Heather McKay: Life Got in the Way

Guitarist Heather McKay, who has performed with artists in a variety of styes from Latin jazz to rock, rhythm and blues to Afro- Caribbean, even Persian music and beyond in a career that has spanned more than twenty-five years and counting, provides a rationale for writing every song (save one) on her debut recording, Life Got in the Way. But she does not say why she chose the album's name. The presumption is that she has been far too busy playing countless gigs to pause long enough to enlist the proper personnel and usher them into a recording studio.

Now that she has found the time, McKay has made the most of it, leading an agile sextet through a largely pleasing number of her original themes (and one by bassist Leonardo Lucini) that may at times brush the borders of Latin but are by and large straight- ahead in concept and execution. Besides Lucini, the supporting cast includes saxophonist Peter Fraize (on tenor, alto or soprano), keyboardist Attila Molnar, drummer Leland Nakamura and percussionist Bruno Lucini who looks as though he could be Leonardo's son.

McKay plays in a sturdy, biting style that is more akin to fusionists such as Lee Ritenour or Earl Klugh than, for example, mainstreamers like Jim Hall or Joe Pass. Not displeasing, simply different. As composing, she writes, is closest to her heart, McKay ad-libs sparingly, assigning much of those duties to Fraize and Molnar, who consistently validate the decision.

McKay's themes are, as a rule, pleasant albeit short of memorable. Asked why she wrote a song in 11/4 time, she said she had "Eleven Reasons Why," and that became the song's name. Others were written for a humorous friend ("You Make Me Smile"), her pet coonhound "Boo," and long-ago summer trips with her family to Maine's "Narraguagus Bay." "The Playground" depicts three young children playing there, the easygoing "Things That Were Said" conversations between friends, family or lovers that could lead to various outcomes, either good or less so.

The idea for "Kenyan Moon" was born at an after-school workshop, "Lucini in the Park," from an exchange with her bassist friend Leonardo Lucini about writing songs that are especially difficult to play. McKay promised to make that one challenging and delivered with room to spare. McKay takes one of her best solos here, while the ensemble navigates its rigorous changes with relative ease. The session's other showpiece is Lucini's "Run," whose Latin rhythms underscore its intense energy and handsome elegance.

Although McKay had to delay her first recording because Life Got in the Way, she was able to set aside life's concerns long enough to produce a generally pleasing debut recording, one whose success must be ascribed not only to her skills as a writer but to her able companions who discerned her basic ideas and made them musically expressive and pleasurable.