
Rollo & Grady is starting a new feature where we will highlight the Top 10 weekly sellers from our favorite independent record stores in the US. Waterloo Records - Austin 1. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life 2. Black Joe Lewis - Tell 'Em What Your Name Is 3. Flatlanders - Hills and Valleys 4. Slaid Cleaves - Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away 5. Kat Edmonson - Take To The Sky 6. Del [...]
Any young jazz singer that feels comfortable tackling The Cure or The Cardigans alongside Cole Porter and George Gershwin is OK in our book. And for 25-year-old Austin, TX artist Kat Edmonson that's just half the story. Described as "memorable and contagious" by NPR, the waif-like singer possesses a voice that matches her appearance with a lighter-than-air coolness that emphasizes interpretive phrasing over passionate power. The effect is startlingly simple and matter-of-fact...and disarmingly appealing. [...]

I know what you are thinking: why didn't The Duke call this Female Jazz Vocal Week?! Mostly because, Tuesday's Jazz Week 2009 post is another female jazz singer. Kat Edmonson hails from Austin. She has an unusual voice. A voice that has a cuteness to it. It makes me want to squeeze her cheeks when she sings. Besides the voice, what sets Kat apart from the rest of the female vocal jazz crew, her backup band is terrific. Real players. Ron Westray (Wynton Marsalis) on trombone and John Ellis (Charlie Hunter) on sax and bass clarinet; J.J. Johnson [...]