Jazz Articles about Kate McGarry

Kate McGarry: Girl Talk

by Mark Corroto
April 3, 2012

Someone should tell vocalists today--at least the ones we see on those TV talent hunts--that singing doesn't have to be some exercise in screaming self-annihilation, that beauty and style is more about composure and command. You could tell them, or you can hip them to Girl Talk, by Kate McGarry.McGarry, a jazz vocalist, has covered various pop and folk songs by the likes of Peter Gabriel, Sting, Björk and Joni Mitchell on prior recordings. Her style defies categorization. ...

Kate McGarry: Less is More... Nothing is Everything

by Blaine Fallis
October 8, 2008

Coming across Kate McGarry's If Less is More... Nothing is Everything on an iPod in shuffle mode, it's possible that “Man of God," might be followed by “The Priest" and “Just What I Needed;" a couple of spiritual songs followed by a slow acoustic version of the hit song by The Cars. Listeners might at first be reminded of Sara Groves, Suzanne Vega, and Joni Mitchell, and not really understand the depth of McGarry's jazz chops until hearing “You're My ...

Kate McGarry: The Turtle, The Paradox, and The Big Yes

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 21, 2007

It's a busy time for singer Kate McGarry, with European and U.S. tours, CD release festivities, imminent professoring at the New York Manhattan School of Music, and recording with the new vocal group, Moss. Her newest CD, The Target (Palmetto, 2007), hit Jazz Week at #37 and rose to #18 barely two weeks later; it's also climbing fast on the college charts, reflecting the broad appeal of McGarry's beautiful voice and rangy material. Married since 2004 to guitarist and band ...

Kate McGarry: The Target

by Suzanne Lorge
May 6, 2007

Kate McGarry makes full use of her lilting, pitch- perfect voice on The Target, her third release for Palmetto Records. Like many jazz singers today, McGarry culls some of her musical ideas from non-jazz idioms like pop and folk; in McGarry's case, this hybridization of influences expands rather than limits her individual vocal expression. According to the Palmetto Records website, McGarry bears the distinction of being the first and only vocalist signed to the label. An odd distinction--perhaps the company ...

Kate McGarry: The Target

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 4, 2007

There's a whole lot of nonsense in Vocal Land these days, since it's so easy for the earnest but talent-challenged to produce a CD and hire a publicist. There are occasional gems in the mud, for sure, but the field is crowded with wannabes. And the majors don't help when they push faux sexuality, or turn happy songs into dirges and try to sell that as “depth.

Into this climate of cynical manipulation comes Kate ...

Kate McGarry: The Target

by Dan McClenaghan
April 11, 2007

Vocalist Kate McGarry, on the cover of The Target, looks as if she's sitting in Heaven: upward cupped palms encased in a glowing aura in front of her crossed legs, the sleeves of her blouse melding with an ambient whiteness.The Target is McGarry's third CD release on Palmetto Records, and it is a spiritual-sounding set, rooted very firmly in the temporal, opening with a yearning, wordless chant that slips into Bobby Troup's “The Meaning of the Blues." The ...

Kate McGarry: Mercy Streets

by Brian P. Lonergan
May 6, 2005

Singer Kate McGarry has made a beautiful album with Mercy Streets, though the music is not easily pigeonholed in any category of jazz. The largely acoustic album, with landscapes created by McGarry's vocals and guitar-based arrangements, follows in the genre-defying path cleared in recent years by Cassandra Wilson and Marvin Sewell's work together. To be sure, some tracks on Mercy Streets are unmistakably jazz: McGarry's playful scatting on “But Not For Me against Sean Smith's walking bass and ...