From the Jazz Police
When she handed me a review copy of her eponymous first CD, Katie Gearty remarked that “this is not really a jazz album.” But after listening to it umpteen times in the past few weeks, I have to disagree, at least in part, with the young vocalist. This is, in part, a true jazz recording. And, in part, it also includes a more eclectic group of tunes that might better be defined as pop, blues and R&B. But I really don’t care how this recording is classified. It’s a stunning debut that showcases the broad-ranging talent of a vocalist deserving a wide audience, a singer who already demonstrates a promising jazz sensibility as well as the chops to hold her own with the blues and beyond. And given Katie’s experience – with musicians as diverse as Billy Holloman, Bruce Henry, the Wolverines, Synergy, R-Factor, the Kurt Jorgensen Band, and Steve Clarke’s Working Stiffs, nothing in her choice of material or execution is really unexpected.
Katie Gearty © Andrea Canter
Meet Katie Gearty
Katie is a home-grown talent, growing up in Brooklyn Park just north of Minneapolis. As a junior at Totino Grace High School, she became involved in the music program. After studying classical voice, she began to make her mark as a versatile performer who can cover many different styles of music, especially R&B, funk, rock, and blues. Following her professional debut with the Kurt Jorgenson rock band in 2003, she made her foray into jazz with Bruce Henry doing corporate gigs, and began studies with Nancy Cox. Through Bruce and drummer Greg Schutte (who helped produce the CD), she became more acquainted with the local jazz scene, and soon had a long-running weekly gig at Nye’s Polanaise Room. Since late August, she has appeared every Monday night at the Times Bar and Café, usually in duo with pianist Tanner Taylor. On December 16th, the Times will host Katie’s official CD Release Party.
Debut Recording
Katie Gearty (KTG Music) is jointly produced by Gearty and drummer Greg Schutte, who also handled engineering and mixing duties along with David Russ. The Park Evans Trio, with Evans on guitar, Schutte on percussion, and either Michael O’Brien or Cody McKinney on bass, provides the essential combination of jazz, blues, and funk accompaniment.
Displaying a lot more than a pleasing, on-pitch voice, this 20-something singer gets deep inside the lyrics, reconstructing rhythm and phrasing, and wrapping it all in a hefty amount of casual charm. Let’s start with the jazz tunes: I’ve heard few young vocalists take the risks of interpretation that we hear as Katie puts her personal imprint on such standards as “Night and Day,” “Summertime,” “You Go to My Head” and “All of Me.” Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” gets a unique, quirky rhythmic arrangement, thanks to the funky grooves of Evans, O’Brien and Greg Schutte, while Katie’s slightly smoky mezzo and funk-infused phrasing give the tune a very upbeat groove.
“You Go to My Head” moves along as a slowly swinging stroll featuring shimmering guitar from Evans. The pace is leisurely, Katie taking her time to linger over lyrics and sentiment—indeed she “casts a spell” and will “intoxicate your soul” with her voice. Without deviating significantly from the melody, she nevertheless manages to make this tune a personal statement in the manner of a veteran stylist, her timing a perfect fit to the lyric. She’ll “go to your head.” “All of Me” has a similar slower-than-usual swing, this time benefiting from Schutte’s assertive drums and Cody McKinney’s bubbling electric bass. Evans takes a twangy, twisting solo, giving the track a touch of country blues, while Katie adds more rhythmic drive to the last chorus.
Perhaps my favorite of all tracks is “Summertime,” to which Katie manages to impart both a sultry charm and innocent longing, drawing out her final syllables as if pulling a gentle brush across soft canvas. The trio obliges the mood with funky sustain chords pushed by Schutte’s choppy percussion. While the tune and lyrics may be as familiar as the back of your hand, Katie’s treatment, like the band’s arrangement, is original and thoroughly engaging.
Katie Gearty © Andrea Canter
Even jazz purists will find the rest of the tunes enticing. Katie opens the set with fusiony arrangement of “Blues on a Holiday,” hitting those highs without a shrill note, while Evans shapes a little shrill, a little rumble, and a lot of whine into a complementary palette, all driven by Schutte’s strong pulse. “Please Be Kind” gets a similar treatment, Katie striking a balance between youthful naiveté and flirty coquette. O’Brien (electric) and Evans form a bluesy, rockin’ rhythm team, generating a funky instrumental interlude and sassy comping. On Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her,” Katie assumes the role of back country storyteller, and you can easily imagine her “knee high to a chicken,” while the electrified support system (Cody McKinney is most delightfully gurgling on bass) takes us into a sweltering swamp of young love.
Closing the set with the Earl Brent/Matt Dennis classic, “Angel Eyes,” Katie uses a dark shading of pathos; the strings are equal parts funk and blues and, at barely three minutes, it’s a concise, perfectly executed, if not upbeat, finale.
One of the delights of jazz programming this fall has been the weekly performance of Katie Gearty and equally young piano whiz Tanner Taylor at the Times Bar and Café. Their repertoire on Monday nights emphasizes jazz standards but there’s always some blues and R&B scattered throughout. Whenever I’ve stopped in, I’ve been entranced by the breadth and depth of such a young pair of musicians. In the very differently appealing company of her guitar-based rhythm section, Katie shines just as brightly, her style shifting comfortably from jazz interpretation to blues and R&B rhythms to a more folk-rock groove. This versatility, always keeping the lyric at the center, might create classification dilemmas for librarians and music purists, but for her growing audience, Katie Gearty’s first born is a first-rate reflection of her multi-dimensional talent.
Katie Gearty will make her solo debut at the Dakota (1010 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis) on November 29th (7 pm), accompanied by Tanner Taylor, Park Evans, Cody McKinny and Greg Schutte. Katie and the Park Evans Quartet will celebrate the release of her new recording on December 16th at the Times Bar and Café, 201 E. Hennepin Av in Minneapolis. Katie and Tanner Taylor appear every Monday night at the Times from 9 – 11 pm. CDs are available at her gigs or contact
Katie@katiegearty.com
