Jazz Articles about Kate McGarry

About Kate McGarry

Album Review

Kate McGarry: The Subject Tonight Is Love

Read "The Subject Tonight Is Love" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
February 26, 2018

This is far from an ordinary collection of jazz-styled love songs. Vocalist Kate McGarry, guitarist Keith Ganz and pianist Gary Versace have put together a program that covers such varied aspects of love as romantic love, love for family, love for self, and love for mankind. They do this through mixing a lot of rock, folk and blues motifs with jazz in intimate arrangements that really put across the powerful emotions concerned in their songs. They sprinkle a ...

Album Review

Kate McGarry: The Subject Tonight Is Love

Read "The Subject Tonight Is Love" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 31, 2018

Genevieve & Ferdinand -Live (Sunnyside Records, 2014) captured vocalist Kate McGarry and guitarist/husband Keith Ganz in an intimate duo live set that was well-received at All About Jazz and outlet beyond. The duo adds keyboardist Gary Versace, making a trio, recording The Subject Tonight is Love. Retaining the intimacy of Genevieve & Ferdinand, the inclusion of Versace deepens the presentation making for an enjoyable listening experience no matter how fussy the listener may be. McGarry is immediately disarming in her ...

Album Review

Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz/Gary Versace: The Subject Tonight Is Love

Read "The Subject Tonight Is Love" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 25, 2018

The ancient Greeks spoke of love's many forms, codifying and distilling the essence of every one in detailed thought and language. Each of those documented variants rightly differs from the others, yet the keen mind can certainly discern that all of them basically stem from the same roots: connectivity and understanding. In something of a musical parallel, this outing presents as an exploration, cataloguing, and summation of love in many states. While different aspects of the topic at hand are ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: Balancing Act

Read "Balancing Act" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
July 11, 2016

Non è facile coniugare raffinatezza formale e tensione emotiva, meticolose orchestrazioni e libertà individuale, sottigliezze cameristiche e momenti jazzisticamente impetuosi. A capo del suo ottetto, Mike Holober offre un appassionante esempio di tutto ciò, realizzando il suo lavoro più maturo e ricercato, a distanza di sei anni dal precedente con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra (Quake, Sunnyside 2009). Pianista, compositore e insegnante al City College e alla Manhattan School of Music di New York, Holober s'è ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: Balancing Act

Read "Balancing Act" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
November 12, 2015

Pianist/composer Mike Holober has had an active career with big bands (including HR Big Band Frankfurt, WDR Big Band Cologne, Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, and the Westchester Jazz Orchestra in the U.S.). So he brings a refined approach to the composing and arranging on this octet recording. He set himself an ambitious goal: to feature a vocalist, but as another frontline instrument rather than the primary focus. “I wanted to use a singer and lyrics in extended form compositions--not wrapped up ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: Balancing Act

Read "Balancing Act" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 14, 2015

Conceptualizing and creating music is a delicate balancing act, leaving composers to strive for symmetry between head and heart, reasoning and intuition, and structure and freedom. Who better to understand that than Mike Holober? Whether penning a piece or playing piano, Holober has always shown himself to be mindful of the need to find harmony between those and other opposing principles. It's his ability to do so that, in large part, has made him such a hot commodity in the ...

Album Review

Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz: Genevieve & Ferdinand - Live

Read "Genevieve & Ferdinand - Live" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 12, 2014

All About Jazz colleague Dan Bilawsky indulges no hyperbole when he describes vocalist Kate McGarry or Genevieve and Ferdinand: Live: “There is no greater beacon of sincerity, honesty and emotional purity than Kate McGarry...Genevieve & Ferdinand doesn't contain bold proclamations or daring musical acts, but it's filled with some of the most genuine music that anybody is likely to ever hear." High praise indeed, but Kate McGarry, along with Gretchen Parlato, Sara Gazarek, Becca Stevens, Rebecca Martin and Tierney Sutton ...