Take to the Sky

Take to the Sky

Austin-based chanteuse Kat Edmonson delights and sometimes astonishes on her 2009 debut album Take to the Sky, disregarding the boundaries between jazz and pop as she mixes supper club standards with unexpected choices from the rock era. Her purring, slightly detached vocal style helps her find new colors in the Gershwins’ “Summertime” and the theme from the film Charade. Edmonson recasts “Night and Day” as a soul-groove tune and gives a swift pop kick to “Just One of Those Things.” Even better are her versions of non-jazz material, especially including her takes of the Cardigans’ “Lovefool” (rendered as a sultry bossa nova) and the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” (a radical reworking with a Latin twist). An a capella reading of “Spring Can Hang You Up the Most” finds her luxuriating in a mood of exquisite sorrow. The album’s finely wrought arrangements — the work of producer/pianist Kevin Lovejoy — emphasize undulating rhythms with a minimum of sweetening. Take to the Sky suggests that her talents may carry her far beyond the limits of any single genre.

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