Critically recognized as one of the most innovative and inspired singers in jazz today, Kitty Margolis returns to the Blue Note for her first New York performance in seven years on Monday, September 30. The San Francisco-based singer will be supported by a trio, featuring, pianist Paul Nagel, bassist Gerald Cannon, and drummer Willie Jones III. Her fourth release, Left Coast Life, which celebrates the award winning singer's youthful adventures during the freewheeling Bay Area music scene of the 1970's and her subsequent life in Baghdad by the Bay, is being hailed as her most important work.
Margolis' star has been steadily rising. She is a frequent presence in the Down Beat International Critics' Poll, and won the BAMMIE for “Outstanding Jazz Vocalist" in 1997. In 1999, she was nominated for the Soul Train “Lady of Soul" Award. Kitty's unique talent has not escaped the attention of jazz royalty such as Lionel Hampton, who dubbed Margolis “the next great jazz voice."
Known as a riveting entertainer and a consummate improviser, Margolis' wit and authenticity have garnered her invitations to such prestigious venues, such as The Kennedy Center, Holland's North Sea Jazz Festival, The Boston Pops, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Telluride Jazz Festival, the Tel Aviv Opera House, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, London's Royal Festival Hall, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She's also performed at the world's top jazz clubs, from Tokyo to Sydney to Paris.
Over the years, Margolis has performed and recorded with many of the greatest names in jazz and blues, including, Joe Henderson, Lionel Hampton, Elvin Jones, Roy Hargrove, Charles Brown, Hank Jones, Herb Ellis, John Handy, Joe Louis Walker, Red Holloway, David “Fathead" Newman, Pee Wee Ellis, and Eddie Henderson.
Kitty Margolis has gained a solid reputation as one of the most visionary, independent artistic voices on the international jazz scene. See Kitty and her trio performing material from Left Coast Life and all of her Mad-Kat releases live in New York this fall.
September 28
Philipsburgh Performing Arts Center
2-8 Hudson Street at Getty Square, Yonkers, NY
www.philipsburgh.org
(914) 964-8977
September 30
The Blue Note
131 West 3rd Street, New York
www.bluenote.net
212-475-8592
Los Angeles Times - “Completely centered, completely in the moment, the sheer sense of joy in performing was a palpable presence in everything she did. A firm believer in the notion that entertainment and artistry can be completely compatible with one another, she proved that premise in one number after another. Underlying and enhancing all her other extraordinary qualities, there was Margolis' sophisticated musicality--an ear for harmony, an improvisational imagination and a buoyant sense of rhythmic swing that place her at the very top level of the jazz vocal art."
I. A. J. E. Journal - “The #1 Vocal Jazz CD of 2001. Totally in command, Margolis is on the leading edge of the jazz vocal game."
Boston Globe - “An impeccable stylist with innovative musical ideas...sultry, edgy, warm, wonderful...a vocalist who succeeds by taking a different approach."
San Jose Mercury News - “A musician always seeking to extend the jazz tradition to reflect contemporary life, Margolis embraces the pulsing energy and messy passion that flourishes in both good times and bad. Often defined by pyrotechnic scatting (and) improvisational flights, her ballads can be sumptuous, heart-stopping affairs. (Margolis) has carved out an impressive niche that defies the music industry's constrained vision of jazz vocals."
Chicago Tribune - “She is the real thing in jazz...genuinely individual."
Visit Kitty Margolis' website at www.kittymargolis.com. Read the AAJ 21st Century Feature from December 2001.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
