Katie Thiroux, Introducing

Katie Thiroux is a double threat: she plays a very together acoustic bass and sings like a nightingale. You can hear her to very good advantage on her first, Introducing Katie Thiroux (BKM 1001), which features her and a very swinging quartet. Graham Dechter gives us some sterling, very hip straight-ahead electric guitar, Roger Neumann gets rootsy and soulful on tenor sax and Matt Witek gets a leveraged swinging going on drums.

Katie's bass playing has all the woodiness, nuance and depth one looks for in a contemporary mainstream setting. Her voice is a thing of beauty, dead on, expressive and tailored to a dramatic rendering of the lyrics. She breathes life into the standards she does here. "There's A Small Hotel" gets the treatment it deserves, "Wives and Lovers" in spite of its Madmen-era chauvinism sounds convincing, and on from there. She gives us a couple of originals which show real potential for her as a songwriter, too. Her singing very much swings, like her bass playing!

There are so many competing vocal-standards albums coming out that one can get jaded with it all. But you listen to this one by Katie Thiroux and you remember why when it works you forget the mediocrity out there and swing along.

Katie Thiroux is a real jazz singer in every way. Her bass playing is great, too! Hear this, by all means.

Adam Smale, Out of the Blue

Toronto native 7-string guitarist Adam Smale arrives in New York to present his US debut album Out of the Blue (self released). He cites Lenny Breau as an influence and his pick-less playing style has clear affinities, though naturally Wes Montgomery also comes to mind on the earthy chordal syncopations.

The album sports eight good swinging Smale originals plus Wayne Shorter's "Yes and No". The quartet is on top with relaxed cooking from Smale, pianist Mathew Fries, bassist Phil Palombi and drummer Keith Hall. All sound good and Fries gives us a nice second solo voice with bop/post-bop articulations of a good sort. Palombi can give us a rootsy solo that is worth hearing as well.

But it is Adam Smale who comes through as the main attraction--a very finessed player who has soul and good ideas.

OK, yeah!