Kate McGarry - Easy To Love (1992)

KATE MC GARRY vocals; PAUL KREIBICH drums; KAREN HAMMACK piano; ERIC VON ESSEN - bass.

Easy to Love is a most appropriate title for the recording debut of vocalist Kate McGarry. Right from the voice-bass intro on “My Heart Stood Still”, you know that this is to be no run-of-the-mill progam. An immediate reaction may be to notice the exceptional diction and enunciation and the distinctive phrasing that McGarry demonstrates. It's not surprising to learn that her greatest influences have been such unique stylists as Jon Hendricks, Betty Carter, and Mark Murphy, as well as the great lady of jazz vocals, Ella Fitzgerald.

Born in Cape Cod, MA, McGarry earned a bachelors degree in Afro-American Music and jazz at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she also studied improvisation with the innovative saxophonist Archie Shepp. Singing was in her blood, and she began a professional career as soon as she graduated college, working local venues around Boston.Moving to California in 1988, she appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, backed by an AII-Star Band led by Hank Jones and Clark Terry.With a lot of encouragement from singer and vocal coach Sue Raney, McGarry gradually began showing up at some of the top Los Angeles nightspots. She also landed a singing spot in the Wesley Snipes movie “Money Men”, and can be heard on the soundtrack.