Cat’s new CD is here!
“Cat is one of my favorite angels of song, I love her choices. All her warmth as a human being shows in every note that comes out of her mouth. Sublime beauty!”
- George Mesterhazy
My jazz angels: Gene Cipriano, George Mesterhazy, Jim Hughart, Paul Tavenner (l. to r.)
Scott Yanow’s review of “Cat Tales” in the Jan.2012 issue of “Jazz Scene”
Cat Conner has long been a happy presence in the jazz scene in Los Angeles, often in the audience but more frequently in recent times as a singer. On Cat Tales she is accompanied by pianist George Meterhazy, the reeds of Gene Cipriano (tenor, clarinet and bass clarinet) on five of the nine selections, and on three tunes (two of which also include Cipriano) bassist Jim Hughart.
The sparse setting is perfect for Cat for her voice is strong and very attractive, her long tones are appealing, and she knows how to make each note and sound count. She particularly excels on ballads, gives the ancient standard “Hello Ma Baby” a surprisingly sensuous treatment, and swings at every tempo. On “Caravan” (the only selection without piano) her duet with Cipriano works well. Other highlights include her fresh renditions of “Them There Eyes,” “Some Other Time” and “Embraceable You.” Cat Conner’s debut recording is easily recommended and available from www.catconner.com.
Review By JACK BOWERS, Published: December 31, 2011 All About Jazz
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 interests ahead of their own: check. Splendid sound quality that favors everyone involved: check.
Conner reaches all the way back to 1899 (and slows the tempo considerably) for the usually ebullient opener, "Hello Ma Baby," and follows that with Billy Eckstine's sultry ballad "I Want to Talk About You" before shifting into high gear for the oft-repeated standard "Them There Eyes." Conner returns to ballad mode on Tadd Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now," while Duke Ellington's "In a Mellow Tone" begins as a genial showcase for Conner's radiant voice and Jim Hughart's resonant bass before pianist George Mesterhazy and tenor saxophonist Gene Cipriano make it a charming foursome.
Conner and Mesterhazy are the principals on one of the loveliest ballads ever written, Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden/Adolph Green's "Some Other Time," from the Broadway musical On the Town, while Cipriano's bass oboe and Conner's shaker provide an appropriately esoteric backdrop on Juan Tizol's seductive "Caravan." For some reason, no one is listed as playing on the album's last two tracks, "Embraceable You" and "I Hear a Rhapsody," but Cipriano (on tenor) and Mesterhazy lend their support on the former, Mesterhazy alone on "Rhapsody."
This is an impressive debut for a singer who should be much better known. If there's a blemish, it could lie in the fact that the session is overly ballad-heavy, with half a dozen numbers residing more or less in that precinct, two others ("Hello Ma Baby," "In a Mellow Tone") on the cusp, and only "Them There Eyes" pressing forward at a more than moderate pace. For those who appreciate tasteful ballads enchantingly sung, that should pose no problem. And there's certainly nothing else here with which to take issue.
"Cat Tales" is a project long awaited by those of us who've believed in Cat from the start. The collection is breathtaking and gives those who listen a real sense of who this woman is.
My absolute favorites are "Hello Ma Baby" and " I Want To Talk About You". They are openly sexy, warm, playful, innocent and experienced all in one, sung oh so well and show every side of Cat.
The whole CD is a refreshing take on long-loved songs, breathing life and love into them in her own gloriously positive way! Her phrasing tells the story the way it should be told, emotions come across on the recording [a difficult task for most singers] and her sound is hers alone, I absolutely adore it from stem to stern! Brava sister!
- Rebecca Parris
©&(P) Cat Conner 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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Review By C. MICHAEL BAILEY, Published: January 3, 2012 – All About Jazz
Cat Conner
Cat Tales
Self Produced
2011
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 slow, it is properly maintained by the spirit of the delivery.
The mistress of the slow ballad was the late Shirley Horn, who trumpeter Miles Davis, after hearing her debut, Embers and Ashes (Stereo-Craft Records, 1960), told Horn he like her music, but ..."she played awfully slow." This was no dig at Horn as Davis himself, inspired by Ahmad Jamal's "less is more" approach to piano playing, preferred a lot of "space" within which to play. Horn calmly blazed a trail in this most demanding performance form. But, while Horn was a slow ballad beacon, she was far from the last of them. Vocalists Rebecca Parris and Patti Wicks have also mastered this mercurial method and produced many fine recordings of the same.
Add to this school a voice that has been a long time coming. West Coast vocalist Cat Conner has been performing the better part of her adult life as part of her rather impressive collection of creative talents that include body art and performance art. After enduring a considerable amount of encouragement from her friends in the music industry, Conner brings her light from beneath the basket on her long overdue debut, Cat Tails. This recording is a collection of mostly 1930s and '40s standards performed with a minimum of instrumentation and haste.
Conner's slow ballad prowess is amply illustrated on the quartet center of the disc: Billy Eckstein's "I Want to Talk About You," Tadd Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now," Leonard Bernstein's "Some Other Time" and the Gershwins' "Embraceable You." "I Want to Talk about You" takes the familiar mid-tempo ballad to a liquid nitrogen slowness where Conner and pianist George Mesterhazy strip the song of all pretense and veneer cuteness, revealing the beautiful grain beneath. It is a study in ballad dynamics.
Of these four songs, the most revelatory is Conner's and Mesterhazy's treatment of "If You could See Me Now." Again, the song is slowed to the point where its subatomic compositional mechanics can be nakedly seen. Conner delivers the lament languidly with a relaxed intent, one with equal amounts of regret and gratitude. She exercises all sub-ranges of her sturdy and muscular alto voice, singing with perfect poise and delivery. Conner is a student of the song rather than its melodic interpretation. She captures the composers' and lyricists' intentions faithfully without being boring.
Conner includes two Duke Ellington compositions preformed in vastly different ways. "In A Mellow Tone" employs her "largest" band of Mesterhazy, bassist Jim Hughart and tenor saxophonist Gene Cipriano. Each party is allowed solo space, each dispatches elegantly, Mesterhazy with a Count Basie brevity, Hughart with a probing dynamism and Cipriano with a compact, well-calibrated solo that would have been comfortable coming from Stan Getz's horn. On "Caravan," Conner duets with Cipriano on clarinet in a most satisfying performance of the Ellington masterpiece. It seems no trick for Conner to sing without a timekeeper. She maintains a perfect metre while Cipriano provides the bare minimum of harmonic support with the proper notes insinuating themselves into the proper places. This "Caravan" is immersed in an Eastern Indian vibe as dry and shifting as sand.
Cat Tails compares only with Rebecca Parris' phenomenal My Foolish Heart for sheer ballad performance. Conner's well-structured voice and delivery beg the question of what took so long for this talent to be recorded. Thankfully, that question is moot.
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