Kat Parra: Songbook of the Americas

I’ve liked this lady for a long time; Kat Parra used to be graphic designer for Cisco, and gave up all of the glamour to devote her talents to jazz vocals. She’s a swinger with an overflow of heart. You can almost hear her jumping out of the cake on each song here on this session  fun filled with Latin Lovers.

She mixes and matches musicians, usually Murray Low at piano, but with a wide ranging mix of percussion, horns, guitars, and did I also mention percussion? She oozes on the irresistible salsa read of “Four” while the hips shake to Masru Koga’s alto sax as Parra saunters on “Please Do Something.” Scatting and using lyrics to Charlie Parker’s “Au Privave” she bops with the best, while sashaying with a sassy chorus on “Maria Lando.” She lingers with red hot lips as the pulse drips on “ Besame Mucho” while sounding folksy with bandoneon during “Como La CIgarra.” A duet with Nate Pruitt delivers a wonderfully latin spice to “Till There Was You”: Iowa was never like this! By the time you get to the closer of “Mambo Italiano” you’ll want to try the enchilada with the fish baccala. WHOA!!

JazzMa Records

www.katparra.com

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