Left Coast Life—Kitty Margolis

Mad-Kat (MKCD1008)

With so many so-called jazz vocal recordings released every year, it is refreshing to hear one in which the vocalist is a bona fide jazz singer with a true mastery of her instrument. The latest from Kitty Margolis, Left Coast Life on her own Mad-Kat label, is just such an album.

She starts with an upbeat arrangement of "I Want to Be Happy," and also includes a similarly energetic take on another Youmans tune, "Without A Song," with an arrangement contributed by guitarist Joyce Cooling. Margolis also excels on a soft and sultry "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year," with a fine cello arrangement by guitarist Steve Erquiaga, who adds his own acoustic guitar.

But where Kitty really shines is on her original material and on recordings of songs not usually part of the standard repertoire. "It's You," co-written with Cooling, has a bit of a world music feel, and Margolis' "You Just Might Get It" is an insistent tune that skewers today's "poseurs," and is the CD's best track. Margolis, who wrote or contributed to most of the arrangements on Left Coast Life, also gives Pink Floyd's "Money" a trippy jazz spin, and brings a klezmer touch to Randy Newman's "Lonely at the Top."

Margolis has been compared to such luminaries as Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan. Left Coast Life is delightful evidence that Kitty is deserving of that praise.