, pleasing voice, crystal-clear articulation: check. Deep-rooted feeling for jazz, ability to swing: check. Perceptive choice of material, respect for a lyric: check. World-class sidemen who always place her ...